The K correction

Abstract

The K correction "corrects" for the fact that sources observed at different redshifts are, in general, compared with standards or each other at different rest-frame wavelengths. It is part of the relation between the emitted- or rest-frame absolute magnitude of a source in one broad photometric bandpass to the observed-frame apparent magnitude of the same source in another broad bandpass. This short pedagogical paper provides definitions of and equations for the K correction.

This short and purely pedagogical text is not submitted anywhere but here. Errors reported to the authors will be rewarded with gratitude and acknowledgements

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Supernova Rates and Luminosity Functions from ASAS-SN I: 2014--2017 Type Ia SNe and Their Subtypes
• Multiwavelength observations of the extraordinary accretion event AT2021lwx
• Multi-messenger Gravitational Lensing
• Radio-loud fraction of z>6 quasars
• Less Wound and More Asymmetric: JWST Confirms the Evolution of Spiral Structure in Galaxies at $z\lesssim 3$
• Can Early Dark Energy be Probed by the High-Redshift Galaxy Abundance?
• Learning the Universe: Cosmological and Astrophysical Parameter Inference with Galaxy Luminosity Functions and Colours
• Characterising EP241107a: Multiwavelength Observations of an Einstein Probe-detected Fast X-ray Transient
• Signatures of Exploding Supermassive PopIII Stars at High Redshift in JWST, EUCLID and Roman Space Telescope
• Measurement of the Hubble constant using the Dark Energy Survey Year 6 Gold galaxy catalogue and the fourth Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalogue