A&A 458, 341-348 (2006)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20054545

An optical search for low surface brightness galaxies in the Arecibo HI Strip Survey

C. Trachternach, D. J. Bomans, L. Haberzettl and R.-J. Dettmar

Astronomisches Institut, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätstraße 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany
    e-mail: trachter@astro.rub.de

(Received 18 November 2005 / Accepted 18 July 2006 )

Abstract
Aims. In order to estimate the contribution of low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies to the local () galaxy number density, we performed an optical search for LSB candidates in a 15.5 deg² part of the region covered by the 65 deg² blind Arecibo HI Strip Survey (AHISS).
Methods. Object detection and galaxy profile fitting were done with analytical algorithms. The detection efficiency and the selection effects were evaluated using large samples of artificial galaxies.
Results. Our final catalogue is diameter-limited and contains 306 galaxies with diameters at the limiting surface brightness of . Of these 306 galaxies, 148 were not catalogued previously. Our results indicate that low surface brightness galaxies contribute at least to 30% to the local galaxy number density.
Conclusions. Without additional distance information, choosing the limiting diameter and the surface brightness at which the diameter is measured is crucial. Depending on these choices, diameter-limited optical catalogues are either biased against LSB galaxies, or contaminated with cosmologically dimmed high surface brightness galaxies, which affects the implied surface brightness distribution. The comparison to the AHISS showed that although optical surveys detect more galaxies per deg² than HI surveys, their drawback is the need for spectroscopic follow up observations to derive distances. Blind HI surveys have no diameter limits, but tend to miss gas-poor galaxies and all galaxies which lie outside their redshift limits. HI and optical surveys thus provide complementary information and sample different parts of the LSB galaxy population.

Key words: galaxies: general -- galaxies: fundamental parameters -- galaxies: statistics

© ESO 2006

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