22,731 research outputs found
The time-evolution of bias
We study the evolution of the bias factor b and the mass-galaxy correlation
coefficient r in a simple analytic model for galaxy formation and the
gravitational growth of clustering. The model shows that b and r can be
strongly time-dependent, but tend to approach unity even if galaxy formation
never ends as the gravitational growth of clustering debiases the older
galaxies. The presence of random fluctuations in the sites of galaxy formation
relative to the mass distribution can cause large and rapidly falling bias
values at high redshift.Comment: 4 pages, with 2 figures included. Typos corrected to match published
ApJL version. Color figure and links at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~max/bias.html
or from [email protected]
Structure formation from non-Gaussian initial conditions: multivariate biasing, statistics, and comparison with N-body simulations
We study structure formation in the presence of primordial non-Gaussianity of
the local type with parameters f_NL and g_NL. We show that the distribution of
dark-matter halos is naturally described by a multivariate bias scheme where
the halo overdensity depends not only on the underlying matter density
fluctuation delta, but also on the Gaussian part of the primordial
gravitational potential phi. This corresponds to a non-local bias scheme in
terms of delta only. We derive the coefficients of the bias expansion as a
function of the halo mass by applying the peak-background split to common
parametrizations for the halo mass function in the non-Gaussian scenario. We
then compute the halo power spectrum and halo-matter cross spectrum in the
framework of Eulerian perturbation theory up to third order. Comparing our
results against N-body simulations, we find that our model accurately describes
the numerical data for wavenumbers k < 0.1-0.3 h/Mpc depending on redshift and
halo mass. In our multivariate approach, perturbations in the halo counts trace
phi on large scales and this explains why the halo and matter power spectra
show different asymptotic trends for k -> 0. This strongly scale-dependent bias
originates from terms at leading order in our expansion. This is different from
what happens using the standard univariate local bias where the scale-dependent
terms come from badly behaved higher-order corrections. On the other hand, our
biasing scheme reduces to the usual local bias on smaller scales where |phi| is
typically much smaller than the density perturbations. We finally discuss the
halo bispectrum in the context of multivariate biasing and show that, due to
its strong scale and shape dependence, it is a powerful tool for the detection
of primordial non-Gaussianity from future galaxy surveys.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures. Minor modifications, version accepted by Phys.
Rev.
Accurate determination of the Lagrangian bias for the dark matter halos
We use a new method, the cross power spectrum between the linear density
field and the halo number density field, to measure the Lagrangian bias for
dark matter halos. The method has several important advantages over the
conventional correlation function analysis. By applying this method to a set of
high-resolution simulations of 256^3 particles, we have accurately determined
the Lagrangian bias, over 4 magnitudes in halo mass, for four scale-free models
with the index n=-0.5, -1.0, -1.5 and -2.0 and three typical CDM models. Our
result for massive halos with ( is a characteristic non-linear
mass) is in very good agreement with the analytical formula of Mo & White for
the Lagrangian bias, but the analytical formula significantly underestimates
the Lagrangian clustering for the less massive halos $M < M_*. Our simulation
result however can be satisfactorily described, with an accuracy better than
15%, by the fitting formula of Jing for Eulerian bias under the assumption that
the Lagrangian clustering and the Eulerian clustering are related with a linear
mapping. It implies that it is the failure of the Press-Schechter theories for
describing the formation of small halos that leads to the inaccuracy of the Mo
& White formula for the Eulerian bias. The non-linear mapping between the
Lagrangian clustering and the Eulerian clustering, which was speculated as
another possible cause for the inaccuracy of the Mo & White formula, must at
most have a second-order effect. Our result indicates that the halo formation
model adopted by the Press-Schechter theories must be improved.Comment: Minor changes; accepted for publication in ApJ (Letters) ; 11 pages
with 2 figures include
Observational evidence for stochastic biasing
We show that the galaxy density in the Las Campanas Redshift Survey (LCRS)
cannot be perfectly correlated with the underlying mass distribution since
various galaxy subpopulations are not perfectly correlated with each other,
even taking shot noise into account. This rules out the hypothesis of simple
linear biasing, and suggests that the recently proposed stochastic biasing
framework is necessary for modeling actual data.Comment: 4 pages, with 2 figures included. Minor revisions to match accepted
ApJL version. Links and color fig at
http://www.sns.ias.edu/~max/r_frames.html or from [email protected]
The Structure and Clustering of Lyman Break Galaxies
The number density and clustering properties of Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs)
are consistent with them being the central galaxies of the most massive dark
halos present at z~3. This conclusion holds in all currently popular
hierarchical models for structure formation, and is almost independent of the
global cosmological parameters. We examine whether the sizes, luminosities,
kinematics and star-formation rates of LBGs are also consistent with this
identification. Simple formation models tuned to give good fits to low redshift
galaxies can predict the distribution of these quantities in the LBG
population. The LBGs should be small (with typical half-light radii of 0.6-2
kpc/h), should inhabit haloes of moderately high circular velocity (180-290
km/s) but have low stellar velocity dispersions (70-120 km/s) and should have
substantial star formation rates (15-100 Msun/yr). The numbers here refer to
the predicted median values in the LBG sample of Adelberger et al. (1998); the
first assumes an Omega=1 universe and the second a flat universe with
Omega=0.3. For either cosmology these predictions are consistent with the
current (rather limited) observational data. Following the work of Kennicutt
(1998) we assume stars to form more rapidly in gas of higher surface density.
This predicts that LBG samples should preferentially contain objects with low
angular momentum, and so small size, for their mass. In contrast, samples of
damped Lyman alpha systems (DLSs), should be biased towards objects with large
angular momentum. Bright LBGs and DLSs may therefore form distinct populations,
with very different sizes and star formation rates, LBGs being smaller and more
metal-rich than DLSs of similar mass and redshift.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, MNRAS submitte
Observational Evidence for an Age Dependence of Halo Bias
We study the dependence of the cross-correlation between galaxies and galaxy
groups on group properties. Confirming previous results, we find that the
correlation strength is stronger for more massive groups, in good agreement
with the expected mass dependence of halo bias. We also find, however, that for
groups of the same mass, the correlation strength depends on the star formation
rate (SFR) of the central galaxy: at fixed mass, the bias of galaxy groups
decreases as the SFR of the central galaxy increases. We discuss these findings
in light of the recent findings by Gao et al (2005) that halo bias depends on
halo formation time, in that halos that assemble earlier are more strongly
biased. We also discuss the implication for galaxy formation, and address a
possible link to galaxy conformity, the observed correlation between the
properties of satellite galaxies and those of their central galaxy.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. Figures
3 and 4 replaced. The bias dependence on the central galaxy luminosity is
omitted due to its sensitivity to the mass mode
An Analytical Approach to Inhomogeneous Structure Formation
We develop an analytical formalism that is suitable for studying
inhomogeneous structure formation, by studying the joint statistics of dark
matter halos forming at two points. Extending the Bond et al. (1991) derivation
of the mass function of virialized halos, based on excursion sets, we derive an
approximate analytical expression for the ``bivariate'' mass function of halos
forming at two redshifts and separated by a fixed comoving Lagrangian distance.
Our approach also leads to a self-consistent expression for the nonlinear
biasing and correlation function of halos, generalizing a number of previous
results including those by Kaiser (1984) and Mo & White (1996). We compare our
approximate solutions to exact numerical results within the excursion-set
framework and find them to be consistent to within 2% over a wide range of
parameters. Our formalism can be used to study various feedback effects during
galaxy formation analytically, as well as to simply construct observable
quantities dependent on the spatial distribution of objects. A code that
implements our method is publicly available at
http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~evan/GeminiComment: 41 Pages, 11 figures, published in ApJ, 571, 585. Reference added,
Figure 2 axis relabele
An excursion set model of the cosmic web: The abundance of sheets, filaments and halos
We discuss an analytic approach for modeling structure formation in sheets,
filaments and knots. This is accomplished by combining models of triaxial
collapse with the excursion set approach: sheets are defined as objects which
have collapsed along only one axis, filaments have collapsed along two axes,
and halos are objects in which triaxial collapse is complete. In the simplest
version of this approach, which we develop here, large scale structure shows a
clear hierarchy of morphologies: the mass in large-scale sheets is partitioned
up among lower mass filaments, which themselves are made-up of still lower mass
halos. Our approach provides analytic estimates of the mass fraction in sheets,
filaments and halos, and its evolution, for any background cosmological model
and any initial fluctuation spectrum. In the currently popular CDM
model, our analysis suggests that more than 99% of the cosmic mass is in
sheets, and 72% in filaments, with mass larger than at the
present time. For halos, this number is only 46%. Our approach also provides
analytic estimates of how halo abundances at any given time correlate with the
morphology of the surrounding large-scale structure, and how halo evolution
correlates with the morphology of large scale structure.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap
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