Comparison of the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey with the Munich semi-analytical model
I. Magnitude counts, redshift distribution, colour bimodality, and galaxy clustering⋆
1
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera,
via Bianchi 46, 23807
Merate,
Italy
e-mail: sylvain.delatorre@brera.inaf.it
2
INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di
Milano, via Bassini
15, 20133
Milano,
Italy
3
Max Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik,
Giessenbachstrasse 1,
85748
Garching bei München,
Germany
4
Universitätssternwarte München, Scheinerstrasse 1, 81679
München,
Germany
5
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste,
via Tiepolo 11, 34131
Trieste,
Italy
6
Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon, UMR 5574, Université
Claude Bernard Lyon-École Normale Supérieure de Lyon-CNRS,
69230
Saint-Genis Laval,
France
7
Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, UMR 6110,
CNRS-Université de Provence, 38 rue
Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 13388
Marseille,
France
8
Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, Université Pierre et
Marie Curie, 98bis Bd.
Arago, 75014
Paris,
France
9
The Andrzej Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies,
ul. Hoza 69, 00-681
Warszawa,
Poland
10
Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian
University, ul Orla 171,
30-244, Kraków,
Poland
11
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino,
strada Osservatorio 20,
10025
Pino Torinese,
Italy
12
IRA-INAF, via
Gobetti 101, 40129
Bologna,
Italy
13
Canada France Hawaii Telescope corporation,
Mamalahoa Hwy, Kamuela, HI-96743, USA
14
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna,
via Ranzani 1, 40127
Bologna,
Italy
15
Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Toulouse-Tarbes, UMR 5572,
CNRS-Université de Toulouse, 14 Av.
E. Belin, 31400
Toulouse,
France
16
Department of Earth Sciences, National Taiwan Normal
University, 88 Tingzhou Road, Sec.
4, Taipei
11677, Taiwan, PR China
17
Departamento de Ciencias Fisicas, Facultad de Ingenieria,
Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile
18
Centre de Physique Théorique, UMR 6207, CNRS-Université de
Provence, 13288
Marseille,
France
19
ISDC, Geneva Observatory, University of Geneva,
Ch. d’Ècogia 16,
1290
Versoix,
Switzerland
Received: 6 August 2010
Accepted: 2 October 2010
Aims. This paper presents a detailed comparison between high-redshift observations from the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) and predictions from the Munich semi-analytical model of galaxy formation. In particular, we focus this analysis on the magnitude, redshift, and colour distributions of galaxies, as well as their clustering properties.
Methods. We constructed 100 quasi-independent mock catalogues, using the output of the semi-analytical model presented in De Lucia & Blaizot (2007, MNRAS, 375, 2). We then applied the same observational selection function of the VVDS-Deep survey, so as to carry out a fair comparison between models and observations.
Results. We find that the semi-analytical model reproduces well the magnitude counts in the optical bands. It tends, however, to overpredict the abundance of faint red galaxies, in particular in the i′ and z′ bands. Model galaxies exhibit a colour bimodality that is only in qualitative agreement with the data. In particular, we find that the model tends to overpredict the number of red galaxies at low redshift and of blue galaxies at all redshifts probed by VVDS-Deep observations, although a large fraction of the bluest observed galaxies is absent from the model. In addition, the model overpredicts by about 14 per cent the number of galaxies observed at 0.2 < z < 1 with IAB < 24. When comparing the galaxy clustering properties, we find that model galaxies are more strongly clustered than observed ones at all redshift from z = 0.2 to z = 2, with the difference being less significant above z ≃ 1. When splitting the samples into red and blue galaxies, we find that the observed clustering of blue galaxies is well reproduced by the model, while red model galaxies are much more clustered than observed ones, being principally responsible for the strong global clustering found in the model.
Conclusions. Our results show that the discrepancies between Munich semi-analytical model predictions and VVDS-Deep observations, particularly in the galaxy colour distribution and clustering, can be explained to a large extend by an overabundance of satellite galaxies, mostly located in the red peak of the colour bimodality predicted by the model.
Key words: cosmology: observations / large-scale structure of Universe / galaxies: evolution / galaxies: high-redshift / galaxies: statistics
Based on data obtained with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope, Paranal, Chile, program 070.A-9007(A), and on data obtained at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, operated by the CNRS of France, CNRC in Canada and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at TERAPIX and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS.
© ESO, 2010