Luminosity function models#
This section introduces the luminosity function models exposed by
lfkit.LuminosityFunction. These models describe the abundance of
galaxies as a function of magnitude, usually written as \(\Phi(M)\).
The examples focus on constructing, evaluating, visualizing, and comparing luminosity function models. Magnitude integrals, completeness calculations, apparent magnitude limits, redshift-density weighting, and conditional luminosity functions are covered on separate pages.
The API is centered on lfkit.LuminosityFunction. A luminosity function
object stores the chosen model and evaluates it through
lfkit.LuminosityFunction.phi().
The number-density units follow the normalization supplied to the luminosity
function. For example, if phi_star is supplied in
\({\rm Mpc}^{-3}\,{\rm mag}^{-1}\), then \(\Phi(M)\) has units of
\({\rm Mpc}^{-3}\,{\rm mag}^{-1}\).