The {ital K}-Band Luminosity Function in Galaxy Clusters to {bold {ital z}} {approximately}1
- School of Physics, Department of Astronomy and Optics, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 (Australia)
- University of California at Davis and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94550 (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, MS 169-327, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States)
We present {ital K}-band luminosity functions for galaxies in a heterogeneous sample of 38 clusters at 0.1{lt}z{lt}1. Using infrared-selected galaxy samples, which generally reach 2 mag fainter than the characteristic galaxy luminosity L{sup *}, we fitted Schechter functions to background-corrected cluster galaxy counts to determine K{sup *} as a function of redshift. Because of the magnitude limit of our data, the faint-end slope {alpha} is fixed at {minus}0.9 in the fitting process. We find that K{sup *} (z) departs from no-evolution predictions at z{gt}0.4 and is consistent with the behavior of a simple, passive luminosity evolution model in which galaxies form all their stars in a single burst at z{sub f} =2(3) in an H{sub 0} =65 km s{sup {minus}1} Mpc{sup {minus}1}, {Omega}{sub M} =0.3, {Omega}{sub {Lambda}} =0.7(0) universe. This differs from the flat or negative infrared luminosity evolution, which has been reported for high-redshift {ital field} galaxy samples. We find that the observed evolution appears to be insensitive to cluster X-ray luminosity or optical richness, implying little variation in the evolutionary history of galaxies over the range of environmental densities spanned by our cluster sample. These results support and extend previous analyses based on the color evolution of high-redshift cluster E/S0 galaxies, indicating not only that their stellar populations formed at high-redshift, but that the assembly of the galaxies themselves was largely complete by z{approx}1 and that subsequent evolution down to the present epoch was primarily passive. {copyright} {ital {copyright} 1999.} {ital The American Astronomical Society}
- OSTI ID:
- 698822
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal, Vol. 118, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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