The 2.4 μm Galaxy Luminosity Function as Measured Using WISE. III. Measurement Results

Abstract

The Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite surveyed the entire sky multiple times in four infrared wavelengths (3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 mu m). The unprecedented combination of coverage area and depth gives us the opportunity to measure the luminosity function (LF) of galaxies, one of the fundamental quantities in the study of them, at 2.4 mu m to an unparalleled level of formal statistical accuracy in the near-infrared. The big advantage of measuring LFs at wavelengths in the window of approximate to 2-3.5 mu m is that it correlates more closely to the total stellar mass in galaxies than others. In this paper we report on the parameters of the 2.4 mu m LF of galaxies obtained from applying the spectro-luminosity-functional-based methods to datasets from the previous papers in this series using the mean and covariance of 2.4 mu m normalized spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from our previous work. In terms of the single Schechter function parameters evaluated at the present epoch, the combined result is: phi(star) = 5.8 +/- [0.3(stat), 0.4(sys)] x 10(-3) Mpc(-3), L star = 6.4 +/- [0.1(stat), 0.3(sys)] x 10(10) L-2.4 (mu m circle dot) (M star = -21.67 +/- [0.02(stat), 0.05(sys)] AB mag), and alpha = -1.050 +/- [0.004(stat), 0.04(sys)]. The high statistical accuracy comes from combining public redshift surveys with the wide coverage from WISE, and the unevenness in statistical accuracy is a result of our efforts to work around biases of uncertain origin that affect resolved and marginally resolved galaxies. With further refinements, the techniques applied in this work promise to advance the study of the SED of the universe.