The Color and Stellar Mass Dependence of Small-scale Galaxy Clustering in SDSS-III BOSS

Abstract

We measure the color and stellar mass dependence of clustering in spectroscopic galaxies at 0.6 < z < 0.65 using data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey component of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We greatly increase the statistical precision of our clustering measurements by using the cross-correlation of 66,657 spectroscopic galaxies to a sample of 6.6 million fainter photometric galaxies. The clustering amplitude w(R) is measured as the ratio of the mean excess number of photometric galaxies found within a specified radius annulus around a spectroscopic galaxy to that from a random photometric galaxy distribution. We recover many of the familiar trends at high signal-to-noise ratio. We find the ratio of the clustering amplitudes of red and blue massive galaxies to be w red /w blue = 1.92 ± 0.11 in our smallest annulus of 75-125 kpc. At our largest radii (2-4 Mpc), we find w red /w blue = 1.24 ± 0.05. Red galaxies therefore have denser environments than their blue counterparts at z ∼ 0.625, and this effect increases with decreasing radius. Irrespective of color, we find that w(R) does not obey a simple power-law relation with radius, showing a dip around 1 Mpc. Holding stellar mass fixed, we find a clear differentiation between clustering in red and blue galaxies, showing that clustering is not solely determined by stellar mass. Holding color fixed, we find that clustering increases with stellar mass, especially for red galaxies at small scales (more than a factor of 2 effect over 0.75 dex in stellar mass).

Inferring the star formation histories of massive quiescent galaxies with bagpipes: evidence for multiple quenching mechanisms

“…In addition, the same bimodality has been observed in several other properties, such as environment (e.g. Baldry et al 2006;Hartley et al 2010;Chuter et al 2011;Law-Smith & Eisenstein 2017) and morphology (e.g. Papovich et al 2012;Bell et al 2012;Strazzullo et al 2013;van der Wel et al 2014), with blue, star-forming galaxies exhibiting a more disk-like morphology and being less strongly clustered than red, quiescent galaxies, which typically exhibit early-type morphologies.…”

Shadows in the Dark: Low-surface-brightness Galaxies Discovered in the Dark Energy Survey

“…The differences in clustering amplitude between red and blue galaxies has been studied extensively in spectroscopic surveys (e.g., Zehavi et al 2002Zehavi et al , 2005Zehavi et al , 2011Law-Smith & Eisenstein 2017). In particular, it has been noted that there is a strong difference in the amplitude and shape of the autocorrelation function of intrinsically faint red galaxies relative to brighter and/or bluer galaxies (e.g., Norberg et al 2002;Hogg et al 2003;Zehavi et al 2005;Swanson et al 2008;Cresswell & Percival 2009;Zehavi et al 2011).…”

Shadows in the Dark: Low-Surface-Brightness Galaxies Discovered in the Dark Energy Survey

“…The differences in clustering amplitude between red and blue galaxies has been studied extensively in spectroscopic surveys (e.g., Zehavi et al 2002Zehavi et al , 2005Zehavi et al , 2011Law-Smith & Eisenstein 2017). In particular, it has been noted that there is a strong difference in the amplitude and shape of the auto-correlation function of intrinsically faint red galaxies relative to brighter and/or bluer galaxies (e.g., Norberg et al 2002;Hogg et al 2003;Zehavi et al 2005;Swanson et al 2008;Cresswell & Percival 2009;Zehavi et al 2011).…”