We study the dependence of the galaxy content of dark matter halos on large-scale environment and halo formation time using semi-analytic galaxy models applied to the Millennium simulation. We ...analyze subsamples of halos at the extremes of these distributions and measure the occupation functions for the galaxies they host. We find distinct differences among these occupation functions. The main effect with environment is that central galaxies (and in one model, also the satellites) in denser regions start populating lower-mass halos. A similar, but significantly stronger, trend exists with halo age, where early-forming halos are more likely to host central galaxies at lower halo mass. We discuss the origin of these trends and the connection to the stellar mass-halo mass relation. We find that, at fixed halo mass, older halos and to some extent also halos in dense environments tend to host more massive galaxies. Additionally, we see a reverse trend for the occupation of satellite galaxies where early-forming halos have fewer satellites, likely due to having more time for them to merge with the central galaxy. We describe these occupancy variations in terms of the changes in the occupation function parameters, which can aid in constructing realistic mock galaxy samples. Finally, we study the corresponding galaxy auto- and cross-correlation functions of the different samples and elucidate the impact of assembly bias on galaxy clustering. Our results can inform theoretical modeling of galaxy assembly bias and attempts to detect it in the real universe.
Abstract Over the next 5 yr, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will use 10 spectrographs with 5000 fibers on the 4 m Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to conduct the ...first Stage IV dark energy galaxy survey. At z < 0.6, the DESI Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) will produce the most detailed map of the universe during the dark-energy-dominated epoch with redshifts of >10 million galaxies spanning 14,000 deg 2 . In this work, we present and validate the final BGS target selection and survey design. From the Legacy Surveys, BGS will target an r < 19.5 mag limited sample (BGS Bright), a fainter 19.5 < r < 20.175 color-selected sample (BGS Faint), and a smaller low- z quasar sample. BGS will observe these targets using exposure times scaled to achieve homogeneous completeness and cover the footprint three times. We use observations from the Survey Validation programs conducted prior to the main survey along with simulations to show that BGS can complete its strategy and make optimal use of “bright” time. BGS targets have stellar contamination <1%, and their densities do not depend strongly on imaging properties. BGS Bright will achieve >80% fiber assignment efficiency. Finally, BGS Bright and BGS Faint will achieve >95% redshift success over any observing condition. BGS meets the requirements for an extensive range of scientific applications. BGS will yield the most precise baryon acoustic oscillation and redshift-space distortion measurements at z < 0.4. It presents opportunities for new methods that require highly complete and dense samples (e.g., N -point statistics, multitracers). BGS further provides a powerful tool to study galaxy populations and the relations between galaxies and dark matter.
We use the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to measure the local Universe mass-dependent merger fraction and merger rate using galaxy pairs and the CAS (concentration, asymmetry, and ...smoothness) structural method, which identifies highly asymmetric merger candidate galaxies. Our goals are to determine which types of mergers produce highly asymmetrical galaxies and to provide a new measurement of the local galaxy major merger rate. We examine galaxy pairs at stellar mass limits down to M* = 10... M... with mass ratios of <100:1 and line-of-sight velocity differences of ... < 500 km s... We find a significant increase in mean asymmetries for projected separations less than the sum of the individual galaxy's Petrosian 90 radii. For systems in major merger pairs with mass ratios of <4:1, both galaxies in the pair show a strong increase in asymmetry, while in minor merger systems (with mass ratios of >4:1) the lower mass companion becomes highly asymmetric, whereas the larger galaxy is much less affected. The fraction of highly asymmetric paired galaxies which have a major merger companion is highest for the most massive galaxies and drops progressively with decreasing mass. We calculate that the mass-dependent major merger fraction is fairly constant at ~1.3-2 per cent within 109.5 < M* < 10... M..., and increases to ~4 per cent at lower masses. When the observability time-scales are taken into consideration, the major merger rate is found to approximately triple over the mass range we consider. The total comoving volume major merger rate over the range 108.0 < M* < 10... M... is (1.2 plus or minus 0.5) x 10... h... Mpc-3 Gyr... (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
We introduce a method for constructing end-to-end mock galaxy catalogues using a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation, applied to the halo merger trees extracted from a cosmological N-body ...simulation. The mocks that we construct are lightcone catalogues, in which a galaxy is placed according to the epoch at which it first enters the past lightcone of the observer, and incorporate the evolution of galaxy properties with cosmic time. We determine the position between the snapshot outputs at which a galaxy enters the observer's lightcone by interpolation. As an application, we consider the effectiveness of the BzK colour selection technique, which was designed to isolate galaxies in the redshift interval 1.4 < z < 2.5. The mock catalogue is in reasonable agreement with the observed number counts of all BzK galaxies, as well as with the observed counts of the subsample of BzKs that are star-forming galaxies. We predict that over 75 per cent of the model galaxies with K
AB ≤ 23, and 1.4 < z < 2.5, are selected by the BzK technique. Interloper galaxies, outside the intended redshift range, are predicted to dominate bright samples of BzK galaxies (i.e. with K
AB ≤ 21). Fainter K-band cuts are necessary to reduce the predicted interloper fraction. We also show that shallow B-band photometry can lead to confusion in classifying BzK galaxies as being star forming or passively evolving. Overall, we conclude that the BzK colour selection technique is capable of providing a sample of galaxies that is representative of the 1.4 < z < 2.5 galaxy population.
We present single-Sérsic two-dimensional (2D) model fits to 167 600 galaxies modelled independently in the ugrizYJHK bandpasses using reprocessed Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Seven (SDSS ...DR7) and UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey Large Area Survey imaging data available from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) data base. In order to facilitate this study we developed Structural Investigation of Galaxies via Model Analysis (sigma), an r wrapper around several contemporary astronomy software packages including source extractor, psf extractor and galfit 3. sigma produces realistic 2D model fits to galaxies, employing automatic adaptive background subtraction and empirical point spread function measurements on the fly for each galaxy in GAMA. Using these results, we define a common coverage area across the three GAMA regions containing 138 269 galaxies. We provide Sérsic magnitudes truncated at 10r
e which show good agreement with SDSS Petrosian and GAMA photometry for low Sérsic index systems (n < 4), and much improved photometry for high Sérsic index systems (n > 4), recovering as much as Δm= 0.5 mag in the r band. We employ a K-band Sérsic index/u−r colour relation to delineate the massive (n > ∼2) early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the late-type galaxies (LTGs). The mean Sérsic index of these ETGs shows a smooth variation with wavelength, increasing by 30 per cent from g through K. LTGs exhibit a more extreme change in Sérsic index, increasing by 52 per cent across the same range. In addition, ETGs and LTGs exhibit a 38 and 25 per cent decrease, respectively, in half-light radius from g through K. These trends are shown to arise due to the effects of dust attenuation and stellar population/metallicity gradients within galaxy populations.
We measure the mass functions for generically red and blue galaxies, using a z < 0.12 sample of log M* > 8.7 field galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Our motivation is that, as ...we show, the dominant uncertainty in existing measurements stems from how 'red' and 'blue' galaxies have been selected/defined. Accordingly, we model our data as two naturally overlapping populations, each with their own mass function and colour-mass relation, which enables us characterize the two populations without having to specify a priori which galaxies are 'red' and 'blue'. Our results then provide the means to derive objective operational definitions for the terms 'red' and 'blue', which are based on the phenomenology of the colour-mass diagrams. Informed by this descriptive modelling, we show that (1) after accounting for dust, the stellar colours of 'blue' galaxies do not depend strongly on mass; (2) the tight, flat 'dead sequence' does not extend much below log M* ~ 10.5; instead, (3) the stellar colours of 'red' galaxies vary rather strongly with mass, such that lower mass 'red' galaxies have bluer stellar populations; (4) below log M* ~ 9.3, the 'red' population dissolves into obscurity, and it becomes problematic to talk about two distinct populations; as a consequence, (5) it is hard to meaningfully constrain the shape, including the existence of an upturn, of the 'red' galaxy mass function below log M* ~ 9.3. Points 1-4 provide meaningful targets for models of galaxy formation and evolution to aim for.
We report an expanded sample of visual morphological classifications from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey phase two, which now includes 7556 objects (previously 3727 in phase one). We define a ...local (z < 0.06) sample and classify galaxies into E, S0-Sa, SB0-SBa, Sab-Scd, SBab-SBcd, Sd-Irr, and ‘little blue spheroid’ types. Using these updated classifications, we derive stellar mass function fits to individual galaxy populations divided both by morphological class and more general spheroid- or disc-dominated categories with a lower mass limit of log(M
*/M⊙) = 8 (one dex below earlier morphological mass function determinations). We find that all individual morphological classes and the combined spheroid-/bulge-dominated classes are well described by single Schechter stellar mass function forms. We find that the total stellar mass densities for individual galaxy populations and for the entire galaxy population are bounded within our stellar mass limits and derive an estimated total stellar mass density of ρ* = 2.5 × 108 M⊙ Mpc−3 h
0.7, which corresponds to an approximately 4 per cent fraction of baryons found in stars. The mass contributions to this total stellar mass density by galaxies that are dominated by spheroidal components (E and S0-Sa classes) and by disc components (Sab-Scd and Sd-Irr classes) are approximately 70 and 30 per cent, respectively.
We present a maximum-likelihood weak-lensing analysis of the mass distribution in optically selected spectroscopic Galaxy Groups (...) in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, using background ...Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometric galaxies. The scaling of halo mass, ..., with various group observables is investigated. Our main results are as follows. (1) The measured relations of halo mass with group luminosity, virial volume and central galaxy stellar mass, M*, agree very well with predictions from mock group catalogues constructed from a GALFORM semi-analytical galaxy formation model implemented in the Millennium ...CDM N-body simulation. (2) The measured relations of halo mass with velocity dispersion and projected half-abundance radius show weak tension with mock predictions, hinting at problems in the mock galaxy dynamics and their small-scale distribution. (3) The median ... measured from weak lensing depends more sensitively on the lognormal dispersion in M* at fixed ... than it does on the median ... Our measurements suggest an intrinsic dispersion of ... Comparing our mass estimates with those in the catalogue, we find that the ... mass can give biased results when used to select subsets of the group sample. Of the various new halo-mass estimators that we calibrate using our weak-lensing measurements, group luminosity is the best single-proxy estimator of group mass. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
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