# The Galaxy Luminosity and Selection Functions of the NOG sample

## 1. Introduction

We use the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) sample to reconstruct the galaxy density field in the local universe. This sample is an all-sky, magnitude-limited sample of nearby galaxies (with $`cz<5500`$ km/s), which is nearly complete down to the limiting total corrected blue magnitude B=14 mag and comprises 6392 galaxies, of which 2789 objects are members of galaxy systems (with at least three members). The completeness level of the NOG sample limited to $`|b|>15^{}`$ (5832 galaxies) is estimated to be $``$80%.

The redshift-dependent distances of the field galaxies and galaxy systems have been corrected for non-cosmological motions by means of peculiar velocity field models (Marinoni et al. 1998a). Specifically, we employed two independent models: i) a semi-linear approach which uses a multi-attractor model (with Virgo, Great Attractor, Perseus-Pisces Supercluster and Shapley Concentration) fitting the Mark III peculiar velocity catalog (Willick et al. 1997); ii) a modified version of the optical cluster 3D-dipole reconstruction scheme by Branchini & Plionis (1996).

## 2. The Total Galaxy Luminosity Function

Adopting Turner’s (1979) method we evaluate the total galaxy luminosity function (LF) for for field and grouped galaxies, using their location in real distance space. Since the NOG sample comprises both bright and nearby galaxies, systematic errors in the determination of the LF are likely to minimized.

We find that the galaxy LF is well described by a Schechter function with $`\alpha `$-1.1, a low normalization factor $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$ 0.006 Mpc<sup>-3</sup>, and a particularly bright characteristic magnitude $`M_B^{}`$-20.7 ($`H_0=75km^1Mpc^1`$) (see Marinoni et al. 1998b for details). Our $`M_B^{}`$-value is brighter, on average, by 0.4 mag than previous results, because, referring to total magnitudes corrected for Galactic extinction, internal extinction, and K-dimming, better represent the galaxy light.

The exact values of the Schechter parameters of the LF slightly depend on the adopted velocity field models (see Fig. 1), but peculiar motion effects are of the order of statistical errors; at most, they cause variations of 0.08 in $`\alpha `$ ($`1\sigma `$ error) and 0.2 mag ($`2\sigma `$ error) in $`M_B^{}`$.

The presence of galaxy systems in the NOG sample does not affect significantly the field galaxy LF. Environmental effects on the total LF are proved to be marginal. The LF of the galaxy members of the richest systems tends to show a slightly brighter value of $`M_B^{}`$, which gives some evidence of luminosity segregation with density.

## 3. The Morphological–Type Dependence of the Luminosity Function

We also evaluate the morphological type-specific LFs. The morphological types are available for almost all NOG galaxies.

The LF of E+S0 galaxies does not differ significantly from that of spirals. But the E galaxies clearly decrease in number towards low luminosities (with $`\alpha `$-0.5), whereas the number of late-type spirals and irregulars rise steeply towards the faint end (with $`\alpha `$-2.3 – -2.4). This behaviour hints at an upturn of the total LF in the unexplored faint end (at $`M_B>`$-15). In Fig. 2 we show a comparison between our type–specific LFs with those obtained from the CfA2 (Marzke et al. 1994) and the Stromlo–APM (Loveday et al. 1992; see also Driver, Windhorst & Griffiths 1995) samples.

As regards the morphological type–dependence of the LF, our results better agree with those derived from the CfA2 and SSRS2 (Marzke et al. 1998) samples than with the ones obtained from the Stromlo-APM survey. Moreover, the dependence of the LF on the morphological type appreciably differs from its dependence on the galaxy spectral classification as given by the LCRS (Bromley et al. 1998) and Autofib redshift survey (Heyl et al. 1997).

## 4. Local Galaxy Density and Environmental Effects

Underpredicting the observed galaxy number counts (e.g., Ellis 1997) at bright magnitudes ($`B`$18 mag), where little galaxy evolution is observed for the bulk of the galaxy population, our relatively low local normalization, which can not be biased low by photometric problems or by incompleteness of the sample, suggests that the nearby universe is underdense in galaxies (by a factor $``$1.5).

Although the galaxy LF, as well as the intimately related selection function of the NOG sample, appear to be little sensitive to peculiar motion effects, these effects have a quite large impact on the local galaxy density, especially on the smallest scales.

We are calculating the local galaxy density of each galaxy in terms of the number density of neighbouring galaxies. This is done by smoothing every galaxy with a Gaussian filter (Giuricin et al. 1993; Monaco et al. 1994) and by correcting the incompletion of the sample at large distances through the selection function of the sample. The main goal of this line of research is to use small-scale density parameters to analyze environmental effects on the properties of nearby galaxies.

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