Clustering of galaxies: evolution, segregation, and baryon acoustic oscillations

In this thesis, we tackle several open problems in the study of large-scale structure through the clustering of galaxies. To this end, we analyse data from some of the latest surveys, and we also develop new statistical techniques needed for this analysis in specific cases. In the first part, we focus on small and intermediate scales, where the relation between galaxy properties and their clustering (known as segregation) is important. The work in this part is driven by the exploitation of data from the ongoing Advanced Large Homogeneous Area Medium-Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) survey, which is perfectly suited to study the evolution of segregation trough cosmic time. We developed a method for the recovery of the real-space clustering from photometric surveys with the characteristics of ALHAMBRA. This method is based on the use of the projected correlation function, and is adapted to data with typical photometric redshift errors Dz < 0.015 (1+z). We tested the method using N-body simulations, and then applied it to the calculation of the correlation function for several samples drawn from the ALHAMBRA survey. We divided our sample in three redshift bins, and selected several galaxy samples in each of them based on B-band luminosity. In the range of scales studied, the correlation function for all samples was well fitted by a power law. We observed as well the effects of evolution, and of luminosity segregation. We also reviewed the basic tools available in the framework of the statistics of marked point processes to study galaxy segregation. We illustrated their application using a galaxy sample drawn from the 2dFGRS, characterised by a spectral classification parameter. We introduced the mark connection function, showing that it gives valuable information when analysing different galaxy populations defined by some set of galaxy characteristics. In the second part, we focus on the study of a large scale feature of the galaxy distribution, the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). We measured the two-point correlation function for several samples drawn from the largest surveys to date, 2dFGRS and SDSS. We obtained a peak corresponding to BAO at the expected scale in all cases, which shows the reliability of the detection of this feature. Finally, we developed a new method for the analysis of the BAO phenomenon. This method makes use of the possibilities of wavelets methods to look for the actual structures in configuration space which are responsible for the BAO. It is also based on the use of two complementary mass tracers, and we illustrated it using a catalogue formed by `Main' and Luminous Red Galaxy samples from SDSS. In this way, we showed how we were able not only to detect BAO in the samples, but also to localise regions giving lower or higher BAO signal. This kind of information is completely lost when using the traditional two-point statistics methods.Peer Reviewe

Joint constraints on galaxy bias and σ8\sigma_8 through the N-pdf of the galaxy number density

We present a full description of the N-probability density function of the galaxy number density fluctuations. This N-pdf is given in terms, on the one hand, of the cold dark matter correlations and, on the other hand, of the galaxy bias parameter. The method relies on the assumption commonly adopted that the dark matter density fluctuations follow a local non-linear transformation of the initial energy density perturbations. The N-pdf of the galaxy number density fluctuations allows for an optimal estimation of the bias parameter (e.g., via maximum-likelihood estimation, or Bayesian inference if there exists any a priori information on the bias parameter), and of those parameters defining the dark matter correlations, in particular its amplitude ($\sigma_8$). It also provides the proper framework to perform model selection between two competitive hypotheses. The parameters estimation capabilities of the N-pdf are proved by SDSS-like simulations (both ideal log-normal simulations and mocks obtained from Las Damas simulations), showing that our estimator is unbiased. We apply our formalism to the 7th release of the SDSS main sample (for a volume-limited subset with absolute magnitudes $M_r \leq -20$). We obtain $\hat{b} = 1.193 \pm 0.074$ and $\hat{\sigma_8} = 0.862 \pm 0.080$, for galaxy number density fluctuations in cells of a size of $30h^{-1}$Mpc. Different model selection criteria show that galaxy biasing is clearly favoured.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. v2: Substantial revision, adding the joint constraints with \sigma_8 and testing with Las Damas mocks. Matches version accepted for publication in JCA

Shell-like structures in our cosmic neighbourhood

Signatures of the processes in the early Universe are imprinted in the cosmic web. Some of them may define shell-like structures characterised by typical scales. We search for shell-like structures in the distribution of nearby rich clusters of galaxies drawn from the SDSS DR8. We calculate the distance distributions between rich clusters of galaxies, and groups and clusters of various richness, look for the maxima in the distance distributions, and select candidates of shell-like structures. We analyse the space distribution of groups and clusters forming shell walls. We find six possible candidates of shell-like structures, in which galaxy clusters have maxima in the distance distribution to other galaxy groups and clusters at the distance of about 120 Mpc/h. The rich galaxy cluster A1795, the central cluster of the Bootes supercluster, has the highest maximum in the distance distribution of other groups and clusters around them at the distance of about 120 Mpc/h among our rich cluster sample, and another maximum at the distance of about 240 Mpc/h. The structures of galaxy systems causing the maxima at 120 Mpc/h form an almost complete shell of galaxy groups, clusters and superclusters. The richest systems in the nearby universe, the Sloan Great Wall, the Corona Borealis supercluster and the Ursa Major supercluster are among them. The probability that we obtain maxima like this from random distributions is lower than 0.001. Our results confirm that shell-like structures can be found in the distribution of nearby galaxies and their systems. The radii of the possible shells are larger than expected for a BAO shell (approximately 109 Mpc/h versus approximately 120 Mpc/h), and they are determined by very rich galaxy clusters and superclusters with high density contrast while BAO shells are barely seen in the galaxy distribution. We discuss possible consequences of these differences.Comment: Comments: 9 pages, 10 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics, in pres

The best fit for the observed galaxy Counts-in-Cell distribution function

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is the first dense redshift survey encompassing a volume large enough to find the best analytic probability density function that fits the galaxy Counts-in-Cells distribution $f_V(N)$, the frequency distribution of galaxy counts in a volume $V$. Different analytic functions have been previously proposed that can account for some of the observed features of the observed frequency counts, but fail to provide an overall good fit to this important statistical descriptor of the galaxy large-scale distribution. Our goal is to find the probability density function that better fits the observed Counts-in-Cells distribution $f_V(N)$. We have made a systematic study of this function applied to several samples drawn from the SDSS. We show the effective ways to deal with incompleteness of the sample (masked data) in the calculation of $f_V(N)$. We use LasDamas simulations to estimate the errors in the calculation. We test four different distribution functions to find the best fit: the Gravitational Quasi-Equilibrium distribution, the Negative Binomial Distribution, the Log Normal distribution and the Log Normal Distribution including a bias parameter. In the two latter cases, we apply a shot-noise correction to the distributions assuming the local Poisson model. We show that the best fit for the Counts-in-Cells distribution function is provided by the Negative Binomial distribution. In addition, at large scales the Log Normal distribution modified with the inclusion of the bias term also performs a satisfactory fit of the empirical values of $f_V(N)$. Our results demonstrate that the inclusion of a bias term in the Log Normal distribution is necessary to fit the observed galaxy Count-in-Cells distribution function.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Cosmology with the SKA: theoretical prospectives

We briefly review the context of the SKA in the panorama of modern Cosmology. The SKA will undoubtedly be one of the most powerful tools for Cosmology during the first half of the XXIst century. Many of the fundamental questions of modern Cosmology, such as the nature of the dark energy and dark matter that dominate the dynamics of the Universe, will be answered by SKA-driven science. Moreover, SKA will shed light on many aspects of large-scale structure growth and galaxy formation as well as fundamental Physics regarding the early Universe, inflation and tests of General Relativity.The authors acknowledge partial support from the Spanish MINECO through projects AYA2013- 48623-C2-2, AYA2007-68058-C03-01, AYA2010-21766-C03-02, AYA2012-30789 and the Consolider-Ingenio projects CSD2010-00064 (EPI: Exploring the Physics of Inflation) and CSD2009-00064 (MultiDark), and from the Generalitat Valenciana through grants PROMETEOII/2014/060 and PROMETEOII/2014/084. RAL acknowledges the Spanish grant FPA2014-58183-P. CHM acknowledges the support of the Ramón y Cajal fellowship RyC 2011 148062 awarded by the Spanish MICINN and the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant CIG 294183.Peer reviewe

Measuring galaxy segregation using the mark connection function

(abridged) The clustering properties of galaxies belonging to different luminosity ranges or having different morphological types are different. These characteristics or `marks' permit to understand the galaxy catalogs that carry all this information as realizations of marked point processes. Many attempts have been presented to quantify the dependence of the clustering of galaxies on their inner properties. The present paper summarizes methods on spatial marked statistics used in cosmology to disentangle luminosity, colour or morphological segregation and introduces a new one in this context, the mark connection function. The methods used here are the partial correlation functions, including the cross-correlation function, the normalised mark correlation function, the mark variogram and the mark connection function. All these methods are applied to a volume-limited sample drawn from the 2dFGRS, using the spectral type as the mark. We show the virtues of each method to provide information about the clustering properties of each population, the dependence of the clustering on the marks, the similarity of the marks as a function of the pair distances, and the way to characterise the spatial correlation between the marks. We demonstrate by means of these statistics that passive galaxies exhibit stronger spatial correlation than active galaxies at small scales (r <20 Mpc/h). The mark connection function, introduced here, is particularly useful for understanding the spatial correlation between the marks.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Shell-like structures in our cosmic neighbourhood

Context. Signatures of the processes in the early Universe are imprinted in the cosmic web. Some of them may define shell-like structures characterised by typical scales. Examples of such structures are shell-like systems of galaxies, which are interpreted as a signatures of the baryon acoustic oscillations.Aims. We search for shell-like structures in the distribution of nearby rich clusters of galaxies drawn from the SDSS DR8.Methods. We calculated the distance distributions between rich clusters of galaxies and groups and clusters of various richness, searched for the maxima in the distance distributions and selected candidates of shell-like structures. We analysed the space distribution of groups and clusters that form shell walls.Results. We find six possible candidates of shell-like structures, in which galaxy clusters have the maximum in their distance distribution to other galaxy groups and clusters at a distance of about 120-130 h(-1) Mpc. Another, less probable maximum is found at a distance of about 240 h(-1) Mpc. The rich galaxy cluster A1795, which is the central cluster of the Bootes supercluster, has the highest maximum in the distance distribution of all other surrounding groups and clusters in our rich cluster sample. It lies at a distance of about 120 h(-1) Mpc. The structures of galaxy systems that cause this maximum form an almost complete shell of galaxy groups, clusters, and superclusters. The richest systems in the nearby universe, the Sloan Great Wall, the Corona Borealis supercluster, and the UrsaMajor supercluster, are among them. The probability that we obtain maxima like this from random distributions is lower than 0.001.Conclusions. Our results confirm that shell-like structures can be found in the distribution of nearby galaxies and their systems. The radii of the possible shells are larger than expected for a baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) shell (approximate to 109 h(-1) Mpc versus approximate to 120-130 h(-1) Mpc), and they are determined by very rich galaxy clusters and superclusters. In contrast, BAO shells are barely seen in the galaxy distribution. We discuss possible consequences of these differences

The ALHAMBRA survey: Bayesian photometric redshifts with 23 bands for 3 deg2

The Advance Large Homogeneous Area Medium-Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) survey has observed eight different regions of the sky, including sections of the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), DEEP2, European Large-Area Infrared Space Observatory Survey (ELAIS), Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North (GOODS-N), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Groth fields using a new photometric system with 20 optical, contiguous ~300-Å filters plus the JHKs bands. The filter system is designed to optimize the effective photometric redshift depth of the survey, while having enough wavelength resolution for the identification of faint emission lines. The observations, carried out with the Calar Alto 3.5-m telescope using the wide-field optical camera Large Area Imager for Calar Alto (LAICA) and the near-infrared (NIR) instrument Omega-2000, represent a total of ~700 h of on-target science images. Here we present multicolour point-spread function (PSF) corrected photometry and photometric redshifts for ~438 000 galaxies, detected in synthetic F814W images. The catalogues are complete down to a magnitude I~24.5AB and cover an effective area of 2.79 deg2. Photometric zero-points were calibrated using stellar transformation equations and refined internally, using a new technique based on the highly robust photometric redshifts measured for emission-line galaxies. We calculate Bayesian photometric redshifts with the Bayesian Photometric Redshift (BPZ)2.0 code, obtaining a precision of δz/(1+zs)=1 per cent for I<22.5 and δz/(1+zs)=1.4 per cent for 22.5<I<24.5. The global n(z) distribution shows a mean redshift 〈z〉=0.56 for I<22.5 AB and 〈z〉=0.86 for I<24.5 AB. Given its depth and small cosmic variance, ALHAMBRA is a unique data set for galaxy evolution studies

The evolution of Balmer jump selected galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey

We present a new color-selection technique, based on the Bruzual & Charlot models convolved with the bands of the ALHAMBRA survey, and the redshifted position of the Balmer jump to select star-forming galaxies in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.5. These galaxies are dubbed Balmer jump Galaxies BJGs. We apply the iSEDfit Bayesian approach to fit each detailed SED and determine star-formation rate (SFR), stellar mass, age and absolute magnitudes. The mass of the haloes where these samples reside are found via a clustering analysis. Five volume-limited BJG sub-samples with different mean redshifts are found to reside in haloes of median masses $\sim 10^{12.5 \pm 0.2} M_\odot$ slightly increasing toward z=0.5. This increment is similar to numerical simulations results which suggests that we are tracing the evolution of an evolving population of haloes as they grow to reach a mass of $\sim 10^{12.7 \pm 0.1} M_\odot$ at z=0.5. The likely progenitors of our samples at z$\sim$3 are Lyman Break Galaxies, which at z$\sim$2 would evolve into star-forming BzK galaxies, and their descendants in the local Universe are elliptical galaxies.Hence, this allows us to follow the putative evolution of the SFR, stellar mass and age of these galaxies. From z$\sim$1.0 to z$\sim$0.5, the stellar mass of the volume limited BJG samples nearly does not change with redshift, suggesting that major mergers play a minor role on the evolution of these galaxies. The SFR evolution accounts for the small variations of stellar mass, suggesting that star formation and possible minor mergers are the main channels of mass assembly.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to A&A. It includes first referee's comments. Abstract abridged due to arXiv requirement

Evolution of Balmer jump selected galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey

Extragalactic astronomy.-- et al.[Context]: Samples of star-forming galaxies at different redshifts have been traditionally selected via color techniques. The ALHAMBRA survey was designed to perform a uniform cosmic tomography of the Universe, and we here exploit it to trace the evolution of these galaxies. [Aims]: Our objective is to use the homogeneous optical coverage of the ALHAMBRA filter system to select samples of star-forming galaxies at different epochs of the Universe and study their properties. [Methods]: We present a new color-selection technique, based on the models of spectral evolution convolved with the ALHAMBRA bands and the redshifted position of the Balmer jump to select star-forming galaxies in the redshift range 0.5 <z< 1.5. These galaxies are dubbed Balmer-jump Galaxies (BJGs). We applied the iSEDfit Bayesian approach to fit each detailed spectral energy distribution and determined star-formation rate (SFR), stellar mass, age, and absolute magnitudes. The mass of the halos in which these samples reside were found through a clustering analysis. [Results]: Five volume-limited BJG subsamples with different mean redshifts are found to reside in halos of median masses ∼10 M slightly increasing toward z = 0.5. This increment is similar to numerical simulations results, which suggests that we trace the evolution of an evolving population of halos as they grow to reach a mass of ∼10 at z = 0.5. The likely progenitors of our samples at z ∼ 3 are Lyman-break galaxies, which at z ∼ 2 would evolve into star-forming BzK galaxies, and their descendants in the local Universe are galaxies with luminosities of 1-3 L. Hence, this allows us to follow the putative evolution of the SFR, stellar mass, and age of these galaxies. [Conclusions]: From z ∼ 1.0 to z ∼ 0.5, the stellar mass of the volume-limited BJG samples changes almost not at all with redshift, suggesting that major mergers play a minor role in the evolution of these galaxies. The SFR evolution accounts for the small variations of stellar mass, suggesting that star formation and possible minor mergers are the main channels of mass assembly.P.T. and A.M.A. acknowledge support from FONDECYT 3140542 and FONDECYT 3160776, respectively. L.I., A.M.A., P.T., S.G., N.P. acknowledge support from Basal-CATA PFB-06/2007. E.J.A. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grant AYA2013-40611-P. A.F.S., V.J.M. and P.A.M. acknowledge partial financial support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grant AYA2013-48623-C2-2, and from Generalitat Valenciana through project PrometeoII 2014/060. B.A. acknowledges received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 656354.Peer Reviewe