1996/04/16 by L. Pozzetti, G. Bruzual A., B. A. G. +1 · 100 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Cosmology #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Luminosity #Omega #Physics #Redshift #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Universe #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/281.3.953
published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 281(3), 953-969 (Oxford University Press) · 15 pages, plain tex (insert encapsulated postscript figures), plus an extra figure Fig3c.ps and the tex-macro mn.tex uuencoded, gzipp'ed tar file -- accepted by MNRAS
arxiv created 1996/04/16 · openalex publication_date 1996/08/01 · arxiv updated 2015/06/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We have examined a set of pure luminosity evolution (PLE) models in order to explore up to what extent the rapidly increasing observational constraints from faint galaxy samples can be understood in this simple framework. We find that a PLE model, in which galaxies evolve mildly in time even in the rest-frame UV, can reproduce most of the observed properties of faint galaxies assuming an open (Ω ∼ 0) universe. In particular, such a model is able to fit reasonably well the number counts in the U, bjrf, I and K bands, as well as the colour and redshift distributions derived from most of the existing samples. The most significant discrepancy between the predictions of this model and the data is the z distribution of faint K-selected galaxies. Significantly worse fits are obtained with PLE models for the theoretically attractive value of Ω = 1, although a simple number luminosity evolution model with a significant number of merger events fits the data also in this cosmology.