18,869 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]
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
Environmental Dependence of Cold Dark Matter Halo Formation
We use a high-resolution -body simulation to study how the formation of
cold dark matter (CDM) halos is affected by their environments, and how such
environmental effects produce the age-dependence of halo clustering observed in
recent -body simulations. We estimate, for each halo selected at redshift
, an `initial' mass defined to be the mass enclosed by the
largest sphere which contains the initial barycenter of the halo particles and
within which the mean linear density is equal to the critical value for
spherical collapse at . For halos of a given final mass, , the
ratio has large scatter, and the scatter is larger for
halos of lower final masses. Halos that form earlier on average have larger
, and so correspond to higher peaks in the initial density
field than their final masses imply. Old halos are more strongly clustered than
younger ones of the same mass because their initial masses are larger. The
age-dependence of clustering for low-mass halos is entirely due to the
difference in the initial/final mass ratio. Low-mass old halos are almost
always located in the vicinity of big structures, and their old ages are
largely due to the fact that their mass accretions are suppressed by the hot
environments produced by the tidal fields of the larger structure. The
age-dependence of clustering is weaker for more massive halos because the
heating by large-scale tidal fields is less important.Comment: 18 pages,19 figures, accepted by MNRA
Low Redshift QSO Lyman alpha Absorption Line Systems Associated with Galaxies
In this paper we present Monte-Carlo simulations of Lyman alpha absorption
systems which originate in galactic haloes, galaxy discs and dark matter (DM)
satellites around big central haloes. It is found that for strong Lyman alpha
absorption lines galactic haloes and satellites can explain ~20% and 40% of the
line number density of QSO absorption line key project respectively. If big
galaxies indeed possess such large numbers of DM satellites and they possess
gas, these satellites may play an important role for strong Lyman alpha lines.
However the predicted number density of Lyman-limit systems by satellites is
\~0.1 (per unit redshift), which is four times smaller than that by halo
clouds. Including galactic haloes, satellites and HI discs of spirals, the
predicted number density of strong lines can be as much as 60% of the HST
result. The models can also predict all of the observed Lyman-limit systems.
The average covering factor within 250 kpc/h is estimated to be ~0.36. And the
effective absorption radius of a galaxy is estimated to be ~150 kpc/h. The
models predict W_r propto rho^{-0.5} L_B^{0.15} (1+z)^{-0.5}. We study the
selection effects of selection criteria similar to the imaging and
spectroscopic surveys. We simulate mock observations through known QSO
lines-of-sight and find that selection effects can statistically tighten the
dependence of line width on projected distance. (abridged)Comment: 23 pages, 9 postscript figures; references updated, minor change in
section
Formation time distribution of dark matter haloes: theories versus N-body simulations
This paper uses numerical simulations to test the formation time distribution
of dark matter haloes predicted by the analytic excursion set approaches. The
formation time distribution is closely linked to the conditional mass function
and this test is therefore an indirect probe of this distribution. The
excursion set models tested are the extended Press-Schechter (EPS) model, the
ellipsoidal collapse (EC) model, and the non-spherical collapse boundary (NCB)
model. Three sets of simulations (6 realizations) have been used to investigate
the halo formation time distribution for halo masses ranging from dwarf-galaxy
like haloes (, where is the characteristic non-linear mass
scale) to massive haloes of . None of the models can match the
simulation results at both high and low redshift. In particular, dark matter
haloes formed generally earlier in our simulations than predicted by the EPS
model. This discrepancy might help explain why semi-analytic models of galaxy
formation, based on EPS merger trees, under-predict the number of high redshift
galaxies compared with recent observations.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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
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