The ESO K'-band Galaxy Survey - Galaxy Counts

Abstract

We present K'-band galaxy counts in the magnitude range $13<K^{\prime }<20$, obtained from two independent surveys near the South Galactic Pole, covering an area of $\sim 40arcmi{n}^2$ and $\sim 170arcmi{n}^2$, including $\sim 200$ and $\sim 1000$ objects respectively up to a magnitude limit $K^{\prime }\sim 20.0$ and $K^{\prime }\sim 19.0$. At magnitudes $K>18.5$ we surveyed an area more than 7 times wider that covered by previous K-band surveys. Our counts are quite in good agreement with those in the literature at magnitudes brighter than $K\sim 17$, while are systematically lower at fainter magnitudes. We confirm a change in the slope of the $dlogN/dm$ relation at $K^{\prime }\sim 17$ from 0.57 to 0.35, but do not find the bump shown by other K-band surveys in the magnitude range $16<K<20$. Furthermore 10% of the galaxies brighter than $K^{\prime }\sim 18$ have $B-K^{\prime }<3$. We suggest that these blue objects represent a population of sub-$L^{\ast }$ nearby evolving galaxies.

23 pages, Latex, 11 PostScript figures. To be published in The Astronomical Journal

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