V- and R-band galaxy luminosity functions and low surface brightness galaxies in the Century Survey

We use 64 deg(2) of deep V and R CCD images to measure the local V- and R-b and luminosity functions of galaxies. The V-o < 16.7 and R-o < 16.2 redshif t samples contain 1255 and 1251 galaxies and are 98.1% and 98.2% complete, respectively. We apply k-corrections before the magnitude selection so that the completeness is to the same depth for all spectral types. The V and R faint-end slopes are surprisingly identical : alpha = -1.07 +/- 0.09. Repre sentative Schechter function parameters for H-o = 100 are : M-R* = -20.88 /- 0.09, phi (R)* = 0.016 +/- 0.003 Mpc(-3) and M-V* = -20.23 +/- 0.09, phi (V)* = 0.020 +/- 0.003 Mpc(-3). The V and R local luminosity densities, j( R) = (1.9 +/- 0.6) x 10(8) L-. and j(v) = (2.2 +/- 0.7) x 10(8) L-., are in essential agreement with the recent 2 Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey determinations. All low surface brightness (LS B) galaxies fall in the large-scale structure delineated by high surface br ightness galaxies. The properties and surface number density of our LSB gal axies are consistent with the LSB galaxy catalog of O'Neil, Bothun & Cornel l, suggesting that our samples are complete for LSB galaxies to the magnitu de limits. We measure colors, surface brightnesses, and luminosities for ou r samples, and find strong correlations among these galaxy properties. The color-surface brightness relation is (V-R)(o) = (-0.11 +/- 0.05)mu (R), (o) + (2.6 +/- 0.9).