Bibcode
Pohlen, M.; Trujillo, I.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 454, Issue 3, August II 2006, pp.759-772
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8
2006
Journal
Citations
343
Refereed citations
296
Description
Using imaging data from the SDSS survey, we present the g' and r' radial
stellar light distribution of a complete sample of ~90 face-on to
intermediate inclined, nearby, late-type (Sb-Sdm) spiral galaxies. The
surface brightness profiles are reliable (1 σ uncertainty less
than 0.2 mag) down to μ˜27 mag/''. Only ~10% of all galaxies
have a normal/standard purely exponential disk down to our noise limit.
The surface brightness distribution of the rest of the galaxies is
better described as a broken exponential. About 60% of the galaxies have
a break in the exponential profile between ˜ 1.5-4.5 times the
scalelength followed by a downbending, steeper outer region. Another
~30% shows also a clear break between ˜ 4.0-6.0 times the
scalelength but followed by an upbending, shallower outer region. A few
galaxies have even a more complex surface brightness distribution. The
shape of the profiles correlates with Hubble type. Downbending breaks
are more frequent in later Hubble types while the fraction of upbending
breaks rises towards earlier types. No clear relation is found between
the environment, as characterised by the number of neighbours, and the
shape of the profiles of the galaxies.