0.1 Surface Brightness Distribution
The z0.1 Surface Brightness Distribution
Authors: K. O'Neil, S. Andreon, & J.-C. Cuillandre
Published: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters
Abstract:
The surface brightness distribution (SBD) function describes the
number density of galaxies as measured against their central
surface brightness. Because detecting galaxies with low central surface
brightnesses is both time-consuming and complicated, determining the
shape of this distribution function can be difficult.
In a recent paper Cross, et al. suggested
a bell-shaped SBD disk-galaxy function which peaks near the canonical Freeman
value of 21.7 and then falls off significantly by 23.5 B mag arcsec-2.
This is in contradiction to previous studies which have typically
found flat (slope=0) SBD functions out to 24 - 25 B mag arcsec-2
(the survey limits). Here we take advantage of a
recent surface-brightness limited survey by Andreon \& Cuillandre which
reaches considerably fainter magnitudes than the Cross, et.al sample
(M$_B$ reaches fainter than -12 for Andreon \& Cuillandre while
the Cross, et.al sample is limited to MB < -16)
to re-evaluate both the SBD function as found by their data and the SBD
for a wide variety of galaxy surveys, including the Cross, et al. data.
The result is a SBD function with a flat slope out through
the survey limits of 24.5 B mag arcsec-2, with high confidence limits.