The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey

Measuring the growth rate of structure around cosmic voids^⋆

¹ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, 20122 Milano, via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate, Italy
e-mail: adam.hawken@brera.inaf.it
² Università degli Studi di Milano, via G. Celoria 16, 20130 Milano, Italy
³ INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Milano, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
⁴ Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille) UMR 7326, 13388 Marseille, France
⁵ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy
⁶ Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, 65–1238 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, HI 96743, USA
⁷ Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CPT, UMR 7332, 13288 Marseille, France
⁸ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
⁹ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
¹⁰ Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Dennis Sciama Building, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, PO1 3FX, UK
¹¹ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
¹² Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
¹³ Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, ul. Swietokrzyska 15, 25-406 Kielce, Poland
¹⁴ Department of Particle and Astrophysical Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, 464-8602 Nagoya, Japan
¹⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
¹⁶ INFN, Sezione di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
¹⁷ Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR 7293, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, 06300 Nice, France
¹⁸ Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University, Orla 171, 30-001 Cracow, Poland
¹⁹ National Centre for Nuclear Research, ul. Hoza 69, 00-681 Warszawa, Poland
²⁰ INAF–Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Bologna, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
²¹ INAF–Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
²² INFN, Sezione di Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
²³ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone (RM), Italy

Received: 9 September 2016
Accepted: 22 February 2017

Abstract

We aim to develop a novel methodology for measuring thegrowth rate of structure around cosmic voids. We identified voids in the completed VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS), using an algorithm based on searching for empty spheres. We measured the cross-correlation between the centres of voids and the complete galaxy catalogue. The cross-correlation function exhibits a clear anisotropy in both VIPERS fields (W1 and W4), which is characteristic of linear redshift space distortions. By measuring the projected cross-correlation and then de-projecting it we are able to estimate the un-distorted cross-correlation function. We propose that given a sufficiently well-measured cross-correlation function one should be able to measure the linear growth rate of structure by applying a simple linear Gaussian streaming model for the redshift space distortions (RSD). Our study of voids in 306 mock galaxy catalogues mimicking the VIPERS fields suggests that VIPERS is capable of measuring β, the ratio of the linear growth rate to the bias, with an error of around 25%. Applying our method to the VIPERS data, we find a value for the redshift space distortion parameter, β = 0.423_-0.108^+0.104 which, given the bias of the galaxy population we use, gives a linear growth rate of f σ₈ = 0.296_-0.078^+0.075 at z = 0.727. These results are consistent with values observed in parallel VIPERS analyses that use standard techniques.