THE LUMINOSITY FUNCTION OF THE CFA REDSHIFT SURVEY

We use the CfA Redshift Survey of galaxies with m(z) less-than-or-equal-to 15.5 to calculate the galaxy luminosity function over the range -13 less-than-or-equal-to M(Z) less-than-or-equal-to -22. The sample includes 9063 galaxies distributed over 2.1 sr. For galaxies with velocities cz greater-than-or-equal-to 2500 km s-1. where the effects of peculiar velocities are small, the luminosity function is well represented by a Schechter function with parameters phi* = 0.04 +/- 0.01 Mpc-3, M* = -18.8 +/- 0.3, and alpha = -1.0 +/- 0.2. When we include all galaxies with cz greater-than-or-equal-to 500 km s-1, the number of galaxies in the range -16 less-than-or-equal-to M(Z) less-than-or-equal-to - 13 exceeds the extrapolation of the Schechter function by a factor of 3.1 +/-0.5. This faint-end excess is not caused by the local peculiar velocity field but may be partially explained by small scale errors in the Zwicky magnitudes. Even with a scale error as large as 0.2 mag mag-1, which is unlikely, the excess is still a factor of 1.8 +/- 0.3. If real, this excess affects the interpretation of deep counts of field galaxies.