A new luminosity function for galaxies as given by the mass-luminosity relationship

TL;DR

This paper proposes new galaxy luminosity functions derived from mass distributions using the mass-luminosity relationship, offering alternatives to the traditional Schechter function for galaxy data analysis.

Contribution

It introduces novel luminosity functions based on Kiang and truncated Pareto mass distributions, providing new models for galaxy luminosity data analysis.

Findings

Derived luminosity functions from Kiang and Pareto mass distributions.

Offers models that account for low-mass galaxy bounds.

Provides alternatives to the Schechter function.

Abstract

The search for a luminosity function for galaxies both alternative or companion to a Schechter function is a key problem in the reduction of data from catalogs of galaxies. Two luminosity functions for galaxies can be built starting from two distributions of mass as given by the fragmentation. A first overall distribution function is the Kiang function that represents a useful description of the area and volume distribution of the Poisson Voronoi diagrams. The second distribution, that covers the case of low mass galaxies, is the truncated Pareto distribution : in this model we have a natural bound due to the minimum mass/luminosity observed and an upper bound (function of the considered environment) represented by the boundary with the observed mass/luminosity overall behaviour. The mass distribution is then converted into a luminosity distribution through a standard mass-luminosity relationship.