The 2.4 μm Galaxy Luminosity Function As Measured Using WISE. I. Measurement Techniques

• Published in: The Astronomical journal Vol. 153; no. 4; p. 189
• Main Authors: Lake, S. E., Wright, E. L., Tsai, C.-W., Lam, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.04.2017
• Subjects: ASTRONOMY; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; COLOR; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; DATA ANALYSIS; EFFICIENCY; GALAXIES; INFRARED SURVEYS; LUMINOSITY; MASS; RED SHIFT; SPACE; SPECTRA; STATISTICS; WAVELENGTHS
• ISSN: 0004-6256; 1538-3881; 1538-3881
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa643a

Abstract The astronomy community has at its disposal a large back catalog of public spectroscopic galaxy redshift surveys that can be used for the measurement of luminosity functions (LFs). Utilizing the back catalog with new photometric surveys to maximum efficiency requires modeling the color selection bias imposed on the selection of target galaxies by flux limits at multiple wavelengths. The likelihood derived herein can address, in principle, all possible color selection biases through the use of a generalization of the LF, , over the space of all spectra: the spectro-luminosity functional, . It is, therefore, the first estimator capable of simultaneously analyzing multiple redshift surveys in a consistent way. We also propose a new way of parametrizing the evolution of the classic Schechter function parameters, L ⋆ and ϕ ⋆ , that improves both the physical realism and statistical performance of the model. The techniques derived in this paper are used in a companion paper by Lake et al. to measure the LF of galaxies at the rest-frame wavelength of using the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE ).