We describe the construction of MegaZ-LRG, a photometric redshift catalogue of over one million luminous red galaxies (LRGs) in the redshift range 0.4 < z < 0.7 with limiting magnitude i < 20. The ...catalogue is selected from the imaging data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 4. The 2dF-SDSS LRG and Quasar (2SLAQ) spectroscopic redshift catalogue of 13 000 intermediate-redshift LRGs provides a photometric redshift training set, allowing use of annz, a neural network-based photometric-redshift estimator. The rms photometric redshift accuracy obtained for an evaluation set selected from the 2SLAQ sample is σz= 0.049 averaged over all galaxies, and σz= 0.040 for a brighter subsample (i < 19.0). The catalogue is expected to contain ∼5 per cent stellar contamination. The annz code is used to compute a refined star/galaxy probability based on a range of photometric parameters; this allows the contamination fraction to be reduced to 2 per cent with negligible loss of genuine galaxies. The MegaZ-LRG catalogue is publicly available on the World Wide Web from http://www.2slaq.info.
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.
We present luminosity and surface-brightness distributions of 40 111 galaxies with K-band photometry from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area ...Survey (LAS), Data Release 3 and optical photometry from Data Release 5 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Various features and limitations of the new UKIDSS data are examined, such as a problem affecting Petrosian magnitudes of extended sources. Selection limits in K- and r-band magnitude, K-band surface brightness and K-band radius are included explicitly in the 1/Vmax estimate of the space density and luminosity function. The bivariate brightness distribution in K-band absolute magnitude and surface brightness is presented and found to display a clear luminosity–surface brightness correlation that flattens at high luminosity and broadens at low luminosity, consistent with similar analyses at optical wavelengths. Best-fitting Schechter function parameters for the K-band luminosity function are found to be M*− 5 log h=−23.19 ± 0.04, α=−0.81 ± 0.04 and φ*= (0.0166 ± 0.0008) h3 Mpc−3, although the Schechter function provides a poor fit to the data at high and low luminosity, while the luminosity density in the K band is found to be j= (6.305 ± 0.067) × 108 L⊙ h Mpc−3. However, we caution that there are various known sources of incompleteness and uncertainty in our results. Using mass-to-light ratios determined from the optical colours, we estimate the stellar mass function, finding good agreement with previous results. Possible improvements are discussed that could be implemented when extending this analysis to the full LAS.
We present an analysis of the small-to-intermediate scale clustering of samples of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey (2SLAQ) ...survey carefully matched to have the same rest-frame colours and luminosity. We study the spatial two-point autocorrelation function in both redshift space ξ(s) and real space ξ(r) of a combined sample of over 10 000 LRGs, which represent the most massive galaxies in the universe with stellar masses >1011h−1M⊙ and space densities ≃10−4h3Mpc−3. We find no significant evolution in the amplitude (r0) of the correlation function with redshift, but do see a slight decrease in the slope (γ) with increasing redshift over 0.19 < z < 0.55 and scales of 0.32 < r < 32 h−1Mpc. We compare our measurements with the predicted evolution of dark matter clustering and use the halo model to interpret our results. We find that our clustering measurements are inconsistent (>99.9 per cent significance) with a passive model whereby the LRGs do not merge with one another; a model with a merger rate of 7.5 ± 2.3 per cent from z= 0.55 to 0.19 (i.e. an average rate of 2.4 per cent Gyr−1) provides a better fit to our observations. Our clustering and number density measurements are consistent with the hypothesis that the merged LRGs were originally central galaxies in different haloes which, following the merger of these haloes, merged to create a single brightest cluster galaxy. In addition, we show that the small-scale clustering signal constrains the scatter in halo merger histories. When combined with measurements of the luminosity function, our results suggest that this scatter is sub-Poisson. While this is a generic prediction of hierarchical models, it has not been tested before.
Using results from the Herschel Astrophysical Terrahertz Large-Area Survey (H-ATLAS) and the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) project, we show that, for galaxy masses above ≃ 108 M⊙, 51 per cent of ...the stellar mass-density in the local Universe is in early-type galaxies (ETGs; Sérsic n > 2.5) while 89 per cent of the rate of production of stellar mass-density is occurring in late-type galaxies (LTGs; Sérsic n < 2.5). From this zero-redshift benchmark, we have used a calorimetric technique to quantify the importance of the morphological transformation of galaxies over the history of the Universe. The extragalactic background radiation contains all the energy generated by nuclear fusion in stars since the big bang. By resolving this background radiation into individual galaxies using the deepest far-infrared survey with the Herschel Space Observatory and a deep near-infrared/optical survey with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and using measurements of the Sérsic index of these galaxies derived from the HST images, we estimate that ≃83 per cent of the stellar mass-density formed over the history of the Universe occurred in LTGs. The difference between this value and the fraction of the stellar mass-density that is in LTGs today implies there must have been a major transformation of LTGs into ETGs after the formation of most of the stars.
Abstract
We have generated complementary halo mass estimates for all the groups in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly Galaxy Group Catalogue (GAMA G3Cv1) using a modified caustic mass estimation algorithm, ...originally developed by Diaferio & Geller. We calibrate the algorithm by applying it on a series of nine GAMA mock galaxy light cones and investigate the effects of using different definitions for group centre and size. We select the set of parameters that provide median-unbiased mass estimates when tested on mocks, and generate mass estimates for the real group catalogue. We find that on average, the caustic mass estimates agree with dynamical mass estimates within a factor of 2 in 90.8 ± 6.1 per cent groups and compare equally well to velocity dispersion based mass estimates for both high- and low-multiplicity groups over the full range of masses probed by the G3Cv1.
We have used the Two-Degree Field (2dF) instrument on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) to obtain redshifts of a sample of z < 3 and 18.0 < g < 21.85 quasars selected from Sloan Digital Sky Survey ...(SDSS) imaging. These data are part of a larger joint programme between the SDSS and 2dF communities to obtain spectra of faint quasars and luminous red galaxies, namely the 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO (2SLAQ) Survey. We describe the quasar selection algorithm and present the resulting number counts and luminosity function of 5645 quasars in 105.7 deg2. The bright-end number counts and luminosity functions agree well with determinations from the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ) data to g~ 20.2. However, at the faint end, the 2SLAQ number counts and luminosity functions are steeper (i.e. require more faint quasars) than the final 2QZ results from Croom et al., but are consistent with the preliminary 2QZ results from Boyle et al. Using the functional form adopted for the 2QZ analysis (a double power law with pure luminosity evolution characterized by a second-order polynomial in redshift), we find a faint-end slope of β=−1.78 ± 0.03 if we allow all of the parameters to vary, and β=−1.45 ± 0.03 if we allow only the faint-end slope and normalization to vary (holding all other parameters equal to the final 2QZ values). Over the magnitude range covered by the 2SLAQ survey, our maximum-likelihood fit to the data yields 32 per cent more quasars than the final 2QZ parametrization, but is not inconsistent with other g > 21 deep surveys for quasars. The 2SLAQ data exhibit no well-defined ‘break’ in the number counts or luminosity function, but do clearly flatten with increasing magnitude. Finally, we find that the shape of the quasar luminosity function derived from 2SLAQ is in good agreement with that derived from Type I quasars found in hard X-ray surveys.
We present new measurements of the luminosity function (LF) of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the 2dF SDSS LRG and Quasar (2SLAQ) survey. We have carefully ...quantified, and corrected for, uncertainties in the K and evolutionary corrections, differences in the colour selection methods, and the effects of photometric errors, thus ensuring we are studying the same galaxy population in both surveys. Using a limited subset of 6326 SDSS LRGs (with 0.17 < z < 0.24) and 1725 2SLAQ LRGs (with 0.5 < z < 0.6), for which the matching colour selection is most reliable, we find no evidence for any additional evolution in the LRG LF, over this redshift range, beyond that expected from a simple passive evolution model. This lack of additional evolution is quantified using the comoving luminosity density of SDSS and 2SLAQ LRGs, brighter than M0.2r− 5 log h0.7=−22.5, which are 2.51 ± 0.03 × 10−7 L⊙ Mpc−3 and 2.44 ± 0.15 × 10−7 L⊙ Mpc−3, respectively (<10 per cent uncertainty). We compare our LFs to the COMBO-17 data and find excellent agreement over the same redshift range. Together, these surveys show no evidence for additional evolution (beyond passive) in the LF of LRGs brighter than M0.2r− 5 log h0.7=−21 (or brighter than ∼L*). We test our SDSS and 2SLAQ LFs against a simple ‘dry merger’ model for the evolution of massive red galaxies and find that at least half of the LRGs at z≃ 0.2 must already have been well assembled (with more than half their stellar mass) by z≃ 0.6. This limit is barely consistent with recent results from semi-analytical models of galaxy evolution.
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