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Issue A&A
Volume 478, Number 2, February I 2008
Page(s) 299 - 310
Section Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies)
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20078182



A&A 478, 299-310 (2008)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20078182

The VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS)

The dependence of clustering on galaxy stellar mass at z ~ 1
B. Meneux1, 2, L. Guzzo3, 2, 4, 5, B. Garilli1, O. Le Fèvre6, A. Pollo6, 7, J. Blaizot4, G. De Lucia4, M. Bolzonella8, F. Lamareille8, L. Pozzetti8, A. Cappi8, A. Iovino9, C. Marinoni10, H. J. McCracken11, 12, S. de la Torre6, D. Bottini1, V. Le Brun6, D. Maccagni1, J. P. Picat13, R. Scaramella14, 15, M. Scodeggio1, L. Tresse6, G. Vettolani14, A. Zanichelli14, U. Abbas6, C. Adami6, S. Arnouts6, S. Bardelli8, A. Bongiorno16, S. Charlot4, 11, P. Ciliegi8, T. Contini13, O. Cucciati9, 17, S. Foucaud18, P. Franzetti1, I. Gavignaud19, O. Ilbert20, B. Marano16, A. Mazure6, R. Merighi8, S. Paltani21, 22, R. Pellò13, M. Radovich23, D. Vergani1, G. Zamorani8, and E. Zucca8

1  INAF-IASF, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
2  Max Planck Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik, 85741 Garching, Germany
    e-mail: bmeneux@mpe.mpg.de
3  INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate (LC), Italy
4  Max Planck Institut fuer Astrophysik, 85741 Garching, Germany
5  European Southern Observatory, 85741 Garching, Germany
6  Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, UMR 6110 CNRS-Université de Provence, BP 8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France
7  Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University, ul Orla 171, 30-244 Kraków, Poland
8  INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani, 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
9  INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, Milan, Italy
10  Centre de Physique Théorique, UMR 6207 CNRS-Université de Provence, 13288 Marseille, France
11  Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, 98bis Bvd. Arago, 75014 Paris, France
12  Observatoire de Paris, LERMA, 61 avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
13  Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse/Tarbes (UMR5572), CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 14 Av. E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
14  IRA-INAF - via Gobetti,101, 40129, Bologna, Italy
15  INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via di Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
16  Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Astronomia, via Ranzani, 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
17  Universitá di Milano-Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica, Piazza delle Scienze, 3, 20126 Milano, Italy
18  School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG72RD, UK
19  Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
20  Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Dr., University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822
21  Integral Science Data Centre, Ch. d'Écogia 16, 1290 Versoix
22  Geneva Observatory, Ch. des Maillettes 51, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
23  INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, via Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy

(Received 28 June 2007 / Accepted 14 November 2007)

Abstract
Aims.We present a measurement of the dependence of galaxy clustering on galaxy stellar mass at redshift $z\sim0.9$, based on the first-epoch data from the VVDS-Deep survey.
Methods.Concentrating on the redshift interval 0.5<z<1.2, we measured the projected correlation function, $w_{\rm p}(r_{\rm p})$, within mass-selected sub-samples covering the range ~109 and ~ $10^{11}~M_\odot$. We explored and quantify in detail the observational selection biases due to the flux-limited nature of the survey, both from the data themselves and with a suite of realistic mock samples constructed by coupling the Millennium Simulation to semi-analytic models. We identify the range of masses within which our main conclusions are robust against these effects. Serious incompleteness in mass is present below $\log\,(M/M_\odot)=9.5$, with about two thirds of the galaxies in the range $9<\log\,(M/M_\odot)<9.5$ that are lost due to their low luminosity and high mass-to-light ratio. However, the sample is expected to be 100% complete in mass above $\log\,(M/M_\odot)=10$.
Results.We present the first direct evidence for a dependence of clustering on the galaxy stellar mass at a redshift as high as $z\sim0.85$. We quantify this by fitting the projected function $w_{\rm p}(r_{\rm p})$ with a power-law model. The clustering length increases from r0=2.76-0.15+0.17 h-1 Mpc for galaxies with mass $M>10^{9}~M_\odot$ to r0=4.28-0.45+0.43 h-1 Mpc when only the most massive ( $M>10^{10.5}~M_\odot$) are considered. At the same time, we observe a significant increase in the slope, which over the same range of masses, changes from $\gamma=1.67_{-0.07}^{+0.08}$ to $\gamma=2.28_{-0.27}^{+0.28}$.

Comparison to the SDSS measurements at $z\sim0.15$ shows that the evolution of $w_{\rm p}(r_{\rm p})$ is significant for samples of galaxies with $M<10^{10.5}~M_\odot$, while it is negligible for more massive objects. Considering the growth of structure, this implies that the linear bias $b_{\rm L}$ of the most massive galaxies evolves more rapidly between these two cosmic epochs. We quantify this effect by computing the value of $b_{\rm L}$ from the SDSS and VVDS clustering amplitudes and find that $b_{\rm L}$ decreases from $1.5\pm0.2$ at $z\sim0.85$ to $1.33\pm0.03$ at $z\sim0.15$, for the most massive galaxies, while it remains virtually constant ( $b_{\rm L}\sim1.3$) for the remaining population. Qualitatively, this is the kind of scenario expected for the clustering of dark-matter halos as a function of their total mass and redshift. Our result therefore seems to indicate that galaxies with the highest stellar mass today were originally central objects of the most massive dark-matter halos at earlier times, whose distribution was strongly biased with respect to the overall mass density field.


Key words: cosmology: observations -- galaxies: evolution -- surveys -- cosmology: large-scale structure of Universe



© ESO 2008

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