Hunting Faint Dwarf Galaxies in the Field Using Integrated Light Surveys

Abstract

We discuss the approach of searching low mass dwarf galaxies, $\lesssim 10^6{\text{ M}}_{\odot }$, in the general field, using integrated light surveys. By exploring the limiting surface brightness-spatial resolution (${\mu }_{\text{eff,lim}}-\theta$) parameter space, we suggest that faint field dwarfs in the Local Volume, between $3$ and $10\text{ Mpc}$, are expected to be detected effectively and in large numbers using integrated light photometric surveys, complementary to the classical star counts method. We use a sample of Local Group dwarf galaxies to construct relations between their photometric and structural parameters, ${\text{M}}_{\ast }$-${\mu }_{\text{eff,V}}$ and ${\text{M}}_{\ast }$-${\text{R}}_{\text{eff}}$. We use these relations, along with assumed functional forms for the halo mass function and the stellar mass-halo mass relation, to calculate the lowest detectable stellar masses in the Local Volume and the expected number of galaxies as a function of the limiting surface brightness and spatial resolution. The number of detected galaxies depends mostly on the limiting surface brightness for distances $>3\text{ Mpc}$ while spatial resolution starts to play a role at distances $>8\text{ Mpc}$. Surveys with ${\mu }_{\text{eff,lim}}\sim 30{\text{ mag arcsec}}^{-2}$ should be able to detect galaxies with stellar masses down to $\sim 10^4{\text{ M}}_{\odot }$ in the Local Volume. Depending on the assumed stellar mass-halo mass relation, the expected number of galaxies between $3$ and $10\text{ Mpc}$ is $0.04-0.35{\text{ deg}}^{-2}$, assuming a limiting surface brightness of $\sim 29-30{\text{ mag arcsec}}^{-2}$ and a spatial resolution $<4^{\prime \prime }$. We currently look for field dwarf galaxies by performing a blank wide-field survey with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, optimized for the detection of ultra-low surface brightness structures.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ApJ. 11 pages, 9 figures. Added an appendix in the revised version, repeating the calculation presented in Section 3 for a younger stellar population

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