Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): bivariate functions of Hα star-forming galaxies

M.L.P. Gunawardhana, A.M. Hopkins, E.N. Taylor, J. Bland-Hawthorn, P. Norberg, I.K. Baldry, J. Loveday, M.S. Owers, S.M. Wilkins, M. Colless, M.J. I. Brown, S.P. Driver, M. Alpaslan, S. Brough, M. Cluver, S. Croom, L. Kelvin, M.A. Lara-López, J. Liske, A.R. López-SánchezA.S. G. Robotham

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We present bivariate luminosity and stellar mass functions of Hα star-forming galaxies drawn from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. While optically deep spectroscopic observations of GAMA over a wide sky area enable the detection of a large number of 0.001 <SFR (M yr) <100 galaxies, the requirement for an Hα detection in targets selected from an r-band magnitude-limited survey leads to an incompleteness due to missing optically faint star-forming galaxies. Using z <0.1 bivariate distributions as a reference we model the higher-z distributions, thereby approximating a correction for the missing optically faint star-forming galaxies to the local star formation rate (SFR) andMdensities. Furthermore, we obtain the r-band luminosity functions (LFs) and stellar mass functions of Hα star-forming galaxies from the bivariate LFs.As our sample is selected on the basis of detectedHα emission, a direct tracer of ongoing star formation, this sample represents a true star-forming galaxy sample, and is drawn from both photometrically classified blue and red subpopulations, though mostly from the blue population. On average 20-30 per cent of red galaxies at all stellar masses are star forming, implying that these galaxies may be dusty star-forming systems.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)875-901
Number of pages27
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume447
Issue number1
Early online date19 Dec 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Feb 2015

Keywords

  • Surveys
  • Galaxies: evolution
  • Galaxies: luminosity function, mass function
  • Galaxies: star formation

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