Loveday, Jon (2004) Evolution of the galaxy luminosity function at z < 0.3. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 347 (2). pp. 601-606. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

We measure the redshift-dependent luminosity function and the comoving radial density of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 1 (SDSS DR1). Both measurements indicate that the apparent number density of bright galaxies increases by a factor ≈ 3 as redshift increases from z= 0 to z= 0.3. This result is robust to the assumed cosmology, to the details of the K-correction and to direction on the sky. These observations are most naturally explained by significant evolution in the luminosity and/or number density of galaxies at redshifts z < 0.3. Such evolution is also consistent with the steep number-magnitude counts seen in the Automatic Plate Measuring (APM) Galaxy Survey, without the need to invoke a local underdensity in the galaxy distribution or magnitude scale errors.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The redshift-dependent luminosity function and comoving radial density of galaxies in the SDSS are used to show that the bright galaxy comoving number density increases by a factor 3 from z=0 to z=0.3, a larger factor than expected from many semi-analytic galaxy evolution models.
Schools and Departments:	School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences > Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Depositing User:	Jonathan Loveday
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 20:32
Last Modified:	08 Aug 2018 15:25
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/26466

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