On the accuracy of the high redshift cluster luminosity function

Abstract

We study the reliability of the statistical background subtraction method for computing the Ks-band luminosity function of cluster galaxies at z~1 using mock Red-sequence Cluster Survey cluster catalogues constructed from GALFORM semi-analytic galaxies. The underlying cluster luminosity function in the mocks are compatible with recent estimates at z~1 by several authors. We simulate different samples where the number of clusters with Ks-band photometry goes from 5 to a maximum of 50, in order to find the most suitable observational sample to carry out this study; the current observational status in the nIR wavelength range has been reached using 5 real clusters at z~1. We compute the composite luminosity function for several samples of galaxy clusters with masses 1.5x10^14 M_sun assuming a flux limited, complete sample of galaxies down to Ks=21.0 magnitudes. We find that the Schechter fit parameters Ks* and alpha for a sample of galaxies with no redshift information are rather poorly constrained if both parameters are allowed to vary freely; if alpha is fixed at a fiducial value, then Ks* shows significantly improved stochastic uncertainties but can be influenced by systematic deviations. We find a significantly improved accuracy in the luminosity function parameters when adding photometric redshift information for bright cluster galaxies. The dwarf-to-giant ratios inferred from the luminosity functions of red-sequence galaxies in the mock catalogue agree very well with the underlying values. Finally, we find that in order to use estimates of Ks* to study the formation redshift of cluster galaxies at z=1, the sample would need to contain 520 z~1 clusters, for an accuracy of 2 Gyr at the 68 per cent confidence level.

12 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (42)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• The broken hierarchy of galaxy formation
• Halo Models of Large Scale Structure
• Hierarchical Galaxy Formation
• The Star Formation History of Field Galaxies
• The Galaxy Luminosity Function and Luminosity Density at Redshift z=0.1
• Cosmology with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
• Theoretical Models of the Halo Occupation Distribution: Separating Central and Satellite Galaxies
• The large-scale structure of the Universe
• The Red-Sequence Cluster Survey I: The Survey and Cluster Catalogs for Patches RCS0926+37 and RCS1327+29
• On Departures From a Power Law in the Galaxy Correlation Function
• The Palomar Distant Cluster Survey: I. The Cluster Catalog
• Clusters of Galaxies in the First Half of the Universe from the IRAC Shallow Survey
• Near-infrared template spectra of normal galaxies: k-corrections, galaxy models and stellar populations
• The build-up of the colour-magnitude relation in galaxy clusters since z~0.8
• The IRAC Shallow Survey
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: the luminosity function of cluster galaxies
• The XMM Cluster Survey: A Massive Galaxy Cluster at z=1.45
• Effects of AGN feedback on LCDM galaxies
• The K Band Luminosity Function in Galaxy Clusters to z ~ 1
• An IR-Selected Galaxy Cluster at z=1.27
• Cosmological Constraints from the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey
• Angular momentum-Large-scale structure alignments in LCDM models and the SDSS
• The Las Campanas/AAT Rich Cluster Survey II: The Environmental Dependance of Galaxy Colours in Clusters at z~0.1
• The Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey - The Catalog
• Composite Luminosity Functions Based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey "Cut & Enhance" Galaxy Cluster Catalog
• The Red-Sequence Luminosity Function in Galaxy Clusters since z~1
• The VIRMOS deep imaging survey IV: Near-infrared observations
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: The clustering of galaxy groups
• Rigorous luminosity function determination in presence of a background: theory and application to two intermediate redshift clusters
• The rest-frame $K$-band luminosity function of galaxies in clusters to $z=1.3$
• The near-infrared luminosity function of cluster galaxies beyond redshift one
• Do clusters contain a large population of dwarf galaxies?
• ChaMP Serendipitous Galaxy Cluster Survey
• Tracking Down a Critical Halo Mass for Killing Galaxies through the Growth of the Red-Sequence
• A Brighter Past: Galaxy Luminosity Function At High Redshifts
• A Deficit of Faint Red Galaxies in the Possible Large-Scale Structures around the RDCS J1252.9-2927 Cluster at z=1.24
• The K band galaxy luminosity functions of three massive high redshift clusters of galaxies
• Ks-band luminosity function of the z=1.237 cluster of galaxies RDCS J1252.9-2927
• The Ks-band Luminosity and Stellar Mass Functions of Galaxies in z~1 Clusters
• On estimating redshift and luminosity distributions in photometric redshift surveys
• Peculiar Velocities and the Mean Density Parameter

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Properties of satellite galaxies in the SDSS photometric survey: luminosities, colours and projected number density profiles
• A study on the multicolour evolution of Red Sequence galaxy populations: insights from hydrodynamical simulations and semi-analytical models