Evolution of clustering length, large-scale bias, and host halo mass at 2< z<5 in the VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey (VUDS)

A. Durkalec , O. Le Fevre (1) , A. Pollo (1) , S. de La Torre (1) , P. Cassata (1) , B. Garilli , V. Le Brun (1) , B. C. Lemaux (1) , D. Maccagni (2) , L. Pentericci (3) , L. A. M. Tasca (1) , R. Thomas , E. Vanzella (4) , G. Zamorani (4) , E. Zucca (5) , R. Amorín (3) , S. Bardelli (6) , L. P. Cassara , M. Castellano (3) , Alessandro Cimatti (7) , O. Cucciati (6) , A. Fontana (3) , M. Giavalisco (8) , A. Grazian (3) , N. P. Hathi , O. Ilbert (1) , S. Paltani (9) , B. Ribeiro , D. Schaerer , M. Scodeggio (10) , V. Sommariva (3) , M. Talia (7) , L. Tresse (1) , D. Vergani (11) , P. Capak (12) , S. Charlot , T. Contini (13) , J. G. Cuby (1) , J. Dunlop (14) , S. Fotopoulou (15) , A. Koekemoer (16) , C. Lopez-Sanjuan (1) , Y. Mellier (17) , J. Pforr (18) , M. Salvato (19) , N. Scoville (20) , Y. Taniguchi (2) , P. W. Wang

1 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
2 AUTRES
3 OAR - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma
4 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
5 Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland
6 OABO - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna
7 UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna
8 Department of Astronomy [Amherst]
9 ISDC Data Centre for Astrophysics
10 INAF- Milano
11 OAA - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
12 MPIA - Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
13 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
14 SUPA, Institute for Astronomy
15 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
16 STSci - Space Telescope Science Institute
17 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
18 Institute of cosmology and gravitation
19 MPE - Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik
20 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology

We investigate the evolution of galaxy clustering for galaxies in the redshift range 2.0 \textless z \textless 5.0 using the VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey (VUDS). We present the projected (real-space) two-point correlation function w(p)(r(p)) measured by using 3022 galaxies with robust spectroscopic redshifts in two independent fields (COSMOS and VVDS-02h) covering in total 0.8 deg(2). We quantify how the scale dependent clustering amplitude r(0) changes with redshift making use of mock samples to evaluate and correct the survey selection function. Using a power-law model xi(r) = (r/r(0))(-gamma) we find that the correlation function for the general population is best fit by a model with a clustering length r(0) = 3.95(-0.54)(+0.48) h(-1) Mpc and slope y = 1.8(-0.06)(+0.02) at z similar to 2.5, r(0) = 4.35 +/- 0.60 h(-1) Mpc and gamma = 1.6(-0.13)(+0.12) at z similar to 3.5. We use these clustering parameters to derive the large-scale linear galaxy bias b(L)(PL), between galaxies and dark matter. We find b(L)(PL) = 2.68 +/- 0.22 at redshift z similar to 3 (assuming sigma(8) = 0.8), significantly higher than found at intermediate and low redshifts for the similarly general galaxy populations. We fit a halo occupation distribution (HOD) model to the data and we obtain that the average halo mass at redshift z similar to 3 is M-h = 10(11.75+/-0.23) h(-1) M-circle dot. From this fit we confirm that the large-scale linear galaxy bias is relatively high at b(L)(HOD) = 2.82 +/- 0.27. Comparing these measurements with similar measurements at lower redshifts we infer that the star-forming population of galaxies at z similar to 3 should evolve into the massive and bright (M-r \textless -21.5) galaxy population, which typically occupy haloes of mass \textless M-h \textgreater = 10(13.9) h(-1) M-circle dot at redshift z = 0.

Mots clés: Methods: statistical; Galaxies: evolution; Large-scale structure of Universe; Cosmology: observations

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

A. Durkalec, O. Le Fevre, A. Pollo, S. de La Torre, P. Cassata, et al.. Evolution of clustering length, large-scale bias, and host halo mass at 2< z<5 in the VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey (VUDS). Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2015, 583, ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201425343⟩. ⟨hal-01439764⟩