TY - JOUR
T1 - A catalog of bulge+disk decompositions and updated photometry for 1.12 million galaxies in the Sloan digital sky survey
AU - Simard, Luc
AU - Trevor Mendel, J.
AU - Patton, David R.
AU - Ellison, Sara L.
AU - McConnachie, Alan W.
PY - 2011/9
Y1 - 2011/9
N2 - We perform two-dimensional, point-spread-function-convolved, bulge+disk decompositions in the g and r bandpasses on a sample of 1,123,718 galaxies from the Legacy area of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Seven. Four different decomposition procedures are investigated which make improvements to sky background determinations and object deblending over the standard SDSS procedures that lead to more robust structural parameters and integrated galaxy magnitudes and colors, especially in crowded environments. We use a set of science-based quality assurance metrics, namely, the disk luminosity-size relation, the galaxy color-magnitude diagram, and the galaxy central (fiber) colors to show the robustness of our structural parameters. The best procedure utilizes simultaneous, two-bandpass decompositions. Bulge and disk photometric errors remain below 0.1mag down to bulge and disk magnitudes of g ≃ 19 and r ≃ 18.5. We also use and compare three different galaxy fitting models: a pure Sérsic model, an nb = 4 bulge + disk model, and a Sérsic (free nb ) bulge + disk model. The most appropriate model for a given galaxy is determined by the F-test probability. All three catalogs of measured structural parameters, rest-frame magnitudes, and colors are publicly released here. These catalogs should provide an extensive comparison set for a wide range of observational and theoretical studies of galaxies.
AB - We perform two-dimensional, point-spread-function-convolved, bulge+disk decompositions in the g and r bandpasses on a sample of 1,123,718 galaxies from the Legacy area of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Seven. Four different decomposition procedures are investigated which make improvements to sky background determinations and object deblending over the standard SDSS procedures that lead to more robust structural parameters and integrated galaxy magnitudes and colors, especially in crowded environments. We use a set of science-based quality assurance metrics, namely, the disk luminosity-size relation, the galaxy color-magnitude diagram, and the galaxy central (fiber) colors to show the robustness of our structural parameters. The best procedure utilizes simultaneous, two-bandpass decompositions. Bulge and disk photometric errors remain below 0.1mag down to bulge and disk magnitudes of g ≃ 19 and r ≃ 18.5. We also use and compare three different galaxy fitting models: a pure Sérsic model, an nb = 4 bulge + disk model, and a Sérsic (free nb ) bulge + disk model. The most appropriate model for a given galaxy is determined by the F-test probability. All three catalogs of measured structural parameters, rest-frame magnitudes, and colors are publicly released here. These catalogs should provide an extensive comparison set for a wide range of observational and theoretical studies of galaxies.
KW - galaxies: evolution
KW - galaxies: fundamental parameters
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80053242417&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/0067-0049/196/1/11
DO - 10.1088/0067-0049/196/1/11
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80053242417
SN - 0067-0049
VL - 196
JO - Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series
JF - Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series
IS - 1
M1 - 11
ER -