A wide-field K-band survey. The luminosity function of galaxies

Abstract

We present the first determination of the near-infrared K-band luminosity function of field galaxies from a wide field K-selected redshift survey. The best fit Schechter function parameters are $M^* = -23.12 +5log(h)$, $α= -0.91$, and $ϕ^* = 1.66 \times 10^{-2} h^3 ~ Mpc^{-3}$. We estimate that systematics are no more than 0.1 mag in $M^*$ and 0.1 in $α$, which is comparable to the statistical errors on this measurement.