The broadband optical properties of galaxies with redshifts 0.02 < Z < 0.22

  • Michael R. Blanton
  • , David W. Hogg
  • , Neta A. Bahcall
  • , Ivan K. Baldry
  • , J. Brinkmann
  • , Istvan Csabai
  • , Daniel Eisenstein
  • , Masataka Fukugita
  • , James E. Gunn
  • , Zeljko Ivezić
  • , D. Q. Lamb
  • , Robert H. Lupton
  • , Jon Loveday
  • , Jeffrey A. Munn
  • , R. C. Nichol
  • , Sadanori Okamura
  • , David J. Schlegel
  • , Kazuhiro Shimasaku
  • , Michael A. Strauss
  • , Michael S. Vogeley
  • David H. Weinberg

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

608 Scopus citations

Abstract

Using photometry and spectroscopy of 183,487 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we present bivariate distributions of pairs of seven galaxy properties: four optical colors, surface brightness, radial profile shape as measured by the Sérsic index, and absolute magnitude. In addition, we present the dependence of local galaxy density (smoothed on 8 h-1 Mpc scales) on all of these properties. Several classic, well-known relations among galaxy properties are evident at extremely high signal-to-noise ratio: the color-color relations of galaxies, the color-magnitude relations, the magnitude-surface brightness relation, and the dependence of density on color and absolute magnitude. We show that most of the i-band luminosity density in the universe is in the absolute magnitude and surface brightness ranges used: -23.5 < M0.1, < -17.0 mag and 17 < μ0.1 < 24 mag in 1 arcsec2 [the notation zb represents the b band shifted blueward by a factor (1 + z)]. Some of the relationships between parameters, in particular the color-magnitude relations, show stronger correlations for exponential galaxies and concentrated galaxies taken separately than for all galaxies taken together. We provide a simple set of fits of the dependence of galaxy properties on luminosity for these two sets of galaxies and other quantitative details of our results.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)186-207
Number of pages22
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume594
Issue number1 I
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2003

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • Galaxies: fundamental parameters
  • Galaxies: photometry
  • Galaxies: statistics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The broadband optical properties of galaxies with redshifts 0.02 < Z < 0.22'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this