Theoretical models of the halo occupation distribution : separating central and satellite galaxies

The halo occupation distribution (HOD) describes the relation between galaxies and dark matter at the level of individual dark matter halos. The properties of galaxies residing at the centers of halos differ from those of satellite galaxies because of differences in their formation histories. Using a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation and a semianalytic (SA) galaxy formation model, we examine the separate contributions of central and satellite galaxies to the HOD, more specifically to the probability P(N|M) that a halo of virial mass M contains N galaxies of a particular class. In agreement with earlier results for dark matter subhalos, we find that the mean occupation function langNrangM for galaxies above a baryonic mass threshold can be approximated by a step function for central galaxies plus a power law for satellites and that the distribution of satellite numbers is close to Poisson at fixed halo mass. Since the number of central galaxies is always zero or one, the width of P(N|M) is narrower than a Poisson distribution at low N and approaches Poisson at high N. For galaxy samples defined by different baryonic mass thresholds, there is a nearly linear relation between the minimum halo mass Mmin required to host a central galaxy and the mass M1 at which an average halo hosts one satellite, with M1 ≈ 14Mmin (SPH) or M1 ≈ 18Mmin (SA). The stellar population age of central galaxies correlates with halo mass, and this correlation explains much of the age dependence of the galaxy HOD. The mean occupation number of young galaxies exhibits a local minimum at M ~ 10Mmin where halos are too massive to host a young central galaxy but not massive enough to host satellites. Using the SA model, we show that the conditional galaxy mass function at fixed halo mass cannot be described by a Schechter function because central galaxies produce a "bump" at high masses. We suggest parameterizations for the HOD and the conditional luminosity function that can be used to model observed galaxy clustering. Many of our predictions are in good agreement with recent results inferred from clustering in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Distribution function approach to redshift space distortions. Part IV: perturbation theory applied to dark matter

We develop a perturbative approach to redshift space distortions (RSD) using the phase space distribution function approach and apply it to the dark matter redshift space power spectrum and its moments. RSD can be written as a sum over density weighted velocity moments correlators, with the lowest order being density, momentum density and stress energy density. We use standard and extended perturbation theory (PT) to determine their auto and cross correlators, comparing them to N-body simulations. We show which of the terms can be modeled well with the standard PT and which need additional terms that include higher order corrections which cannot be modeled in PT. Most of these additional terms are related to the small scale velocity dispersion effects, the so called finger of god (FoG) effects, which affect some, but not all, of the terms in this expansion, and which can be approximately modeled using a simple physically motivated ansatz such as the halo model. We point out that there are several velocity dispersions that enter into the detailed RSD analysis with very different amplitudes, which can be approximately predicted by the halo model. In contrast to previous models our approach systematically includes all of the terms at a given order in PT and provides a physical interpretation for the small scale dispersion values. We investigate RSD power spectrum as a function of \mu, the cosine of the angle between the Fourier mode and line of sight, focusing on the lowest order powers of \mu and multipole moments which dominate the observable RSD power spectrum. Overall we find considerable success in modeling many, but not all, of the terms in this expansion.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures, published in JCA

The baryonic collapse efficiency of galaxy groups in the RESOLVE and ECO surveys

We examine the z = 0 group-integrated stellar and cold baryonic (stars + cold atomic gas) mass functions (group SMF and CBMF) and the baryonic collapse efficiency (group cold baryonic to dark matter halo mass ratio) using the RESOLVE and ECO survey galaxy group catalogs and a GALFORM semi-analytic model (SAM) mock catalog. The group SMF and CBMF fall off more steeply at high masses and rise with a shallower low-mass slope than the theoretical halo mass function (HMF). The transition occurs at the group-integrated cold baryonic mass Mbary cold ~ 1011 M. The SAM, however, has significantly fewer groups at the transition mass ∼1011 M and a steeper low-mass slope than the data, suggesting that feedback is too weak in low-mass halos and conversely too strong near the transition mass. Using literature prescriptions to include hot halo gas and potential unobservable galaxy gas produces a group BMF with a slope similar to the HMF even below the transition mass. Its normalization is lower by a factor of ∼2, in agreement with estimates of warm-hot gas making up the remaining difference. We compute baryonic collapse efficiency with the halo mass calculated two ways, via halo abundance matching (HAM) and via dynamics (extended all the way to three-galaxy groups using stacking). Using HAM, we find that baryonic collapse efficiencies reach a flat maximum for groups across the halo mass range of Mhalo ~ 1011.4 - 12 M, which we label “nascent groups.” Using dynamics, however, we find greater scatter in baryonic collapse efficiencies, likely indicating variation in group hot-to-cold baryon ratios. Similarly, we see higher scatter in baryonic collapse efficiencies in the SAM when using its true groups and their group halo masses as opposed to friends-of-friends groups and HAM masses

Void galaxies follow a distinct evolutionary path in the environmental context catalog

We measure the environmental dependence, where environment is defined by the distance to the third nearest neighbor, of multiple galaxy properties inside the Environmental COntext (ECO) catalog. We focus primarily on void galaxies, which we define as the 10% of galaxies having the lowest local density. We compare the properties of void and non-void galaxies: baryonic mass, color, fractional stellar mass growth rate (FSMGR), morphology, and gas-to-stellar-mass ratio (estimated from a combination of H I data and photometric gas fractions calibrated with the REsolved Spectroscopy Of a Local VolumE survey). Our void galaxies typically have lower baryonic masses than galaxies in denser environments, and they display the properties expected of a lower mass population: they have more late types, are bluer, have a higher FSMGR, and are more gas-rich. We control for baryonic mass and investigate the extent to which void galaxies are different at fixed mass. Void galaxies are bluer, more gas-rich, and more star-forming at fixed mass than non-void galaxies, which is a possible signature of galaxy assembly bias. Furthermore, we show that these trends persist even at fixed mass and morphology, and we find that voids host a distinct population of early types that are bluer and more star-forming than the typical red and quenched early types. In addition to these empirical observational results, we also present theoretical results from mock catalogs with built-in galaxy assembly bias. We show that a simple matching of galaxy properties to (sub)halo properties, such as mass and age, can recover the observed environmental trends in ECO galaxies

A Search for Correlation of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with IRAS-PSCz and 2MASS-6dF Galaxies

We study the arrival directions of 69 ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) observed at the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) with energies exceeding 55 EeV. We investigate whether the UHECRs exhibit the anisotropy signal expected if the primary particles are protons that originate in galaxies in the local universe, or in sources correlated with these galaxies. We cross-correlate the UHECR arrival directions with the positions of IRAS-PSCz and 2MASS-6dF galaxies taking into account particle energy losses during propagation. This is the first time that the 6dF survey is used in a search for the sources of UHECRs and the first time that the PSCz survey is used with the full 69 PAO events. The observed cross-correlation signal is larger for the PAO UHECRs than for 94% (98%) of realisations from an isotropic distribution when cross-correlated with the PSCz (6dF). On the other hand the observed cross-correlation signal is lower than that expected from 85% of realisations, had the UHECRs originated in galaxies in either survey. The observed cross-correlation signal does exceed that expected by 50% of the realisations if the UHECRs are randomly deflected by intervening magnetic fields by 5 degrees or more. We propose a new method of analysing the expected anisotropy signal, by dividing the predicted UHECR source distribution into equal predicted flux radial shells, which can help localise and constrain the properties of UHECR sources. We find that the 69 PAO events are consistent with isotropy in the nearest of three shells we define, whereas there is weak evidence for correlation with the predicted source distribution in the two more distant shells in which the galaxy distribution is less anisotropic.Comment: 23 pages, version published in JCA

Understanding Galaxy Formation and Evolution

The old dream of integrating into one the study of micro and macrocosmos is now a reality. Cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics intersect in a scenario (but still not a theory) of cosmic structure formation and evolution called Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model. This scenario emerged mainly to explain the origin of galaxies. In these lecture notes, I first present a review of the main galaxy properties, highlighting the questions that any theory of galaxy formation should explain. Then, the cosmological framework and the main aspects of primordial perturbation generation and evolution are pedagogically detached. Next, I focus on the ``dark side'' of galaxy formation, presenting a review on LCDM halo assembling and properties, and on the main candidates for non-baryonic dark matter. It is shown how the nature of elemental particles can influence on the features of galaxies and their systems. Finally, the complex processes of baryon dissipation inside the non-linearly evolving CDM halos, formation of disks and spheroids, and transformation of gas into stars are briefly described, remarking on the possibility of a few driving factors and parameters able to explain the main body of galaxy properties. A summary and a discussion of some of the issues and open problems of the LCDM paradigm are given in the final part of these notes.Comment: 50 pages, 10 low-resolution figures (for normal-resolution, DOWNLOAD THE PAPER (PDF, 1.9 Mb) FROM http://www.astroscu.unam.mx/~avila/avila.pdf). Lectures given at the IV Mexican School of Astrophysics, July 18-25, 2005 (submitted to the Editors on March 15, 2006

Clustering of dark matter tracers: generalizing bias for the coming era of precision LSS

On very large scales, density fluctuations in the Universe are small, suggesting a perturbative model for large-scale clustering of galaxies (or other dark matter tracers), in which the galaxy density is written as a Taylor series in the local mass density, delta, with the unknown coefficients in the series treated as free "bias" parameters. We extend this model to include dependence of the galaxy density on the local values of nabla_i nabla_j phi and nabla_i v_j, where phi is the potential and v is the peculiar velocity. We show that only two new free parameters are needed to model the power spectrum and bispectrum up to 4th order in the initial density perturbations, once symmetry considerations and equivalences between possible terms are accounted for. One of the new parameters is a bias multiplying s_ij s_ji, where s_ij=[nabla_i nabla_j \nabla^-2 - 1/3 delta^K_ij] delta. The other multiplies s_ij t_ji, where t_ij=[nabla_i nabla_j nabla^-2 - 1/3 delta^K_ij](theta-delta), with theta=-(a H dlnD/dlna)^-1 nabla_i v_i. (There are other, observationally equivalent, ways to write the two terms, e.g., using theta-delta instead of s_ij s_ji.) We show how short-range (non-gravitational) non-locality can be included through a controlled series of higher derivative terms, starting with R^2 nabla^2 delta, where R is the scale of non-locality (this term will be a small correction as long as k^2 R^2 is small, where k is the observed wavenumber). We suggest that there will be much more information in future huge redshift surveys in the range of scales where beyond-linear perturbation theory is both necessary and sufficient than in the fully linear regime.Comment: 24 pg., 5 fi

UBVRI Light curves of 44 Type Ia supernovae

We present UBVRI photometry of 44 Type la supernovae (SNe la) observed from 1997 to 2001 as part of a continuing monitoring campaign at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The data set comprises 2190 observations and is the largest homogeneously observed and reduced sample of SNe la to date, nearly doubling the number of well-observed, nearby SNe la with published multicolor CCD light curves. The large sample of [U-band photometry is a unique addition, with important connections to SNe la observed at high redshift. The decline rate of SN la U-band light curves correlates well with the decline rate in other bands, as does the U - B color at maximum light. However, the U-band peak magnitudes show an increased dispersion relative to other bands even after accounting for extinction and decline rate, amounting to an additional ∼40% intrinsic scatter compared to the B band

The halo occupation distribution and the physics of galaxy formation

The halo occupation distribution (HOD) describes the bias between galaxies and dark matter by specifying (1) the probability P(N|M) that a halo of virial mass M contains N galaxies of a particular class and (2) the relative spatial and velocity distributions of galaxies and dark matter within halos. We calculate and compare the HODs predicted by a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation of a ΛCDM cosmological model (cold dark matter with a cosmological constant) and by a semianalytic galaxy formation model applied to the same cosmology. Although the two methods predict different galaxy mass functions, their HOD predictions for samples of the same space density agree remarkably well. In a sample defined by a baryonic mass threshold, the mean occupation function langNrangM exhibits a sharp cutoff at low halo masses, a slowly rising plateau in which langNrang climbs from 1 to 2 over nearly a decade in halo mass, and a more steeply rising high-occupancy regime at high halo mass. In the low-occupancy regime, the factorial moments langN(N - 1)rang and langN(N - 1)(N - 2)rang are well below the values of langNrang2 and langNrang3 expected for Poisson statistics, with important consequences for the small-scale behavior of the two- and three-point correlation functions. The HOD depends strongly on galaxy age, with high-mass halos populated mainly by old galaxies and low-mass halos by young galaxies. The distribution of galaxies within SPH halos supports the assumptions usually made in semianalytic calculations: the most massive galaxy lies close to the halo center and moves near the halo's mean velocity, while the remaining, satellite galaxies have the same radial profile and velocity dispersion as the dark matter. The mean occupation at fixed halo mass in the SPH simulation is independent of the halo's larger scale environment, supporting both the merger tree approach of the semianalytic method and the claim that the HOD provides a complete statistical characterization of galaxy bias. We discuss the connections between the predicted HODs and the galaxy formation physics incorporated in the SPH and semianalytic approaches. These predictions offer useful guidance to theoretical models of galaxy clustering, and they will be tested empirically by ongoing analyses of galaxy redshift surveys. By applying the HODs to a large-volume N-body simulation, we show that both methods predict slight departures from a power-law galaxy correlation function, similar to features detected in recent observational analyses