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Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): ugriz galaxy luminosity functions

Loveday, J.; Norberg, P.; Baldry, I.K.; Driver, S.P.; Hopkins, A.M.; Peacock, J.A.; Bamford, S.P.; Liske, J.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Brown, M.J.I.; Cameron, E.; Conselice, C.J.; Croom, S.M.; Frenk, C.S.; Gunawardhana, M.; Hill, D.T.; Jones, D.H.; Kelvin, L.S.; Kuijken, K.; Nichol, R.C.; Parkinson, H.R.; Phillipps, S.; Pimbblet, K.A.; Popescu, C.C.; Prescott, M.; Robotham, A.S.G.; Sharp, R.G.; Sutherland, W.J.; Taylor, E.N.; Thomas, D.; Tuffs, R.J.; van Kampen, E.; Wijesinghe, D.

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): ugriz galaxy luminosity functions Thumbnail


Authors

J. Loveday

I.K. Baldry

S.P. Driver

A.M. Hopkins

J.A. Peacock

S.P. Bamford

J. Liske

J. Bland-Hawthorn

S. Brough

M.J.I. Brown

E. Cameron

C.J. Conselice

S.M. Croom

M. Gunawardhana

D.T. Hill

D.H. Jones

L.S. Kelvin

K. Kuijken

R.C. Nichol

H.R. Parkinson

S. Phillipps

K.A. Pimbblet

C.C. Popescu

M. Prescott

A.S.G. Robotham

R.G. Sharp

W.J. Sutherland

E.N. Taylor

D. Thomas

R.J. Tuffs

E. van Kampen

D. Wijesinghe



Abstract

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) is a project to study galaxy formation and evolution, combining imaging data from ultraviolet to radio with spectroscopic data from the AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Using data from Phase 1 of GAMA, taken over three observing seasons, and correcting for various minor sources of incompleteness, we calculate galaxy luminosity functions (LFs) and their evolution in the ugriz passbands. At low redshift, z < 0.1, we find that blue galaxies, defined according to a magnitude-dependent but non-evolving colour cut, are reasonably well fitted over a range of more than 10 magnitudes by simple Schechter functions in all bands. Red galaxies, and the combined blue plus red sample, require double power-law Schechter functions to fit a dip in their LF faintwards of the characteristic magnitude M* before a steepening faint end. This upturn is at least partly due to dust-reddened disc galaxies. We measure the evolution of the galaxy LF over the redshift range 0.002 < z < 0.5 both by using a parametric fit and by measuring binned LFs in redshift slices. The characteristic luminosity L* is found to increase with redshift in all bands, with red galaxies showing stronger luminosity evolution than blue galaxies. The comoving number density of blue galaxies increases with redshift, while that of red galaxies decreases, consistent with prevailing movement from blue cloud to red sequence. As well as being more numerous at higher redshift, blue galaxies also dominate the overall luminosity density beyond redshifts z≃ 0.2. At lower redshifts, the luminosity density is dominated by red galaxies in the riz bands, and by blue galaxies in u and g.

Citation

Loveday, J., Norberg, P., Baldry, I., Driver, S., Hopkins, A., Peacock, J., …Wijesinghe, D. (2012). Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): ugriz galaxy luminosity functions. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 420(2), 1239-1262. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.20111.x

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 31, 2011
Online Publication Date Feb 21, 2012
Publication Date Feb 21, 2012
Deposit Date Jan 27, 2012
Publicly Available Date Apr 22, 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 420
Issue 2
Pages 1239-1262
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.20111.x
Related Public URLs http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011MNRAS.tmp.2103L

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





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