1999/02/15 by L. Tresse, Tresse, L.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9902209
Lecture to be published in "Formation and Evolution of Galaxies", eds. O. Le Fevre and S. Charlot, Les Houches School Series, Springer-Verlag. LaTeX source uses l-school.sty. 21 pages w/5 embedded PS figures
arxiv created 1999/02/15 · openalex publication_date 1999/02/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Galaxy redshift surveys are outstanding tools for observational cosmology. Mapping the universe as outlined by galaxies leads to fundamental measurements which refine our knowledge of its structure and evolution. Redshift acquisition has undergone tremendous progress thanks to advances in technology, and redshift surveys appear nowadays as routine. Even though they may look simple at face-value, the strategy of a survey and the galaxy-selection criteria have crucial impacts on the interpretation of results. In this lecture, I concentrate on the galaxy luminosity function and its evolution. In particular I consider the luminosity function derived from optically magnitude-selected field galaxy redshift surveys. The aim is to describe the approach to designing state-of-the-art of galaxy surveys and their impact on measurements on luminosity functions. I start by discussing survey strategies, (Section 2). I continue by describing the data required (Section 3), and then review the different estimators to measure luminosity funtions (Section 4). I discuss the luminosity function evolution (Section 5) and I follow by summarizing the status of luminosity measurements (Section 6).