Galaxy and Mass assembly (GAMA): Maximum-likelihood determination of the luminosity function and its evolution

J. Loveday, P. Norberg, I.K. Baldry, J. Bland-Hawthorn, S. Brough, M.J.I. Brown, Simon Driver, L.S. Kelvin, S. Phillipps

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56 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

© 2015 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. We describe modifications to the joint stepwise maximum-likelihood method of Cole in order to simultaneously fit the Galaxy and Mass Assembly II galaxy luminosity function (LF), corrected for radial density variations, and its evolution with redshift. The whole sample is reasonably well fitted with luminosity (Qe) and density (Pe) evolution parameters Qe, Pe ≈1.0, 1.0 but with significant degeneracies characterized by Qe ≈ 1.4 - 0.4Pe. Blue galaxies exhibit larger luminosity density evolution than red galaxies, as expected. We present the evolutioncorrected r-band LF for the whole sample and for blue and red subsamples, using both Petrosian and Sérsic magnitudes. Petrosian magnitudes miss a substantial fraction of the flux of de Vaucouleurs profile galaxies: the Sérsic LF is substantially higher than the Petrosian LF at the bright end.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1540-1552
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume451
Issue number2
Early online date5 Jun 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2015

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