• DOI:10.1086/322488
• Corpus ID: 15532736

The K-Band Galaxy Luminosity Function

@article{Kochanek2000TheKG,
  title={The K-Band Galaxy Luminosity Function},
  author={Christopher S. Kochanek and Michael Andrew Pahre and Emilio E. Falco and John Peter Huchra and Jeff A. Mader and Thomas H. Jarrett and Thomas J. Chester and Roc M. Cutri and Stephen E. Schneider},
  journal={The Astrophysical Journal},
  year={2000},
  volume={560},
  pages={566 - 579}
}

• C. Kochanek, M. Pahre, +6 authors S. Schneider
• Published 24 November 2000
• Physics
• The Astrophysical Journal

We measured the K-band luminosity function using a complete sample of 4192 morphologically typed 2MASS galaxies with μ = 20 mag arcsec-2 isophotal magnitudes 7 < K20 < 11.25 mag spread over 2.12 sr. Early-type (T ≤ -0.5) and late-type (T > -0.5) galaxies have similarly shaped luminosity functions, αe = -0.92 ± 0.10 and αl = -0.87 ± 0.09. The early-type galaxies are brighter, MK*e = -23.53 ± 0.06 mag compared to MK*l = -22.98 ± 0.06 mag, but less numerous, n*e = (0.45 ± 0.06) × 10-2 h3 Mpc-3 compared to n*l = (1.01 ± 0.13) × 10-2 h3 Mpc-3 for H0 = 100 h km s-1 Mpc-1, such that the late-type galaxies slightly dominate the K-band luminosity density, jlate/jearly = 1.17 ± 0.12. Including a factor of 1.20 ± 0.04 correction for the conversion of the isophotal survey magnitudes to total magnitudes, the local K-band luminosity density is j = (7.14 ± 0.75) × 108 h L☉ Mpc-3, which implies a stellar mass density relative to critical of Ω*h = (1.9 ± 0.2) × 10-3 for a Kennicutt initial mass function (IMF) and Ω*h = (3.4 ± 0.4) × 10-3 for a Salpeter IMF. Our morphological classifications are internally consistent, are consistent with previous classifications, and lead to luminosity functions unaffected by the estimated uncertainties in the classifications. These luminosity functions accurately predict the K-band number counts and redshift distributions for K ≲ 18 mag, beyond which the results depend on galaxy evolution and merger histories.