Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA):
The galaxy stellar mass function at z < 0.06
Baldry et al. 2012, published in MNRAS, Vol. 421, pp. 621-634 (link:
ADS).
Abstract
We determine the low-redshift field galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) using
an area of 143 deg^2 from the first three years of the Galaxy And Mass
Assembly (GAMA) survey. The magnitude limits of this redshift survey are r <
19.4 mag over two thirds and 19.8 mag over one third of the area. The GSMF is
determined from a sample of 5210 galaxies using a density-corrected maximum
volume method. This efficiently overcomes the issue of fluctuations in the
number density versus redshift. With H_0 = 70, the GSMF is well described
between 10^8 and 10^11.5 Msun using a double Schechter function with mass^* =
10^10.66 Msun, phi_1^* = 3.96 x 10^-3 Mpc^-3, alpha_1 = -0.35, phi_2^* = 0.79
x 10^-3 Mpc^-3 and alpha_2 = -1.47. This result is more robust to
uncertainties in the flow-model corrected redshifts than from the shallower
Sloan Digital Sky Survey main sample (r < 17.8 mag). The upturn in the GSMF is
also seen directly in the i-band and K-band galaxy luminosity
functions. Accurately measuring the GSMF below 10^8 Msun is possible within
the GAMA survey volume but as expected requires deeper imaging data to address
the contribution from low surface-brightness galaxies.
Data:
GSMF data as in Table 1.
i-band LF data as per Figure 10.
Median and percentiles in size-mass relation
as per Figure 17.
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