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F. Hoyle (Widener), M. S. Vogeley, R. R. Rojas (Drexel)
We present results on a population of galaxies that lie in the most underdense regions of the universe, regions with less than 40% of the average density of the Universe. We call these galaxies void galaxies. We compare the properties of these galaxies to galaxies in higher density regions of the Universe and we find that void galaxies are blue, are disk-like and have high specific star formation rates as compared to galaxies at higher density. However, when we compare void galaxies to galaxies in higher density environments of the same morphology, we still find that void galaxies are bluer and have higher specific star formation rates, suggesting that environment is impacting the properties of the galaxies. We also present results on the luminosity function of void galaxies. The faint end slope of the void galaxy luminosity function has a similar slope to galaxies at higher density, indicating that the voids are not filled with small, faint galaxies. Finally, we indicate where future observations and improvements will shed more light on the properties of these galaxies in underdense environments.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #2
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.