Engineering topics

Behroozi, Peter S.

Publications and source records attributed to Behroozi, Peter S..

5 records

DOE OSTI2021

Main-sequence Scatter is Real: The Joint Dependence of Galaxy Clustering on Star Formation and Stellar Mass

We present new measurements of the clustering of stellar-mass-complete samples of ∼40,000 SDSS galaxies at z ∼ 0.03 as a joint function of stellar mass and specific star formation rate (sSFR). Our results confirm what Coil et al. find at z ∼ 0.7: galaxy clustering is a stronger function of sSFR at fixed stellar mass than of stellar mass at fixed sSFR. We also find that galaxies above the star-forming main sequence (SFMS) with higher sSFR are less clustered than galaxies below the SFMS with lower sSFR, at a given stellar mass. A similar trend is present for quiescent galaxies. This confirms that main-sequence scatter, and scatter within the quiescent sequence, is physically connected to the large-scale cosmic density field. We compare the resulting galaxy bias versus sSFR, and relative bias versus sSFR ratio, for different galaxy samples across 0 < z < 1.2 to mock galaxy catalogs based on the empirical galaxy evolution model of Behroozi et al. This model fits PRIMUS and DEEP2 clustering data well at intermediate redshift, but agreement with SDSS is not as strong. We show that increasing the correlation between galaxy SFR and halo accretion rate at z ∼ 0 in the model substantially improves agreement with SDSS data. Mock catalogs suggest that central galaxies contribute substantially to the dependence of clustering on sSFR at a given stellar mass and that the signal is not simply an effect of satellite galaxy fraction differences with sSFR. Our results are highly constraining for galaxy evolution models and show that the stellar-to-halo mass relation depends on sSFR.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2018

Spatial clustering of dark matter haloes: secondary bias, neighbour bias, and the influence of massive neighbours on halo properties

Here, we explore the phenomenon commonly known as halo assembly bias, whereby dark matter haloes of the same mass are found to be more or less clustered when a second halo property is considered, for haloes in the mass range 3.7 × 10 11 –5.0 × 10 13 h –1 M ⊙ . Using the Large Suite of Dark Matter Simulations (LasDamas) we consider nine commonly used halo properties and find that a clustering bias exists if haloes are binned by mass or by any other halo property. This secondary bias implies that no single halo property encompasses all the spatial clustering information of the halo population. The mean values of some halo properties depend on their halo's distance to a more massive neighbour. Halo samples selected by having high values of one of these properties therefore inherit a neighbour bias such that they are much more likely to be close to a much more massive neighbour. This neighbour bias largely accounts for the secondary bias seen in haloes binned by mass and split by concentration or age. However, haloes binned by other mass-like properties still show a secondary bias even when the neighbour bias is removed. The secondary bias of haloes selected by their spin behaves differently than that for other halo properties, suggesting that the origin of the spin bias is different than of other secondary biases .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2017

PRIMUS: one- and two-halo galactic conformity at 0.2 < z < 1

We test for galactic conformity at 0.2 3σ) one-halo conformity signal, or an excess of star-forming neighbors around star-forming central galaxies, of ∼5% on scales of 0–1 Mpc and a 2.5σ two-halo signal of ∼1% on scales of 1–3 Mpc. These signals are weaker than those detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and are consistent with galactic conformity being the result of large-scale tidal fields and reflecting assembly bias. We also measure the star-forming fraction of central galaxies at fixed stellar mass as a function of large-scale environment and find that central galaxies are more likely to be quenched in overdense environments, independent of stellar mass. However, we find that environment does not affect the star formation efficiency of central galaxies, as long as they are forming stars. We test for redshift and stellar mass dependence of the conformity signal within our sample and show that large volumes and multiple fields are required at intermediate redshift to adequately account for cosmic variance.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Connecting massive galaxies to dark matter haloes in BOSS – I. Is galaxy colour a stochastic process in high-mass haloes?

In this work, we use subhalo abundance matching (SHAM) to model the stellar mass function (SMF) and clustering of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) 'CMASS' sample at z ~ 0.5. We introduce a novel method which accounts for the stellar mass incompleteness of CMASS as a function of redshift, and produce CMASS mock catalogues which include selection effects, reproduce the overall SMF, the projected two-point correlation function w p , the CMASS dn/dz, and are made publicly available. We study the effects of assembly bias above collapse mass in the context of 'age matching' and show that these effects are markedly different compared to the ones explored by Hearin et al. at lower stellar masses. We construct two models, one in which galaxy colour is stochastic ('AbM' model) as well as a model which contains assembly bias effects ('AgM' model). By confronting the redshift dependent clustering of CMASS with the predictions from our model, we argue that that galaxy colours are not a stochastic process in high-mass haloes. Lastly, our results suggest that the colours of galaxies in high-mass haloes are determined by other halo properties besides halo peak velocity and that assembly bias effects play an important role in determining the clustering properties of this sample.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2015

A SIMPLE TECHNIQUE FOR PREDICTING HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXY EVOLUTION

We show that the ratio of galaxies' specific star formation rates (SSFRs) to their host halos' specific mass accretion rates (SMARs) strongly constrains how the galaxies' stellar masses, SSFRs, and host halo masses evolve over cosmic time. This evolutionary constraint provides a simple way to probe z > 8 galaxy populations without direct observations. Tests of the method with galaxy properties at z = 4 successfully reproduce the known evolution of the stellar mass-halo mass (SMHM) relation, galaxy SSFRs, and the cosmic star formation rate (CSFR) for 5 < z < 8. We then predict the continued evolution of these properties for 8 < z < 15. In contrast to the nonevolution in the SMHM relation at z < 4, the median galaxy mass at fixed halo mass increases strongly at z > 4. We show that this result is closely linked to the flattening in galaxy SSFRs at z > 2 compared to halo SMARs; we expect that average galaxy SSFRs at fixed stellar mass will continue their mild evolution to z ∼ 15. The expected CSFR shows no breaks or features at z > 8.5; this constrains both reionization and the possibility of a steep falloff in the CSFR at z = 9-10. Finally, we make predictions for stellar mass and luminosity functions for the James Webb Space Telescope, which should be able to observe one galaxy with M {sub *} ≳ 10{sup 8} M {sub ☉} per 10{sup 3} Mpc{sup 3} at z = 9.6 and one such galaxy per 10{sup 4} Mpc{sup 3} at z = 15.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗