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

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

doi:10.1093/mnras/stv1013

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

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

Authors

J. Loveday

Professor Peder Norberg peder.norberg@durham.ac.uk
Professor

I.K. Baldry

J. Bland-Hawthorn

S. Brough

M.J.I. Brown

S.P. Driver

L.S. Kelvin

S. Phillipps

Abstract

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 evolution-corrected 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.

Citation

Loveday, J., Norberg, P., Baldry, I., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Brough, S., Brown, M., …Phillipps, S. (2015). Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): maximum-likelihood determination of the luminosity function and its evolution. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 451(2), 1540-1552. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1013

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	May 3, 2015
Online Publication Date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication Date	Aug 1, 2015
Deposit Date	Feb 3, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Feb 11, 2016
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN	0035-8711
Electronic ISSN	1365-2966
Publisher	Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	451
Issue	2
Pages	1540-1552
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1013
Keywords	Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: luminosity function, mass function, Galaxies: statistics.

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This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2015 The Author Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.