1999/03/30 by S. R. Folkes, S. Ronen, Ian Price +38 · 305 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Luminosity #Luminosity function #Omega #Physics #Redshift #Redshift survey #Scientific Research and Discoveries #Spectral line #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02721.x
published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 308(2), 459-472 (Oxford University Press) · 15 pages, 14 ps and eps figures, Latex, MNRAS, accepted
arxiv created 1999/03/30 · openalex publication_date 1999/09/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We describe the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) and the current status of the observations. In this exploratory paper, we apply a principal component analysis to a preliminary sample of 5869 galaxy spectra and use the two most significant components to split the sample into five spectral classes. These classes are defined by considering visual classifications of a subset of the 2dF spectra, and also by comparison with high-quality spectra of local galaxies. We calculate a luminosity function for each of the different classes and find that later-type galaxies have a fainter characteristic magnitude, and a steeper faint-end slope. For the whole sample we find M*=−19.7 (for Ω=1, H0=100 km s−1 Mpc−1), α=−1.3, φ*=0.017. For class 1 (‘early-type’) we find M*=−19.6, α=−0.7, while for class 5 (‘late-type’) we find M*=−19.0, α=−1.7. The derived 2dF luminosity functions agree well with other recent luminosity function estimates.