Critical analysis of the luminosity functions per galaxy type measured from redshift surveys

Abstract

[ABRIDGED] I perform a detailed comparison of the shape of the optical luminosity functions as a function of galaxy class and filter, which have been obtained from redshift surveys with an effective depth ranging from z~0.01 to z~0.6. This analysis is based on the M* and alpha Schechter parameters. I provide complete tables of all the existing measurements, converted into the UBVRcIc Johnson-Cousins system wherever necessary. By using as reference the intrinsic luminosity functions per morphological type measured from local galaxy concentrations (Jerjen et al 1997), I establish that the variations in the luminosity functions from survey to survey and among the galaxy classes are related to the criteria for galaxy classification used in the surveys, as these determine the amount of mixing of the morphological types within a given class. When using a spectral classification with inaccurate spectrophotometric calibrations, the luminosity functions are biased by type contamination with a smooth variation from type to type poorly related to the intrinsic luminosity functions per morphological type. In the case of multi-fiber spectroscopy, galaxy classification based on rest-frame colors might then provide better estimates of the intrinsic luminosity functions. All the existing surveys fail to measure the Gaussian luminosity functions for Spiral galaxies. Most surveys based on visual morphological classification also have their E/S0 luminosity functions contaminated at the faint end, except for analyses based on either multi-slit spectroscopy or medium-filter spectrophotometry combined with CCD photometry. These contamination effects are presumably due to dwarf galaxies. Measuring reliable intrinsic luminosity functions will thus require a more coherent approach in separating the giant and dwarf galaxy types.