K‐band luminosity–environment relation in three different galaxy samples of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III

The aim of this work is to examine the environmental dependence of K-band luminosity in the Main, Low Redshift (LOWZ), and Constant Mass (CMASS) galaxy samples of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 10 (SDSS DR10). Overall, the environmental dependence of K-band luminosity is very mild. In two volume-limited Main samples with the luminosity −20.5 ≤ Mr ≤ −18.5 and −22.5 ≤ Mr ≤ −20.5, respectively, we find that the environmental dependence of K-band luminosity in the luminous volume-limited Main galaxy sample still can be observed, but this dependence in the faint volume-limited Main galaxy sample is very weak. Considering the disadvantages of the use of volume-limited samples, we apply the apparent magnitude-limited Main galaxy sample, divide the Main galaxy sample of the SDSS DR10 into subsamples with a redshift binning size of Δz=0.01, and then analyze the environmental dependence of K-band luminosity of subsamples in each redshift bin. Such a method also is used in the LOWZ and CMASS galaxy samples. K-band luminosity of the Main galaxies shows substantial correlation with the local environment in many redshift bins. In the LOWZ galaxy sample, K-band luminosity of galaxies shows substantial correlation with the local environment only in the redshift region 0.16 ≤ z ≤ 0.21, while K-band luminosity of CMASS galaxy sample is only weakly correlated with the local environment. Statistical results also show that in the apparent magnitude-limited main galaxy sample and the LOWZ galaxy sample, environmental dependence of K-band luminosity becomes weak with increasing redshift.