CALIFA: a diameter-selected sample for an integral field spectroscopy galaxy survey

Author(s)

C. J. Walcher, L. Wisotzki, S. Bekeraité, B. Husemann, J. Iglesias-Páramo, N. Backsmann, J. Barrera Ballesteros, C. Catalán-Torrecilla, C. Cortijo, A. del Olmo, B. Garcia Lorenzo, J. Falcón-Barroso, L. Jilkova, V. Kalinova, D. Mast, R. A. Marino, J. Méndez-Abreu, A. Pasquali, S. F. Sánchez, S. Trager, S. Zibetti, J. A. L. Aguerri, J. Alves, J. Bland-Hawthorn, A. Boselli, A. Castillo Morales, R. Cid Fernandes, H. Flores, L. Galbany, A. Gallazzi, R. García-Benito, A. Gil de Paz, R. M. González-Delgado, K. Jahnke, B. Jungwiert, C. Kehrig, M. Lyubenova, I. Márquez Perez, J. Masegosa, A. Monreal Ibero, E. Pérez, A. Quirrenbach, F. F. Rosales-Ortega, M. M. Roth, P. Sanchez-Blazquez, K. Spekkens, E. Tundo, G. van de Ven, M. A. W. Verheijen, J. V. Vilchez, B. Ziegler

Abstract

We describe and discuss the selection procedure and statistical properties of the galaxy sample used by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, a public legacy survey of 600 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy. The CALIFA "mother sample" was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 photometric catalogue to include all galaxies with an r-band isophotal major axis between 45′′ and 79.2′′ and with a redshift 0.005 < z < 0.03. The mother sample contains 939 objects, 600 of which will be observed in the course of the CALIFA survey. The selection of targets for observations is based solely on visibility and thus keeps the statistical properties of the mother sample. By comparison with a large set of SDSS galaxies, we find that the CALIFA sample is representative of galaxies over a luminosity range of-19 > M

_r>-23.1 and over a stellar mass range between 10

^9.7and 10

^11.4M

_o. In particular, within these ranges, the diameter selection does not lead to any significant bias against-or in favour of-intrinsically large or small galaxies. Only below luminosities of M

_r=-19 (or stellar masses <10

^9.7M

_o) is there a prevalence of galaxies with larger isophotal sizes, especially of nearly edge-on late-type galaxies, but such galaxies form <10% of the full sample. We estimate volume-corrected distribution functions in luminosities and sizes and show that these are statistically fully compatible with estimates from the full SDSS when accounting for large-scale structure. For full characterization of the sample, we also present a number of value-added quantities determined for the galaxies in the CALIFA sample. These include consistent multi-band photometry based on growth curve analyses; stellar masses; distances and quantities derived from these; morphological classifications; and an overview of available multi-wavelength photometric measurements. We also explore different ways of characterizing the environments of CALIFA galaxies, finding that the sample covers environmental conditions from the field to genuine clusters. We finally consider the expected incidence of active galactic nuclei among CALIFA galaxies given the existing pre-CALIFA data, finding that the final observed CALIFA sample will contain approximately 30 Sey2 galaxies.

Organisation(s)

Department of Astrophysics

External organisation(s)

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de Chile, The University of Sydney, Royal Military College of Canada, INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBPF), Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam, University of St. Andrews, University of Copenhagen, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), European Southern Observatory (Germany), Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán (CAHA), Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, University of La Laguna, Masaryk University, Scientific Software Center, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, University of Groningen, Aix-Marseille Université, Université Paris VII - Paris-Diderot, Czech Academy of Sciences

Journal

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Volume

569

No. of pages

18

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201424198

Publication date

09-2014

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103003 Astronomy

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Space and Planetary Science

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/1edcf811-b05c-47b8-8295-f7a8e46946db