The Luminosity and Color Dependence of the Galaxy Correlation Function

By Idit Zehavi, Z. Zheng, D. Weinberg, Joshua A. Frieman, A. Berlind, M. Blanton, R. Scoccimarro, R. Sheth, M. Strauss, I. Kayo and 17 more. 2004

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We study the luminosity and color dependence of the galaxy two-point correlation function in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, starting from a sample of ~200,000 galaxies over 2500 deg2. We concentrate our analysis on volume-limited subsamples of specified luminosity ranges, for which we measure the projected correlation function wp(rp), which is directly related to the real-space correlation function ξ(r). The amplitude of wp(rp) rises continuously with luminosity from Mr ≈ -17.5 to Mr ≈ -22.5, with the most rapid increase occurring above the characteristic luminosity L* (Mr ≈ -20.5). Over the scales 0.1 h-1 Mpc < rp < 10 h-1 Mpc, the measurements for samples with Mr > -22 can be approximated, imperfectly, by power-law three-dimensional correlation functions ξ(r) = (r/r0)-γ with γ ≈ 1.8 and r0(L*) ≈ 5.0 h-1 Mpc. The brightest subsample, -23 < Mr < -22, has a significantly steeper ξ(r). When we divide samples by color, redder galaxies exhibit a higher amplitude and steeper correlation function at all luminosities. The correlation amplitude of blue galaxies increases continuously with luminosity, but the luminosity dependence for red galaxies is less regular, with bright red galaxies exhibiting the strongest clustering at large scales and faint red galaxies exhibiting the strongest clustering at small scales. We interpret these results using halo occupation distribution (HOD) models assuming concordance cosmological parameters. For most samples, an HOD model with two adjustable parameters fits the wp(rp) data better than a power law, explaining inflections at rp ~ 1-3 h-1 Mpc as the transition between the one-halo and two-halo regimes of ξ(r). The implied minimum mass for a halo hosting a central galaxy more luminous than L grows steadily, with Mmin ∝ L at low luminosities and a steeper dependence above L*. The mass at which a halo has, on average, one satellite galaxy brighter than L is M1 ≈ 23Mmin(L), at all luminosities. These results imply a conditional luminosity function (at fixed halo mass) in which central galaxies lie far above a Schechter function extrapolation of the satellite population. The HOD model fits nicely explain the color dependence of wp(rp) and the cross correlation between red and blue galaxies. For galaxies with Mr < -21, halos slightly above Mmin have blue central galaxies, while more massive halos have red central galaxies and predominantly red satellite populations. The fraction of blue central galaxies increases steadily with decreasing luminosity and host halo mass. The strong clustering of faint red galaxies follows from the fact that nearly all of them are satellite systems in high-mass halos. The HOD fitting results are in good qualitative agreement with the predictions of numerical and semianalytic models of galaxy formation.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Ecology

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Citations in the corpus

Constraining the Evolution of the Ionizing Background and the Epoch of Reionization with z ∼ 6 Quasars. II. A Sample of 19 Quasars (2005, methodology): “In comoving units, this is comparable to the correlation length of galaxy clustering at z ∼ 0, (r0 ∼ 5 h −1 Mpc, Zehavi et al. 2005), and of Lyman break galaxies at z ∼ 2 − 4 (r0 ∼ 4 h −1 Mpc, Adelberger et al. 2005), and at z = 4− 5 (r0 ∼ 4− 8 h −1 Mpc, Kashikawa et al. 2006).”
GALAXY CLUSTERING IN THE COMPLETED SDSS REDSHIFT SURVEY: THE DEPENDENCE ON COLOR AND LUMINOSITY (2010, methodology): “This study complements correlation function measurements and HODmodels of the SDSS Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) sample (Eisenstein et al. 2001, 2005b; Zehavi et al. 2005a; Zheng et al. 2009; Kazin et al. 2010; Watson et al. 2010), which probes the most luminous galaxies out to redshift z ≈ 0.45…”
The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Color and Luminosity Dependence of Galaxy Clustering at z ∼ 1 (2007, methodology): “…da Costa, & Pellegrini 1998), with the most statistically-significant results provided by the latest large surveys, the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) (Norberg et al. 2002b; Zehavi et al. 2002; Madgwick et al. 2003a; Li et al. 2006a; Zehavi et al. 2005).”
The dependence of clustering on galaxy properties (2005, background): “These studies have revealed that galaxies with red colours, bulge-dominated morphologies and spectral types indicative of old stellar populations reside preferentially in dense regions (Zehavi et al. 2005 and references therein, hereafter Z05).”
Chemical Abundances of DEEP2 Star-forming Galaxies at z~1.0-1.5 (2005, background): “The local descendants of the dark matter halos hosting such galaxies will cluster more like blue, emission-line galaxies in the Tremonti et al. SDSS sample, rather than red, absorption-dominated galaxies (Zehavi et al. 2005; Budavári et al. 2003; Adelberger et al. 2005b).”
Measures of Galaxy Environment I - What is "Environment"? (2011, methodology): “2, we show the mock two-point correlation functions of all, red and blue galaxies, and compare them with the equivalent SDSS measurements of Zehavi et al. (2005).”
Cosmological constraints from a combination of galaxy clustering and lensing – I. Theoretical framework (2012, methodology): “(46), but integrating from rp out to rout ≡ √ r2p + r2max, where rmax is the same value as used for the data (e.g., Zehavi et al. 2004, 2005, 2011; Abazajian et al. 2005; Tinker et al. 2005; Zheng et al. 2007, 2009; Yoo et al. 2009).”
THE PSEUDO-EVOLUTION OF HALO MASS (2012, background): “…Parker et al. 2007; Schulz et al. 2010), the abundance of galaxies and their clustering (Yang et al. 2003; Zehavi et al. 2004; Tinker et al. 2005; Zehavi et al. 2005; Skibba et al. 2006; van den Bosch et al. 2007; Brown et al. 2008; Conroy & Wechsler 2009; Moster et al. 2010, 2013; Behroozi et…”
Galaxy Evolution from Halo Occupation Distribution Modeling of DEEP2 and SDSS Galaxy Clustering (2007, methodology): “…thresholds, a simple parameterization of the mean occupation function has three parameters (e.g., Kravtsov et al. 2004; Zheng et al. 2005; Zehavi et al. 2005) — the mean occupation function 〈Ncen(M)〉 of central galaxies can be represented by a step-like function with a characteristic…”
Very Small Scale Clustering and Merger Rate of Luminous Red Galaxies (2005, methodology): “The lower limit in the Zehavi et al. (2005a) analysis was set to eliminate the incompleteness effects that are introduced by the 5500 fiber collision radius.”
Satellite kinematics – III. Halo masses of central galaxies in SDSS (2010, neutral): “Such methods include the modelling of the clustering of galaxies (e.g., Yang, Mo, & van den Bosch 2003; Zehavi et al. 2004, 2005; Tinker et al. 2005; Collister & Lahav 2005; Skibba et al. 2006; van den Bosch et al. 2007; Brown et al. 2008; Skibba & Sheth 2009), galaxy-galaxy weak lensing (e.g.,…”
Theoretical Models of the Halo Occupation Distribution: Separating Central and Satellite Galaxies (2004, methodology): “The spirit of CLF modeling is similar to that of fitting parameterized HOD models like those of §3 to observed clustering in different luminosity ranges, as undertaken for the SDSS by Zehavi et al. (2005) (also see Seljak et al. [2005] for an analysis using galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements).”
Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite (2012, background): “However, dark matter halos are believed to host galaxy formation, and different galaxy types at different redshifts are expected to populate halos in disparate ways [808, 1269].”
THE GALAXY CONTENT OF SDSS CLUSTERS AND GROUPS (2007, methodology): “Particles in the simulation are assigned luminosities to match the luminosity-dependent two-point correlation function measured in the SDSS by Zehavi et al. (2005) and the global SDSS luminosity function (Blanton et al. 2003b).”
NEW CONSTRAINTS ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE STELLAR-TO-DARK MATTER CONNECTION: A COMBINED ANALYSIS OF GALAXY–GALAXY LENSING, CLUSTERING, AND STELLAR MASS FUNCTIONS FROM z = 0.2 to z = 1 (2011, background): “…in luminosity or stellar mass (e.g., Seljak 2000; Peacock & Smith 2000; Scoccimarro et al. 2001; Berlind & Weinberg 2002; Bullock et al. 2002; Zehavi et al. 2002, 2005, 2011b; Zheng et al. 2005, 2007; Tinker et al. 2007; Skibba & Sheth 2009; Brown et al. 2008; Wake et al. 2011; Foucaud et…”
Galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing: a promising union to constrain cosmological parameters (2008, background): “…about the so-called galaxy–dark matter connection (e.g. Jing, Mo & Börner 1998; Ma & Fry 2000; Peacock & Smith 2000; Scoccimarro et al. 2001; Berlind & Weinberg 2002; van den Bosch, Yang & Mo 2003a; Yang, Mo & van den Bosch 2003; Zehavi et al. 2005; Zheng et al. 2005; van den Bosch et al. 2007).”