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Register a new userThe Clustering of Luminous Red Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data
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We present the 3D real space clustering power spectrum of a sample of ~600,000 luminous red galaxies (LRGs) measured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), using photometric redshifts. This sample of galaxies ranges from redshift z=0.2 to 0.6 over 3,528 deg^2 of the sky, probing a volume of 1.5 (Gpc/h)^3, making it the largest volume ever used for galaxy clustering measurements. We measure the angular clustering power spectrum in eight redshift slices and combine these into a high precision 3D real space power spectrum from k=0.005 (h/Mpc) to k=1 (h/Mpc). We detect power on gigaparsec scales, beyond the turnover in the matter power spectrum, on scales significantly larger than those accessible to current spectroscopic redshift surveys. We also find evidence for baryonic oscillations, both in the power spectrum, as well as in fits to the baryon density, at a 2.5 sigma confidence level. The statistical power of these data to constrain cosmology is ~1.7 times better than previous clustering analyses. Varying the matter density and baryon fraction, we find Omega_M = 0.30 pm 0.03, and Omega_b/Omega_M = 0.18 pm 0.04, The detection of baryonic oscillations also allows us to measure the comoving distance to z=0.5; we find a best fit distance of 1.73 pm 0.12 Gpc, corresponding to a 6.5% error on the distance. These results demonstrate the ability to make precise clustering measurements with photometric surveys (abridged).
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We present the power spectrum of the reconstructed halo density field derived from a sample of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Seventh Data Release (DR7). The halo power spectrum has a direct connection to the underlying dark matter power for k <= 0.2 h/Mpc, well into the quasi-linear regime. This enables us to use a factor of ~8 more modes in the cosmological analysis than an analysis with kmax = 0.1 h/Mpc, as was adopted in the SDSS team analysis of the DR4 LRG sample (Tegmark et al. 2006). The observed halo power spectrum for 0.02 < k < 0.2 h/Mpc is well-fit by our model: chi^2 = 39.6 for 40 degrees of freedom for the best fit LCDM model. We find Omega_m h^2 * (n_s/0.96)^0.13 = 0.141^{+0.009}_{-0.012} for a power law primordial power spectrum with spectral index n_s and Omega_b h^2 = 0.02265 fixed, consistent with CMB measurements. The halo power spectrum also constrains the ratio of the comoving sound horizon at the baryon-drag epoch to an effective distance to z=0.35: r_s/D_V(0.35) = 0.1097^{+0.0039}_{-0.0042}. Combining the halo power spectrum measurement with the WMAP 5 year results, for the flat LCDM model we find Omega_m = 0.289 +/- 0.019 and H_0 = 69.4 +/- 1.6 km/s/Mpc. Allowing for massive neutrinos in LCDM, we find sum m_{ u} < 0.62 eV at the 95% confidence level. If we instead consider the effective number of relativistic species Neff as a free parameter, we find Neff = 4.8^{+1.8}_{-1.7}. Combining also with the Kowalski et al. (2008) supernova sample, we find Omega_{tot} = 1.011 +/- 0.009 and w = -0.99 +/- 0.11 for an open cosmology with constant dark energy equation of state w.
We present a comprehensive study of the evolution of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) in the latest and final spectroscopic data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We test the scenario of passive evolution of LRGs in 0.15<z<0.5, by looking at the evolution of the number and luminosity density of LRGs, as well as of their clustering. A new weighting scheme is introduced that allows us to keep a large number of galaxies in our sample and put stringent constraints on the growth and merging allowed by the data as a function of galaxy luminosity. Introducing additional luminosity-dependent weighting for our clustering analysis allows us to additionally constrain the nature of the mergers. We find that, in the redshift range probed, the population of LRGs grows in luminosity by 1.5-6 % Gyr^-1 depending on their luminosity. This growth is predominantly happening in objects that reside in the lowest-mass haloes probed by this study, and cannot be explained by satellite accretion into massive LRGs, nor by LRG-LRG merging. We find that the evolution of the brightest objects (with a K+e-corrected M_r,0.1 < -22.8) is consistent with that expected from passive evolution.
We measure the clustering of a sample of photometrically selected luminous red galaxies around a low redshift (0.2<z<0.6) sample of quasars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5. We make use of a new statistical estimator to obtain precise measurements of the LRG auto-correlations and constrain halo occupation distributions for them. These are used to generate mock catalogs which aid in interpreting our quasar-LRG cross correlation measurements. The cross correlation is well described by a power law with slope 1.8pm0.1 and r_0=6pm0.5 h^{-1} Mpc, consistent with observed galaxy correlation functions. We find no evidence for `excess clustering on 0.1 Mpc scales and demonstrate that this is consistent with the results of Serber et al (2006) and Strand et al (2007), when one accounts for several subtleties in the interpretation of their measurements. Combining the quasar-LRG cross correlation with the LRG auto-correlations, we determine a large-scale quasar bias b_QSO = 1.09pm0.15 at a median redshift of 0.43, with no observed redshift or luminosity evolution. This corresponds to a mean halo mass <M>~ 10^{12} h^{-1} M_sun, Eddington ratios from 0.01 to 1 and lifetimes less than 10^{7} yr. Using simple models of halo occupation, these correspond to a number density of quasar hosts greater than 10^{-3} h^{3} Mpc^{-3} and stellar masses less than 10^{11} h^{-1} M_sun. The small-scale clustering signal can be interpreted with the aid of our mock LRG catalogs, and depends on the manner in which quasars inhabit halos. We find that our small scale measurements are inconsistent with quasar positions being randomly subsampled from halo centers above a mass threshold, requiring a satellite fraction > 25 per cent.
We study Red Misfits, a population of red, star-forming galaxies in the local Universe. We classify galaxies based on inclination-corrected optical colours and specific star formation rates derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. Although the majority of blue galaxies are star-forming and most red galaxies exhibit little to no ongoing star formation, a small but significant population of galaxies ($sim$11 per cent at all stellar masses) are classified as red in colour yet actively star-forming. We explore a number of properties of these galaxies and demonstrate that Red Misfits are not simply dusty or highly-inclined blue cloud galaxies or quiescent red galaxies with poorly-constrained star formation. The proportion of Red Misfits is nearly independent of environment and this population exhibits both intermediate morphologies and an enhanced likelihood of hosting an AGN. We conclude that Red Misfits are a transition population, gradually quenching on their way to the red sequence and this quenching is dominated by internal processes rather than environmentally-driven processes. We discuss the connection between Red Misfits and other transition galaxy populations, namely S0s, red spirals and green valley galaxies.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) surveyed 14,555 square degrees, and delivered over a trillion pixels of imaging data. We present a study of galaxy clustering using 900,000 luminous galaxies with photometric redshifts, spanning between $z=0.45$ and $z=0.65$, constructed from the SDSS using methods described in Ross et al. (2011). This data-set spans 11,000 square degrees and probes a volume of $3h^{-3} rm{Gpc}^3$, making it the largest volume ever used for galaxy clustering measurements. We present a novel treatment of the observational systematics and its applications to the clustering signals from the data set. In this paper, we measure the angular clustering using an optimal quadratic estimator at 4 redshift slices with an accuracy of ~15% with bin size of delta_l = 10 on scales of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) (at l~40-400). We derive cosmological constraints using the full-shape of the power-spectra. For a flat Lambda CDM model, when combined with Cosmic Microwave Background Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7 (WMAP7) and H_0 constraints from 600 Cepheids observed by HST, we find Omega_Lambda = 0.73 +/- 0.019 and H_0 to be 70.5 +/- 1.6 km/s/Mpc. For an open Lambda CDM model, when combined with WMAP7 + HST, we find $Omega_K = 0.0035 +/- 0.0054, improved over WMAP7+HST alone by 40%. For a wCDM model, when combined with WMAP7+HST+SN, we find w = -1.071 +/- 0.078, and H_0 to be 71.3 +/- 1.7 km/s/Mpc, which is competitive with the latest large scale structure constraints from large spectroscopic surveys such as SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7) (Reid et al. 2010, Percival et al. 2010, Montesano et al. 2011) and WiggleZ (Blake et al. 2011). The SDSS-III Data Release 8 (SDSS-III DR8) Angular Clustering Data allows a wide range of investigations into the cosmological model, cosmic expansion (via BAO), Gaussianity of initial conditions and neutrino masses. (abridged)
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