The Infrared Luminosity Function of Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

Abstract
An infrared survey of the central 650 arcmin2 of the Coma Cluster is used to determine the H-band luminosity function for the cluster. Redshifts are available for all galaxies in the survey with HH*=11.13 and α=-0.78. These luminosity function parameters are similar to those measured for field galaxies in the infrared, which is surprising considering the very different environmental densities and, presumably, merger histories for field galaxies. For fainter galaxies, we use two independent techniques to correct for field galaxy contamination in the cluster population: the B-R color-magnitude relation and an estimate for the level of background and foreground contamination from the literature. Using either method, we find a steep upturn for galaxies with 14<H<16, with slope α-1.7.
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