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Issue A&A
Volume 391, Number 1, August III 2002
Page(s) L1 - L5
Section Letters
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021012



A&A 391, L1-L5 (2002)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20021012

Letter

The K20 survey

IV. The redshift distribution of $K_{\rm s}<20$ galaxies: A test of galaxy formation models
A. Cimatti1, L. Pozzetti2, M. Mignoli2, E. Daddi3, N. Menci4, F. Poli5, A. Fontana4, A. Renzini3, G. Zamorani2, T. Broadhurst6, S. Cristiani7, S. D'Odorico3, E. Giallongo4 and R. Gilmozzi3

1  INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
2  INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
3  European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
4  INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Dell'Osservatorio 2, Monteporzio, Italy
5  Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università "La Sapienza", Roma, Italy
6  Racah Institute for Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 91904 Israel
7  INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G.B. Tiepolo 11, 34131 Trieste, Italy

(Received 12 June 2002 / Accepted 8 July 2002 )

Abstract
We present the redshift distribution of a complete sample of 480 galaxies with $K_{\rm s}<20$ distributed over two independent fields covering a total area of 52 arcmin 2. The redshift completeness is 87% and 98% respectively with spectroscopic and high-quality and tested photometric redshifts. The redshift distribution of field galaxies has a median redshift $z_{\rm med}\sim 0.80$, with ~32% and ~9% of galaxies at z>1 and z>1.5 respectively. A "blind" comparison is made with the predictions of a set of the most recent $\Lambda$CDM hierarchical merging and pure luminosity evolution (PLE) models. The hierarchical merging models overpredict and underpredict the number of galaxies at low- z and high- z respectively, whereas the PLE models match the median redshift and the low- z distribution, still being able to follow the high- z tail of N(z). We briefly discuss the implications of this comparison and the possible origins of the observed discrepancies. We make the redshift distribution publicly available.


Key words: galaxies: evolution -- galaxies: formation

Offprint request: A. Cimatti, cimatti@arcetri.astro.it




© ESO 2002


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