Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): detection of low-surface-brightness galaxies from SDSS data

Williams, R.P.; Baldry, I.K.; Kelvin, L.S.; James, P.A.; Driver, S.P.; Prescott, M.; Brough, S.; Brown, M.J.I.; Davies, L.J.M.; Holwerda, B.W.; Liske, J.; Norberg, P.; Moffett, A.J.; Wright, A.H.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw2185

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): detection of low-surface-brightness galaxies from SDSS data

Williams, R.P.; Baldry, I.K.; Kelvin, L.S.; James, P.A.; Driver, S.P.; Prescott, M.; Brough, S.; Brown, M.J.I.; Davies, L.J.M.; Holwerda, B.W.; Liske, J.; Norberg, P.; Moffett, A.J.; Wright, A.H.

Authors

R.P. Williams

I.K. Baldry

L.S. Kelvin

P.A. James

S.P. Driver

M. Prescott

S. Brough

M.J.I. Brown

L.J.M. Davies

B.W. Holwerda

J. Liske

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

A.J. Moffett

A.H. Wright

Abstract

We report on a search for new low-surface-brightness galaxies (LSBGs) using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) equatorial fields. The search method consisted of masking objects detected with SDSS PHOTO, combining gri images weighted to maximize the expected signal-to-noise ratio, and smoothing the images. The processed images were then run through a detection algorithm that finds all pixels above a set threshold and groups them based on their proximity to one another. The list of detections was cleaned of contaminants such as diffraction spikes and the faint wings of masked objects. From these, selecting potentially the brightest in terms of total flux, a list of 343 LSBGs was produced having been confirmed using VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy Survey (VIKING) imaging. The photometry of this sample was refined using the deeper VIKING Z band as the aperture-defining band. Measuring their g − i and J − K colours shows that most are consistent with being at redshifts less than 0.2. The photometry is carried out using an AUTO aperture for each detection giving surface brightnesses of μr ≳ 25 mag arcsec−2 and magnitudes of r > 19.8 mag. None of these galaxies are bright enough to be within the GAMA main survey limit but could be part of future deeper surveys to measure the low-mass end of the galaxy stellar mass function.

Citation

Williams, R., Baldry, I., Kelvin, L., James, P., Driver, S., Prescott, M., …Wright, A. (2016). Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): detection of low-surface-brightness galaxies from SDSS data. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 463(3), 2746-2755. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw2185

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 29, 2016
Online Publication Date	Sep 6, 2016
Publication Date	Dec 11, 2016
Deposit Date	Sep 28, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Oct 6, 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	463
Issue	3
Pages	2746-2755
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw2185

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This article has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.