We present a catalog of true edge-on disk galaxies automatically selected from the Seventh Data Release (DR7) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. A visual inspection of the $g$, $r$ and $i$ images of about 15000 galaxies allowed us to split the initial
sample of edge-on galaxy candidates into 4768 (31.8% of the initial sample) genuine edge-on galaxies, 8350 (55.7%) non-edge-ons, and 1865 (12.5%) edge-on galaxies not suitable for simple automatic analysis because these objects show signs of interaction, warps, or nearby bright stars project on it. We added more candidate galaxies from RFGC, EFIGI, RC3, and Galaxy Zoo catalogs found in the SDSS footprints. Our final sample consists of 5747 genuine edge-on galaxies. We estimate the structural parameters of the stellar disks (the stellar disk thickness, radial scale length, and central surface brightness) in the galaxies by analyzing photometric profiles in each of the g, r, and i images. We also perform simplified 3-D modeling of the light distribution in the stellar disks of edge-on galaxies from our sample. Our large sample is intended to be used for studying scaling relations in the stellar disks and bulges and for estimating parameters of the thick disks in different types of galaxies via the image stacking. In this paper we present the sample selection procedure and general description of the sample.
We performed the photometric B, V and R observations of nine disk galaxies that were suspected in having abnormally low total mass-to-light (M/L) ratios for their observed color indices. We use our surface photometry data to analyze the possible reas
ons for the anomalous M/L. We infer that in most cases this is a result of errors in photometry or rotational velocity, however for some galaxies we cannot exclude the real peculiarities of the galactic stellar population. The comparison of the photometric and dynamical mass estimates in the disk shows that the low M/L values for a given color of disks are probably real for a few our galaxies: NGC 4826 (Sab), NGC 5347 (Sab), and NGC 6814 (Sb). The small number of such galaxies suggests that the stellar initial mass function is indeed universal, and that only a small fraction of galaxies may have a non-typical low-mass star depleted initial mass function. Such galaxies require more careful studies for understanding their star formation history.
