The 2.4 μ m Galaxy Luminosity Function as Measured Using WISE. III. Measurement Results
[1];
[1];
[2];
[3];
[4];
[6];
[1]
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
- Univ. Diego Portales, Santiago (Chile)
- Univ. of Cape Town, Cape Town (Republic of South Africa)
- NorthWest Research Associates, Redmond, WA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
- California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), La Canada Flintridge, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab.
The Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite surveyed the entire sky multiple times in four infrared wavelengths (3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μm). The unprecedented combination of coverage area and depth gives us the opportunity to measure the luminosity function (LF) of galaxies, one of the fundamental quantities in the study of them, at 2.4 μm to an unparalleled level of formal statistical accuracy in the near-infrared. The big advantage of measuring LFs at wavelengths in the window of ≈2–3.5 μm is that it correlates more closely to the total stellar mass in galaxies than others. In this paper we report on the parameters of the 2.4 μm LF of galaxies obtained from applying the spectro-luminosity-functional-based methods to datasets from the previous papers in this series using the mean and covariance of 2.4 μm normalized spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from our previous work. In terms of the single Schechter function parameters evaluated at the present epoch, the combined result is: $${\phi }_{\star }=5.8\,\pm [{0.3}_{\mathrm{stat}},{0.4}_{\mathrm{sys}}]\times {10}^{-3}\,{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-3}$$, $${L}_{\star }=6.4\pm [{0.1}_{\mathrm{stat}},{0.3}_{\mathrm{sys}}]\times {10}^{10}\,{L}_{2.4\mu {\rm{m}}\odot }$$ (M$$_{\star}$$ = -21.67 ± [0.02stat, 0.05sys] AB mag), and $$α$$ = -1.050 ± [0.004stat, 0.04sys]. The high statistical accuracy comes from combining public redshift surveys with the wide coverage from WISE, and the unevenness in statistical accuracy is a result of our efforts to work around biases of uncertain origin that affect resolved and marginally resolved galaxies. With further refinements, the techniques applied in this work promise to advance the study of the SED of the universe.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1545273
- Journal Information:
- The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 866; ISSN 1538-4357
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
The Contribution of Galaxies to the 3.4 μ m Cosmic Infrared Background as Measured Using WISE
|
journal | December 2019 |
Similar Records
The 2.4 μm Galaxy Luminosity Function as Measured Using WISE . II. Sample Selection
Luminosity and redshift dependence of the covering factor of active galactic nuclei viewed with WISE and Sloan digital sky survey