The selection function of the RAVE survey

Jennifer Wojno, Georges Kordopatis, Tilmann Piffl, James Binney, Matthias Steinmetz, Gal Matijevic, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Sanjib Sharma, Paul McMillan, Fred Watson, Warren Reid, Andrea Kunder, Harry Enke, Eva K. Grebel, George Seabroke, Rosemary F. G. Wyse, Tomaz Zwitter, Olivier Bienayme, Kenneth C. Freeman, Brad K. GibsonGerry Gilmore, Amina Helmi, Ulisse Munari, Julio F. Navarro, Quentin A. Parker, Arnaud Siebert

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We characterize the selection function of RAVE using 2MASS as our underlying population, which we assume represents all stars which could have potentially been observed. We evaluate the completeness fraction as a function of position, magnitude, and color in two ways: first, on a field- by-field basis, and second, in equal-size areas on the sky. Then, we consider the effect of the RAVE stellar parameter pipeline on the final resulting catalogue, which in principle limits the parameter space over which our selection function is valid. Our final selection function is the product of the completeness fraction and the selection function of the pipeline. We then test if the application of the selection function introduces biases in the derived parameters. To do this, we compare a parent mock catalogue generated using Galaxia with a mock-RAVE catalogue where the selection function of RAVE has been applied. We conclude that for stars brighter than I = 12, between 4000K < TEFF < 8000K and 0:5 < log g < 5:0, RAVE is kinematically and chemically unbiased with respect to expectations from Galaxia.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3368-3380
Number of pages13
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume468
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • galactic dynamics
  • galaxies
  • kinematics
  • surveys

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