16 research outputs found
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 ,
the frequency distribution of galaxy counts in a volume . 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 . 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 . 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 .
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
The alhambra survey: evolution of galaxy spectral segregation
We study the clustering of galaxies as a function of spectral type and redshift in the range 0.35 <z <1.1 using data from the Advanced Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) survey. The data cover 2.381 deg2 in 7 fields, after applying a detailed angular selection mask, with accurate photometric redshifts down to IAB <24. From this catalog we draw five fixed number density redshift-limited bins. We estimate the clustering evolution for two different spectral populations selected using the ALHAMBRA-based photometric templates: quiescent and star-forming galaxies. For each sample we measure the real-space clustering using the projected correlation function. Our calculations are performed over the range [0.03, 10.0] h-1 Mpc, allowing us to find a steeper trend for Mpc, which is especially clear for star-forming galaxies. Our analysis also shows a clear early differentiation in the clustering properties of both populations: star-forming galaxies show weaker clustering with evolution in the correlation length over the analyzed redshift range, while quiescent galaxies show stronger clustering already at high redshifts and no appreciable evolution. We also perform the bias calculation where similar segregation is found, but now it is among the quiescent galaxies where a growing evolution with redshift is clearer (abrigatted). These findings clearly corroborate the well-known color-density relation, confirming that quiescent galaxies are mainly located in dark matter halos that are more massive than those typically populated by star-forming galaxies.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad y FEDER AYA2010-22111-C03-02 AYA2013-48623-C2-2 AYA2012-39620 AYA2013-40611-P AYA2013-42227-P AYA2013-43188-P AYA2013-48623-C2-1 ESP2013-48274 AYA2014-58861-C3-1Junta de Andalucía TIC114 JA2828 P10-FQM-644
The ALHAMBRA survey: evolution of galaxy spectral segregation
We study the clustering of galaxies as a function of spectral type and
redshift in the range using data from the Advanced Large
Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) survey. The data
cover 2.381 deg in 7 fields, after applying a detailed angular selection
mask, with accurate photometric redshifts [] down to
. From this catalog we draw five fixed number density,
redshift-limited bins. We estimate the clustering evolution for two different
spectral populations selected using the ALHAMBRA-based photometric templates:
quiescent and star-forming galaxies. For each sample, we measure the real-space
clustering using the projected correlation function. Our calculations are
performed over the range Mpc, allowing us to find a
steeper trend for Mpc, which is especially clear for
star-forming galaxies. Our analysis also shows a clear early differentiation in
the clustering properties of both populations: star-forming galaxies show
weaker clustering with evolution in the correlation length over the analysed
redshift range, while quiescent galaxies show stronger clustering already at
high redshifts, and no appreciable evolution. We also perform the bias
calculation where similar segregation is found, but now it is among the
quiescent galaxies where a growing evolution with redshift is clearer. These
findings clearly corroborate the well known colour-density relation, confirming
that quiescent galaxies are mainly located in dark matter halos that are more
massive than those typically populated by star-forming galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted by Ap
The ALHAMBRA survey : Estimation of the clustering signal encoded in the cosmic variance
The relative cosmic variance () is a fundamental source of
uncertainty in pencil-beam surveys and, as a particular case of count-in-cell
statistics, can be used to estimate the bias between galaxies and their
underlying dark-matter distribution. Our goal is to test the significance of
the clustering information encoded in the measured in the ALHAMBRA
survey. We measure the cosmic variance of several galaxy populations selected
with band luminosity at as the intrinsic dispersion in
the number density distribution derived from the 48 ALHAMBRA subfields. We
compare the observational with the cosmic variance of the dark
matter expected from the theory, . This provides an
estimation of the galaxy bias . The galaxy bias from the cosmic variance is
in excellent agreement with the bias estimated by two-point correlation
function analysis in ALHAMBRA. This holds for different redshift bins, for red
and blue subsamples, and for several band luminosity selections. We find
that increases with the band luminosity and the redshift, as expected
from previous work. Moreover, red galaxies have a larger bias than blue
galaxies, with a relative bias of . Our results
demonstrate that the cosmic variance measured in ALHAMBRA is due to the
clustering of galaxies and can be used to characterise the affecting
pencil-beam surveys. In addition, it can also be used to estimate the galaxy
bias from a method independent of correlation functions.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press. 9 pages, 4 figures, 3 table
The ALHAMBRA survey : band luminosity function of quiescent and star-forming galaxies at by PDF analysis
Our goal is to study the evolution of the band luminosity function (LF)
since using ALHAMBRA data. We used the photometric redshift and the
band selection magnitude probability distribution functions (PDFs) of those
ALHAMBRA galaxies with mag to compute the posterior LF. We
statistically studied quiescent and star-forming galaxies using the template
information encoded in the PDFs. The LF covariance matrix in
redshift-magnitude-galaxy type space was computed, including the cosmic
variance. That was estimated from the intrinsic dispersion of the LF
measurements in the 48 ALHAMBRA sub-fields. The uncertainty due to the
photometric redshift prior is also included in our analysis. We modelled the LF
with a redshift-dependent Schechter function affected by the same selection
effects than the data. The measured ALHAMBRA LF at and the
evolving Schechter parameters both for quiescent and star-forming galaxies
agree with previous results in the literature. The estimated redshift evolution
of is and , and of is
and . The measured faint-end slopes are and . We find a significant
population of faint quiescent galaxies, modelled by a second Schechter function
with slope . We find a factor decrease in the
luminosity density of star-forming galaxies, and a factor
increase in the of quiescent ones since , confirming the continuous
build-up of the quiescent population with cosmic time. The contribution of the
faint quiescent population to increases from 3% at to 6% at .
The developed methodology will be applied to future multi-filter surveys such
as J-PAS.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 25 pages, 20
figures, 7 table