The Hawaii plus Anglo-Australian Observatory K-band galaxy redshift survey.: I.: The local K-band luminosity function

We present the K-band local luminosity function derived from a sample of 1056 bright (K < 15) K-selected galaxies from the Hawaii+ Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) K-band redshift survey. The Hawaii+ AAO K-band redshift survey covers four equatorial fields with a total area of 8.22 deg(2). We derive both the nonparametric and Schechter luminosity function from our data and determine M*(K) = -23.70 +/- 0.08 + 5 log(10)(h), α = -1.37 +/- 0.10, and φ* 0.013 +/- 0.003 h(3) Mpc(-3) for a universe with Ω(m) = 0.3 and Ω(Λ) = 0.7. We also measure the K-band luminosity function for the early- and later type galaxies from our morphologically classified subsample. It appears that later type galaxies have a fainter M and a steep slope, while early- type galaxies have a much brighter M and a quite at slope in their K-band luminosity functions. This is consistent with what has been found in optical-type dependent luminosity function. The K-band luminosity density derived using our luminosity function is now measured at a similar redshift depth to optical luminosity densities in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey redshift survey. It is 2 times higher than the previous measurement from the shallower 2MASS sample and resolves the previously reported discrepancies between optical and near-infrared luminosity densities.