The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) ^⋆

Luminosity and stellar mass dependence of galaxy clustering at 0.5 < z < 1.1

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia – Università di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
e-mail: federico.marulli3@unibo.it
² INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
³ INFN – Sezione di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
⁴ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
⁵ INFN – Sezione di Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
⁶ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone (RM), Italy
⁷ SUPA – Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
⁸ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, 20122 Milano, via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate, Italy
⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano-Bicocca, P.zza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy
¹⁰ Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University, Orla 171, 30-001 Cracow, Poland
¹¹ National Centre for Nuclear Research, ul. Hoza 69, 00-681 Warszawa, Poland
¹² INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy
¹³ Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille) UMR 7326, 13388 Marseille, France
¹⁴ Canada–France-Hawaii Telescope, 65–1238 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, HI 96743, USA
¹⁵ Centre de Physique Théorique, UMR 6207 CNRS-Université de Provence, Case 907, 13288 Marseille, France
¹⁶ INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Milano, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
¹⁷ Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR 7293, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, 06300 Nice, France
¹⁸ Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, PO Box 23–141, 10617 Taipei, Taiwan
¹⁹ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
²⁰ Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, ul. Swietokrzyska 15, 25-406 Kielce, Poland
²¹ Department of Particle and Astrophysical Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, 464-8602 Nagoya, Japan
²² Institute d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095 CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98bis Boulevard arago, 75014 Paris, France
²³ Universitätssternwarte München, Ludwig-Maximillians Universität, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 München, Germany
²⁴ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, 84571 Garching b. München, Germany
²⁵ Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Dennis Sciama Building, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, PO1 3FX, UK
²⁶ INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Bologna, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
²⁷ INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
²⁸ Università degli Studi di Milano, via G. Celoria 16, 20130 Milano, Italy

Received: 14 March 2013
Accepted: 30 May 2013

Abstract

Aims. We investigate the dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity and stellar mass in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.1, using the first ~ 55 000 redshifts from the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS).

Methods. We measured the redshift-space two-point correlation functions (2PCF), ξ(s) and ξ(r_p,π) , and the projected correlation function, w_p(r_p), in samples covering different ranges of B-band absolute magnitudes and stellar masses. We considered both threshold and binned galaxy samples, with median B-band absolute magnitudes − 21.6 ≲ M_B − 5log (h) ≲ − 19.5 and median stellar masses 9.8 ≲ log (M_⋆ [h^-2 M_⊙]) ≲ 10.7. We assessed the real-space clustering in the data from the projected correlation function, which we model as a power law in the range 0.2 < r_p [h^-1 Mpc ] < 20. Finally, we estimated the galaxy bias as a function of luminosity, stellar mass, and redshift, assuming a flat Λ cold dark matter model to derive the dark matter 2PCF.

Results. We provide the best-fit parameters of the power-law model assumed for the real-space 2PCF – the correlation length, r₀, and the slope, γ – as well as the linear bias parameter, as a function of the B-band absolute magnitude, stellar mass, and redshift. We confirm and provide the tightest constraints on the dependence of clustering on luminosity at 0.5 < z < 1.1. We prove the complexity of comparing the clustering dependence on stellar mass from samples that are originally flux-limited and discuss the possible origin of the observed discrepancies. Overall, our measurements provide stronger constraints on galaxy formation models, which are now required to match, in addition to local observations, the clustering evolution measured by VIPERS galaxies between z = 0.5 and z = 1.1 for a broad range of luminosities and stellar masses.