NYU Value-Added Galaxy Catalog

K-corrections

We include K-corrections for each object; if there is no measured redshift, zero redshift is assumed, and the K-correction value should be ignored. The files are in the $VAGC_REDUX/kcorrect subdirectory with the naming convention:

kcorrect.[collision_type].[flux_type].z[band_shift].fits
where:
  1. collision_type: What is done with redshifts that are not obtained due to fiber collisions. Options are
  2. flux_type: Which flux is used. Possibilities are:
  3. band_shift: Blue-shift of band-passes that K-corrections correct to.

The K-corrections are performed using the kcorrect product version v4_1_4.

Note that the AB magnitudes referred to here differ from the pipeline magnitudes output by the SDSS pipelines, as described at the kcorrect page (look under "A Note on the Absolute Calibration of SDSS Magnitudes").

The FITS file contains 5 columns:

Please take the metallicities and specific star-formation rates with a grain of salt, as explained in the kcorrect paper.

Maggies are the ratio of the source to the AB standard source in each band. To relate these quantities to magnitudes, an object with total flux f in nMgy has magnitude

m = − 2.5 log 10 f   .

Note that in DR4 and previous, the units in this file were in nMgy (nano-maggies), and the K-corrections were calculated with version v3_4.

The K-corrections are defined such that the following formula holds:

m = M + 5 log 10 [DL/10 pc] +K  .

The absolute magnitudes in the file use a distance modulus assuming H_0 = 100 km/s/Mpc, a matter density of 0.3, and a cosmological constant of 0.7.

NYU Value-Added Galaxy Catalog