Issue |
A&A
Volume 458, Number 1, October IV 2006
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 341 - 348 | |
Section | Online catalogs and data | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20054545 | |
Published online | 16 October 2006 |
An optical search for low surface brightness galaxies in the Arecibo HI Strip Survey
Astronomisches Institut, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätstraße 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany e-mail: trachter@astro.rub.de
Received:
18
November
2005
Accepted:
18
July
2006
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 deg
part of the
region covered by the 65 deg
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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