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B. D. Simmons, C. M. Urry (Yale University), S. Ravindranath, H. Ferguson, N. Grogin, A. M. Koekemoer, L. Moustakas (STScI), GOODS Team
Two-dimensional morphological analysis of large samples of galaxies can give us a great deal of information about the way galaxies form and evolve. In order to understand the results, however, we must understand the strengths and limitations of our analysis procedures. We have performed extensive simulations to test the robustness of the two-dimensional fitting algorithm GALFIT on the GOODS-ACS data. We simulate more than 3,000 galaxies, both inactive "normal" galaxies and AGN host galaxies. The range of galaxy parameters occupied by our simulations includes galaxies with light profiles that are pure exponential disk and pure deVaucouleur bulge, as well as multi-component galaxies that have a wide range of bulge-to-disk ratios. The AGN host galaxies include central point sources with a large range of contrast ratios compared to the extended host galaxies. We have tested the ability of GALFIT to recover the simulated parameters of these galaxies at redshifts out to z = 1.5. The results of these simulations enable us to better understand and constrain the results of our fitting of real galaxies in the GOODS fields.
This work is supported by NASA.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.