A search for Low Surface Brightness galaxies in the near-infrared - I. Selection of the sample

A sample of about 3800 Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies was selected using the all-sky near-infrared (J, H and Ks-band) 2MASS survey. The selected objects have a mean central surface brightness within a 5 �� radius around their centre fainter than 18 mag arcsec −2 in the Ks band, making them the lowest surface brightness galaxies detected by 2MASS. A description is given of the relevant properties of the 2MASS survey and the LSB galaxy selection procedure, as well as of basic photometric properties of the selected objects. The latter properties are compared to those of other samples of galaxies, of both LSBs and "classical" high surface brightness (HSB) objects, which were selected in the optical. The 2MASS LSBs have a BTc − KT colour which is on average 0.9 mag bluer than that of HSBs from the NGC. The 2MASS sample does not appear to contain a significant population of red objects.