THE FAINT END OF THE LUMINOSITY FUNCTION AND LOW SURFACE BRIGHTNESS GALAXIES
- Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Dipartimento di Fisica Generale 'Amedeo Avogadro', Universita degli Studi di Torino, via P. Giuria 1, 10125 Torino (Italy)
Smithsonian Hectospec Lensing Survey (SHELS) is a dense redshift survey covering a 4 deg{sup 2} region to a limiting R = 20.6. In the construction of the galaxy catalog and in the acquisition of spectroscopic targets, we paid careful attention to the survey completeness for lower surface brightness dwarf galaxies. Thus, although the survey covers a small area, it is a robust basis for computation of the slope of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function to a limiting M{sub R} = -13.3 + 5log h. We calculate the faint-end slope in the R band for the subset of SHELS galaxies with redshifts in the range 0.02 {<=}z < 0.1, SHELS{sub 0.1}. This sample contains 532 galaxies with R < 20.6 and with a median surface brightness within the half-light radius of SB{sub 50,R} = 21.82 mag arcsec{sup -2}. We used this sample to make one of the few direct measurements of the dependence of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function on surface brightness. For the sample as a whole the faint-end slope, {alpha} = -1.31 {+-} 0.04, is consistent with both the Blanton et al. analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Liu et al. analysis of the COSMOS field. This consistency is impressive given the very different approaches of these three surveys. A magnitude-limited sample of 135 galaxies with optical spectroscopic redshifts with mean half-light surface brightness, SB{sub 50,R} {>=} 22.5 mag arcsec{sup -2} is unique to SHELS{sub 0.1}. The faint-end slope is {alpha}{sub 22.5} = -1.52 {+-} 0.16. SHELS{sub 0.1} shows that lower surface brightness objects dominate the faint-end slope of the luminosity function in the field, underscoring the importance of surface brightness limits in evaluating measurements of the faint-end slope and its evolution.
- OSTI ID:
- 22034657
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 143, Issue 4; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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