1201.5571 (Alvaro S. Iribarrem et al.)

Relativistic Cosmology Number Densities and the Luminosity Function    [PDF]

Alvaro S. Iribarrem, Amanda R. Lopes, Marcelo B. Ribeiro, William R. Stoeger

This paper studies the connection between the relativistic number density of
galaxies down the past light cone in a Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker
spacetime with non-vanishing cosmological constant and the galaxy luminosity
function (LF) data. It extends the redshift range of previous results presented
in Albani et al. (2007, arXiv:astro-ph/0611032) where the galaxy distribution
was studied out to z=1. Observational inhomogeneities were detected at this
range. This research also searches for LF evolution in the context of the
framework advanced by Ribeiro and Stoeger (2003, arXiv:astro-ph/0304094),
further developing the theory linking relativistic cosmology theory and LF
data. Selection functions are obtained using the Schechter parameters and
redshift parametrization of the galaxy luminosity functions obtained from an
I-band selected dataset of the FORS Deep Field galaxy survey in the redshift
range 0.5Differential number counts, densities and other related observables are
obtained, and then used with the calculated selection functions to study the
empirical radial distribution of the galaxies in a fully relativistic
framework. The redshift range of the dataset used in this work, which is up to
five times larger than the one used in previous studies, shows an increased
relevance of the relativistic effects of expansion when compared to the
evolution of the LF at the higher redshifts. The results also agree with the
preliminary ones presented in Albani et al. (2007, arXiv:astro-ph/0611032),
suggesting a power-law behavior of relativistic densities at high redshifts
when they are defined in terms of the luminosity distance.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.5571