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Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): bivariate functions of Hα star-forming galaxies

Gunawardhana, M.L.P.; Hopkins, A.M.; Taylor, E.N.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Norberg, P.; Baldry, I.K.; Loveday, J.; Owers, M.S.; Wilkins, S.M.; Colless, M.; Brown, M.J.I.; Driver, S.P.; Alpaslan, M.; Brough, S.; Cluver, M.; Croom, S.; Kelvin, L.; Lara-López, M.A.; Liske, J.; López-Sánchez, A.R.; Robotham, A.S.G.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): bivariate functions of Hα star-forming galaxies Thumbnail


Authors

M.L.P. Gunawardhana

A.M. Hopkins

E.N. Taylor

J. Bland-Hawthorn

I.K. Baldry

J. Loveday

M.S. Owers

S.M. Wilkins

M. Colless

M.J.I. Brown

S.P. Driver

M. Alpaslan

S. Brough

M. Cluver

S. Croom

L. Kelvin

M.A. Lara-López

J. Liske

A.R. López-Sánchez

A.S.G. Robotham



Abstract

We present bivariate luminosity and stellar mass functions of Hα star-forming galaxies drawn from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. While optically deep spectroscopic observations of GAMA over a wide sky area enable the detection of a large number of 0.001 < SFRHα (M⊙ yr−1) < 100 galaxies, the requirement for an Hα detection in targets selected from an r-band magnitude-limited survey leads to an incompleteness due to missing optically faint star-forming galaxies. Using z < 0.1 bivariate distributions as a reference we model the higher-z distributions, thereby approximating a correction for the missing optically faint star-forming galaxies to the local star formation rate (SFR) and M M densities. Furthermore, we obtain the r-band luminosity functions (LFs) and stellar mass functions of Hα star-forming galaxies from the bivariate LFs. As our sample is selected on the basis of detected Hα emission, a direct tracer of ongoing star formation, this sample represents a true star-forming galaxy sample, and is drawn from both photometrically classified blue and red subpopulations, though mostly from the blue population. On average 20–30 per cent of red galaxies at all stellar masses are star forming, implying that these galaxies may be dusty star-forming systems.

Citation

Gunawardhana, M., Hopkins, A., Taylor, E., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Norberg, P., Baldry, I., …Robotham, A. (2015). Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): bivariate functions of Hα star-forming galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 447(1), 875-901. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2232

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Feb 11, 2015
Deposit Date Feb 3, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
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 447
Issue 1
Pages 875-901
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2232
Keywords Surveys, Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: luminosity function, mass function, Galaxies: star formation.

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Copyright Statement
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.





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