Wednesday, February 15, 2012

1111.5707 (I. K. Baldry et al.)

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The galaxy stellar mass function at z < 0.06    [PDF]

I. K. Baldry, S. P. Driver, J. Loveday, E. N. Taylor, L. S. Kelvin, J. Liske, P. Norberg, A. S. G. Robotham, S. Brough, A. M. Hopkins, S. P. Bamford, J. A. Peacock, J. Bland-Hawthorn, C. J. Conselice, S. M. Croom, D. H. Jones, H. R. Parkinson, C. C. Popescu, M. Prescott, R. G. Sharp, R. J. Tuffs
We determine the low-redshift field galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) using an area of 143 deg^2 from the first three years of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. The magnitude limits of this redshift survey are r < 19.4 mag over two thirds and 19.8 mag over one third of the area. The GSMF is determined from a sample of 5210 galaxies using a density-corrected maximum volume method. This efficiently overcomes the issue of fluctuations in the number density versus redshift. With H_0 = 70, the GSMF is well described between 10^8 and 10^11.5 Msun using a double Schechter function with mass^* = 10^10.66 Msun, phi_1^* = 3.96 x 10^-3 Mpc^-3, alpha_1 = -0.35, phi_2^* = 0.79 x 10^-3 Mpc^-3 and alpha_2 = -1.47. This result is more robust to uncertainties in the flow-model corrected redshifts than from the shallower Sloan Digital Sky Survey main sample (r < 17.8 mag). The upturn in the GSMF is also seen directly in the i-band and K-band galaxy luminosity functions. Accurately measuring the GSMF below 10^8 Msun is possible within the GAMA survey volume but as expected requires deeper imaging data to address the contribution from low surface-brightness galaxies.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.5707

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