Issue |
A&A
Volume 368, Number 3, March IV 2001
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 787 - 796 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010057 | |
Published online | 15 March 2001 |
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
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.
Key words: cosmology: observations / galaxies: evolution / galaxy: formation / surveys / infrared: galaxies
© ESO, 2001
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