We investigate the possibility of constraining coupled dark energy (cDE) cosmologies using the three-point correlation function (3PCF). Making use of the CoDECS N-body simulations, we study the statistical properties of cold dark matter (CDM) haloes
for a variety of models, including a fiducial $Lambda$CDM scenario and five models in which dark energy (DE) and CDM mutually interact. We measure both the halo 3PCF, $zeta(theta)$, and the reduced 3PCF, $Q(theta)$, at different scales ($2<r,[$Mpch$]<40$) and redshifts ($0leq zleq2$). In all cDE models considered in this work, $Q(theta)$ appears flat at small scales (for all redshifts) and at low redshifts (for all scales), while it builds up the characteristic V-shape anisotropy at increasing redshifts and scales. With respect to the $Lambda $CDM predictions, cDE models show lower (higher) values of the halo 3PCF for perpendicular (elongated) configurations. The effect is also scale-dependent, with differences between $Lambda$CDM and cDE models that increase at large scales. We made use of these measurements to estimate the halo bias, that results in fair agreement with the one computed from the two-point correlation function (2PCF). The main advantage of using both the 2PCF and 3PCF is to break the bias$-sigma_{8}$ degeneracy. Moreover, we find that our bias estimates are approximately independent of the assumed strength of DE coupling. This study demonstrates the power of a higher-order clustering analysis in discriminating between alternative cosmological scenarios, for both present and forthcoming galaxy surveys, such as e.g. BOSS and Euclid.
We investigate the impact of different observational effects affecting a precise and accurate measurement of the growth rate of fluctuations from the anisotropy of clustering in galaxy redshift surveys. We focus on redshift measurement errors, on the
reconstruction of the underlying real-space clustering and on the apparent degeneracy existing with the geometrical distortions induced by the cosmology-dependent conversion of redshifts into distances. We use a suite of mock catalogues extracted from large N-body simulations, focusing on the analysis of intermediate, mildly non-linear scales and apply the standard linear dispersion model to fit the anisotropy of the observed correlation function. We verify that redshift errors up to ~0.2% have a negligible impact on the precision with which the specific growth rate beta can be measured. Larger redshift errors introduce a positive systematic error, which can be alleviated by adopting a Gaussian distribution function of pairwise velocities. This is, in any case, smaller than the systematic error of up to 10% due to the limitations of the linear dispersion model, which is studied in a separate paper. We then show that 50% of the statistical error budget on beta depends on the deprojection procedure through which the real-space correlation function is obtained. Finally, we demonstrate that the degeneracy with geometric distortions can in fact be circumvented. This is obtained through a modified version of the Alcock-Paczynski test in redshift-space, which successfully recovers the correct cosmology by searching for the solution that optimizes the description of dynamical redshift distortions. For a flat cosmology, we obtain largely independent, robust constraints on beta and OmegaM. In a volume of 2.4(Gpc/h)^3, the correct OmegaM is obtained with ~12% error and negligible bias, once the real-space correlation function is properly reconstructed.
We present basic predictions of an updated version of the Munich semi-analytic hierarchical galaxy formation model that grows bulges via mergers and disk instabilities. Overall, we find that while spheroids below Ms ~ 10^11 Msun grow their sizes via
a mixture of disk instability and mergers, galaxies above it mainly evolve via mergers. Including gas dissipation in major mergers, efficiently shrinks galaxies, especially those with final mass Ms < 10^11 Msun that are the most gas-rich, improving the match with different observables. We find that the predicted scatter in sizes at fixed stellar mass is still larger than the observed one by up to <40%. Spheroids are, on average, more compact at higher redshifts at fixed stellar mass, and at fixed redshift and stellar mass larger galaxies tend to be more starforming. More specifically, while for bulge-dominated galaxies the model envisages a nearly mass-independent decrease in sizes, the predicted size evolution for intermediate-mass galaxies is more complex. The z=2 progenitors of massive galaxies with mass around Ms and B/T>0.7 at z=0, are found to be mostly disc-dominated galaxies with a median B/T ~ 0.3, with only ~20% remaining bulge-dominated. The model also predicts that central spheroids living in more massive haloes tend to have larger sizes at fixed stellar mass. Including host halo mass dependence in computing velocity dispersions, allows the model to properly reproduce the correlations with stellar mass. We also discuss the fundamental plane, the correlations with galaxy age, the structural properties of pseudobulges, and the correlations with central black holes.
Cosmological neutrinos strongly affect the evolution of the largest structures in the Universe, i.e. galaxies and galaxy clusters. We use large box-size full hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the non-linear effects that massive neutrinos have o
n the spatial properties of cold dark matter (CDM) haloes. We quantify the difference with respect to the concordance LambdaCDM model of the halo mass function and of the halo two-point correlation function. We model the redshift-space distortions and compute the errors on the linear distortion parameter beta introduced if cosmological neutrinos are assumed to be massless. We find that, if not taken correctly into account and depending on the total neutrino mass, these effects could lead to a potentially fake signature of modified gravity. Future nearly all-sky spectroscopic galaxy surveys will be able to constrain the neutrino mass if it is larger than 0.6 eV, using beta measurements alone and independently of the value of the matter power spectrum normalisation. In combination with other cosmological probes, this will strengthen neutrino mass constraints and help breaking parameter degeneracies.
We discuss how the effective radius Phi(Re) function (ERF) recently worked out by Bernardi et al. (2009) represents a new testbed to improve the current understanding of Semi-analytic Models of Galaxy formation. In particular, we here show that a det
ailed hierarchical model of structure formation can broadly reproduce the correct peak in the size distribution of local early-type galaxies, although it significantly overpredicts the number of very compact and very large galaxies. This in turn is reflected in the predicted size-mass relation, much flatter than the observed one, due to too large (~3 kpc) low-mass galaxies (<10^11 msun), and to a non-negligible fraction of compact (< 0.5-1 kpc) and massive galaxies (> 10^11 msun). We also find that the latter discrepancy is smaller than previously claimed, and limited to only ultracompact (Re < 0.5 kpc) galaxies when considering elliptical-dominated samples. We explore several causes behind these effects. We conclude that the former problem might be linked to the initial conditions, given that large and low-mass galaxies are present at all epochs in the model. The survival of compact and massive galaxies might instead be linked to their very old ages and peculiar merger histories. Overall, knowledge of the galactic stellar mass {em and} size distributions allows a better understanding of where and how to improve models.
We study the spatial distribution of X-ray selected AGN in the framework of hierarchical co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies and dark matter haloes. To this end, we have applied the model developed by Croton et al.(2006),
De Lucia & Blaizot(2007) and Marulli et al.(2008) to the output of the Millennium Run and obtained hundreds of realizations of past light-cones from which we have extracted realistic mock AGN catalogues that mimic the Chandra deep fields. We find that the model AGN number counts are in fair agreement with observations, except at fluxes <1e-15 erg/cm^2/s. The spatial two-point correlation function predicted by the model is well described by a power-law relation out to 20 Mpc/h, in close agreement with observations. Our model matches the correlation length r_0 of AGN in the Chandra Deep Field North but underestimates it in the Chandra Deep Field South. When fixing the slope to gamma = 1.4, as in Gilli et al. (2005), the statistical significance of the mismatch is 2-2.5 sigma, suggesting that the predicted cosmic variance, which dominates the error budget, may not account for the different correlation length of the AGN in the two fields. While our results are robust to changes in the model prescriptions for the AGN lightcurves, the luminosity dependence of the clustering is sensitive to the different lightcurve models adopted. However, irrespective of the model considered, the luminosity dependence of the AGN clustering in our mock fields seems to be weaker than in the real Chandra fields. The significance of this mismatch needs to be confirmed using larger datasets.
