K-Corrections and Filter Transformations in the Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-Infrared

Template fits to observed galaxy fluxes allow calculation of K-correctionsand conversions among observations of galaxies at various wavelengths. Wepresent a method for creating model-based template sets given a set ofheterogeneous photometric and spectroscopic galaxy data. Our technique,non-negative matrix factorization, is akin to principle component analysis(PCA), except that it is constrained to produce nonnegative templates, it canuse a basis set of models (rather than the delta function basis of PCA), and itnaturally handles uncertainties, missing data, and heterogeneous data(including broad-band fluxes at various redshifts). The particularimplementation we present here is suitable for ultraviolet, optical, andnear-infrared observations in the redshift range 0 < z < 1.5. Since we base ourtemplates on stellar population synthesis models, the results are intepretablein terms of approximate stellar masses and star-formation histories. We presenttemplates fit with this method to data from GALEX, Sloan Digital Sky Surveyspectroscopy and photometry, the Two-Micron All Sky Survey, the DeepExtragalactic Evolutionary Probe and the Great Observatories Origins DeepSurvey. In addition, we present software for using such data to estimateK-corrections and stellar masses.