The Calar Alto Deep Imaging Survey: K-band Galaxy number counts^*

¹ Present address: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
² Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
³ Present address: California Institute of Technology, MS 320-47, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁴ Present address: STScI, 3700 San Martin Dr., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

Corresponding author: J.-S. Huang, jhuang@cfa.harvard.edu

Received: 17 April 2000
Accepted: 4 January 2001

Abstract

We present K-band number counts for the faint galaxies in the Calar Alto Deep Imaging Survey (CADIS). We covered 4 CADIS fields, a total area of , in the broad band filters B, R and K. We detect about 4000 galaxies in the K-band images, with a completeness limit of , and derive the K-band galaxy number counts in the range of . This is the largest medium deep K-band survey to date in this magnitude range. The B- and R-band number counts are also derived, down to completeness limits of and . The K-selected galaxies in this magnitude range are of particular interest, since some medium deep near-infrared surveys have identified breaks of both the slope of the K-band number counts and the mean color at . There is, however, a significant disagreement in the K-band number counts among the existing surveys. Our large near-infrared selected galaxy sample allows us to establish the presence of a clear break in the slope at from dlog N/dm = 0.64 at brighter magnitudes to dlog N/dm = 0.36 at the fainter end. We construct no-evolution and passive evolution models, and find that the passive evolution model can simultaneously fit the B-, R- and K-band number counts well. The colors show a clear trend to bluer colors for . We also find that most of the - galaxies have a color bluer than the prediction of a no-evolution model for an Sbc galaxy, implying either significant evolution, even for massive galaxies, or the existence of an extra population of small galaxies.