# 1 Importance of Near-IR selected nearby galaxy samples

## 1 Importance of Near-IR selected nearby galaxy samples

The Near-IR (NIR) wavebands are considered to provide galaxy catalogs that optimally trace the distribution of matter in the Universe. Indeed, cosmological studies have all been based upon optical (e.g., ) or far-IR (e.g., ) surveys, and the optical wavebands are severely affected by extinction from interstellar dust, while both optical and far-IR wavebands tend to pick up galaxies undergoing recent starbursts. For this reason, the European DENIS $`IJK`$ survey of the southern hemisphere  and the American 2MASS $`JHK`$ survey of the entire sky  have important cosmological implications . In essence, all the cosmological analyses of the distribution of matter in the local Universe, performed in the optical or the far-IR, need to be redone in the NIR.

## 2 DENIS galaxy extraction

The current DENIS galaxy pipeline is based upon fairly standard procedures, described elsewhere . Star/galaxy separation is performed in the $`I`$ band, even for $`J`$ and $`K`$-selected objects, because the $`I`$-band is the most sensitive (except at $`|b|<3^{}`$) and has the best spatial resolution.

Excellent star/galaxy separation is crucial, because, at the fairly bright magnitude limits of DENIS, stars vastly outnumber galaxies, and also because the point spread function (PSF) of the DENIS images varies in space and in time. We have studied various star/galaxy separation algorithms, by comparing their output to visual classification of 329 galaxy candidates and to the output of the APM  and EDGSC  galaxy catalogs. This led us to abandon neural networks, which were improperly trained for PSF variations in space and time. The ratio of peak intensity to isophotal area (hereafter RATIO) turns out to be perhaps the simple star/galaxy separation algorithm that is the most robust to variations of the PSF .

Figure 1 above shows our star/galaxy separation on a sequence of 180 consecutive DENIS $`I`$-band images at high galactic latitude. A constant RATIO threshold works well for $`I16.5`$, but poorly at fainter magnitudes. A better star/galaxy separation is obtained by computing critical curves for

$$R=\frac{f_g(m)N(x,\overline{x}_g(m),\sigma _g(m))}{f_g(m)N(x,\overline{x}_g(m),\sigma _g(m))+f_s(m)N(x,\overline{x}_s(m),\sigma _s(m))},$$
(1)   
where $`N(x,\mu ,\sigma )`$ is the gaussian of mean $`\mu `$ and standard deviation $`\sigma `$, $`f`$ are the number counts, $`x`$ is our star/galaxy separation statistic, and subscripts ‘$`g`$’ and ‘$`s`$’ refer to galaxies and stars, respectively. We’ve tested the reliability of our two methods, by comparing with visual classifications from DENIS images and with APM and COSMOS classifications, and by checking the very low frequency of very blue or red colors for our galaxies  and we have begun to test the spatial uniformity along the image frames of our extraction.

Comparing our resulting galaxy counts in Figure 2 to the previous published counts, we infer $`>90\%`$ completeness limits of $`I16.5`$, $`J14.8`$, and $`K12.0`$. These yield homogeneous samples of $`\mathrm{900\hspace{0.17em}000}(I)`$, $`\mathrm{500\hspace{0.17em}000}(J)`$, and $`\mathrm{50\hspace{0.17em}000}(K)`$ galaxies over the southern sky. The nine-fold increase of our estimated $`K`$ sample, relative to our previous estimates (e.g., ), is the consequence of the much wider smoothing filter we now use to detect galaxies in the $`K`$ band. Our counts show Euclidean slopes and no lack of bright objects, in contrast with the APM  and EDGSC  counts.

## 3 Spectroscopic followups with 6dF

Simulations  of the duration time of a NIR-selected full redshift survey show that a wide field telescope is necessary to tile the sky efficiently. Based upon these findings, we’ve been able to convince the AAO to robotize its currently highly inefficient FLAIR-II multi-object spectrograph on the UKST, increasing from 92 to 150 its number of fibers. The new instrument, currently under construction, is called 6dF for Six Degree Field. The AAO is suggesting dedicating 100 nights per year during 2001–2003 to obtain roughly $`\mathrm{120\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ redshifts. Our input catalog will consist of a combination of magnitude-limited subcatalogs from DENIS $`IJK`$, 2MASS  $`JHK`$, and hopefully SUPERCOS  $`B`$ and $`R`$.

We are also planning a peculiar velocity survey of roughly $`\mathrm{15\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ galaxies. The sample will be NIR flux-limited, and restricted to distances $`cz<\mathrm{10\hspace{0.17em}000}\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (determined from the redshift survey). We will measure the distances to both early-types and inclined spirals and infer the peculiar velocities by subtracting the Hubble expansion velocity from the radial velocity.

Our main scientific aim is to map the mass density field of the local southern Universe and to infer $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and the primordial density fluctuation spectrum. For the first time, we will provide complete and uniform coverage, multiplying by 10 the current sample of peculiar velocities in the southern hemisphere.