Galaxy And Mass Assembly: red & blue galaxies Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Taylor E.N.
  2. Hopkins A.M.
  3. Baldry I.K.
  4. Bland-Hawthorn J.
  5. Brown M.J.I.,Colless M.
  6. Driver S.
  7. Norberg P.
  8. Robotham A.S.G.
  9. Alpaslan M.
  10. Brough S.,Cluver M.E.
  11. Gunawardhana M.
  12. Kelvin L.S.
  13. Liske J.
  14. Conselice C.J.,Croom S.
  15. Foster C.
  16. Jarrett T.H.
  17. Lara-Lopez M.
  18. Loveday J.
  19. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

We measure the mass functions for generically red and blue galaxies, using a z<0.12 sample of logM_*_>8.7 field galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Our motivation is that, as we show, the dominant uncertainty in existing measurements stems from how "red" and "blue" galaxies have been selected/defined. Accordingly, we model our data as two naturally overlapping populations, each with their own mass function and colour-mass relation, which enables us characterize the two populations without having to specify a priori which galaxies are "red" and "blue". Our results then provide the means to derive objective operational definitions for the terms "red" and "blue", which are based on the phenomenology of the colour-mass diagrams. Informed by this descriptive modelling, we show that (1) after accounting for dust, the stellar colours of "blue" galaxies do not depend strongly on mass; (2) the tight, flat "dead sequence" does not extend much below logM_*_~10.5; instead, (3) the stellar colours of "red" galaxies vary rather strongly with mass, such that lower mass "red" galaxies have bluer stellar populations; (4) below logM_*_~9.3, the "red" population dissolves into obscurity, and it becomes problematic to talk about two distinct populations; as a consequence, (5) it is hard to meaningfully constrain the shape, including the existence of an upturn, of the "red" galaxy mass function below logM_*_~9.3. Points 1-4 provide meaningful targets for models of galaxy formation and evolution to aim for.

Keywords
  1. galaxies
  2. stellar-masses
  3. two-color-diagrams
  4. surveys
  5. astronomical-models
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2015MNRAS.446.2144T
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/446/2144
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/446/2144
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.74462144

Access

Web browser access HTML
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/446/2144
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/446/2144
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/446/2144
IVOA Table Access TAP
http://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).

History

2019-10-22T12:57:25Z
Resource record created
2019-10-22T12:57:25Z
Created
2024-08-14T20:18:46Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr