DISTRIBUTION OF MAXIMAL LUMINOSITY OF GALAXIES IN THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY

Journal Article · Sat Nov 10 04:00:00 EST 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/759/2/100· OSTI ID:22086404

Taghizadeh-Popp, M; Szalay, A S ^[1]; Ozogany, K; Racz, Z ^[2]; Regoes, E ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
2. Institute for Theoretical Physics-HAS, Eoetvoes University, Pazmany setany 1/a, 1117 Budapest (Hungary)
3. European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland)

Extreme value statistics is applied to the distribution of galaxy luminosities in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We analyze the DR8 Main Galaxy Sample (MGS), as well as the luminous red galaxies (LRGs). Maximal luminosities are sampled from batches consisting of elongated pencil beams in the radial direction of sight. For the MGS, results suggest a small and positive tail index {xi}, effectively ruling out the possibility of having a finite maximum cutoff luminosity, and implying that the luminosity distribution function may decay as a power law at the high-luminosity end. Assuming, however, {xi} = 0, a non-parametric comparison of the maximal luminosities with the Fisher-Tippett-Gumbel distribution (limit distribution for variables distributed by the Schechter fit) indicates a good agreement provided that uncertainties arising from both the finite batch size and the batch-size distribution are accounted for. For a volume-limited sample of LRGs, results show that they can be described as being the extremes of a luminosity distribution with an exponentially decaying tail, provided that the uncertainties related to batch-size distribution are taken care of.

• OSTI ID: 22086404
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 759; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DATA ANALYSIS
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
GALAXIES
INDEXES
LUMINOSITY
STATISTICS