Issue |
A&A
Volume 404, Number 3, June IV 2003
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 831 - 860 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20030451 | |
Published online | 06 June 2003 |
The ESO-Sculptor Survey: Luminosity functions of galaxies per
spectral type at redshifts
*
1
Inst. d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France e-mail: lapparen@iap.fr
2
Depart. de Astronomía y Astrofísica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile e-mail: ggalaz@astro.puc.cl
3
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy e-mail: bardelli@excalibur.bo.astro.it
4
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748, Garching, Germany e-mail: sarnouts@eso.org
Corresponding author: V. de Lapparent, lapparen@iap.fr
Received:
14
January
2003
Accepted:
25
March
2003
We present the first statistical analysis of the complete
ESO-Sculptor Survey (ESS) of faint galaxies. The flux-calibrated
sample of 617 galaxies with is separated into 3
spectral classes, based on a principal component analysis which
provides a continuous and template-independent spectral
classification. We use an original method to estimate accurate
K-corrections: comparison of the ESS spectra with a spectral library
using the principal component analysis allows us to extrapolate the
missing parts of the observed spectra at blue wavelengths, then
providing a polynomial parameterization of K-corrections as a function
of spectral type and redshift. We also report on all sources of random
and systematic errors which affect the spectral classification, the
K-corrections, and the resulting absolute magnitudes.
We use the absolute magnitudes to measure the
Johnson-Cousins B, V, Rc luminosity functions of the
ESS as a function of spectral class. The shape of the derived
luminosity functions show marked differences among the 3 spectral
classes, which are common to the B, V, Rc bands, and
therefore reflect a physical phenomenon: for galaxies of later
spectral type, the characteristic magnitude is fainter and the
faint-end is steeper. The ESS also provides the first estimates
of luminosity functions per spectral type in the V band.
The salient results are obtained by fitting the ESS
luminosity functions with composite functions based
on the
intrinsic luminosity functions per morphological type measured locally
by (1985) and (1997). The Gaussian luminosity
functions for the nearby Spiral galaxies can be reconciled with the
ESS intermediate and late-type luminosity functions if the
corresponding classes contain an additional Schechter contribution
from Spheroidal and Irregular dwarf galaxies, respectively. The
present analysis of the ESS luminosity functions offers a renewed
interpretation of the galaxy luminosity function from redshift surveys.
It also illustrates how luminosity functions per spectral type may be
affected by morphological type mixing, and emphasizes the need for a
quantitative morphological classification at
which separates
the giant and dwarf galaxy populations.
Key words: galaxies: luminosity function, mass function / galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD / galaxies: spiral / galaxies: irregular / galaxies: dwarf / cosmology: large-scale structure of Universe
© ESO, 2003
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