MaNGA catalog, DR15

Our target selection criteria were developed while simultaneously optimizing the size distribution of the MaNGA integral field units (IFUs), the IFU allocation strategy, and the target density to produce a survey defined in terms of maximizing signal-to-noise ratio, spatial resolution, and sample size.

Our selection strategy makes use of redshift limits that only depend on i-band absolute magnitude (M_i_), or, for a small subset of our sample, M i and color (NUV-i). Such a strategy ensures that all galaxies span the same range in angular size irrespective of luminosity and are therefore covered evenly by the adopted range of IFU sizes. We define three samples: the Primary and Secondary samples are selected to have a flat number density with respect to M_i_ and are targeted to have spectroscopic coverage to 1.5 and 2.5 effective radii (Re), respectively.