We describe modifications to the joint stepwise maximum likelihood method of Cole (2011) in order to simultaneously fit the GAMA-II galaxy luminosity function (LF), corrected for radial density variations, and its evolution with redshift. The whole sample is reasonably well-fit with luminosity (Qe) and density (Pe) evolution parameters Qe, Pe = 1.0, 1.0 but with significant degeneracies characterized by Qe = 1.4 - 0.4Pe. Blue galaxies exhibit larger luminosity density evolution than red galaxies, as expected. We present the evolution-corrected r-band LF for the whole sample and for blue and red sub-samples, using both Petrosian and Sersic magnitudes. Petrosian magnitudes miss a substantial fraction of the flux of de Vaucouleurs profile galaxies: the Sersic LF is substantially higher than the Petrosian LF at the bright end.
@article{arxiv.1505.01003,
title = {Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): maximum likelihood determination of the luminosity function and its evolution},
author = {J. Loveday and P. Norberg and I. K. Baldry and J. Bland-Hawthorn and S. Brough and M. J. I. Brown and S. P. Driver and L. S. Kelvin and S. Phillipps},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.01003},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 13 pages, 11 figures. Comments welcome