arXiv subjects

Cedric G. Lacey

Publications and source records attributed to Cedric G. Lacey.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

A new methodology to test galaxy formation models using the dependence of clustering on stellar mass

We present predictions for the two-point correlation function of galaxy clustering as a function of stellar mass, computed using two new versions of the GALFORM semi-analytic galaxy formation model. These models make use of a high resolution, large volume N-body simulation, set in the WMAP7 cosmology. One model uses a universal stellar initial mass function (IMF), while the other assumes different IMFs for quiescent star formation and bursts. Particular consideration is given to how the assumptions required to estimate the stellar masses of observed galaxies (such as the choice of IMF, stellar population synthesis model and dust extinction) influence the perceived dependence of galaxy clustering on stellar mass. Broad-band spectral energy distribution fitting is carried out to estimate stellar masses for the model galaxies in the same manner as in observational studies. We show clear differences between the clustering signals computed using the true and estimated model stellar masses. As such, we highlight the importance of applying our methodology to compare theoretical models to observations. We introduce an alternative scheme for the calculation of the merger timescales for satellite galaxies in GALFORM, which takes into account the dark matter subhalo information from the simulation. This reduces the amplitude of small-scale clustering. The new merger scheme offers improved or similar agreement with observational clustering measurements, over the redshift range 0 < z < 0.7. We find reasonable agreement with clustering measurements from GAMA, but find larger discrepancies for some stellar mass ranges and separation scales with respect to measurements from SDSS and VIPERS, depending on the GALFORM model used.

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arXiv2014

The environments of Ly$α$ blobs I: Wide-field Ly$α$ imaging of TN J1338-1942, a powerful radio galaxy at $z\simeq 4.1$ associated with a giant Ly$α$ nebula

We exploit wide-field Ly$alpha$ imaging with Subaru to probe the environment around TN J1338-1942, a powerful radio galaxy with a >100 kpc Ly$α$ halo at z=4.11. We used a sample of Ly$α$ emitters (LAEs) down to $\log(L_{\rm Lyα} [erg\, s^{-1}])\sim 42.8$ to measure the galaxy density around TNJ1338, compared to a control sample from a blank field taken with the same instrument. We found that TNJ1338 resides in a region with a peak overdensity of $δ_{\rm LAE}=2.8\pm 0.5$ on scales of $8\, h^{-1}\rm Mpc$ (on the sky) and $112\, h^{-1}\rm Mpc$ (line of sight) in comoving coordinates. Adjacent to this overdensity, we found a strong underdensity where virtually no LAEs are detected. We used a semi-analytical model of LAEs derived from the Millennium Simulation to compare our results with theoretical predictions. While the theoretical density distribution is consistent with the blank field, overdense regions such as that around TNJ1338 are very rare, with a number density of $6.4\times 10^{-8}\rm Mpc^{-3}$ (comoving), corresponding to the densest < 0.4 percentile at $z\simeq 4.1$. We also found that the Ly$α$ luminosity function in the TNJ1338 field differs from that in the blank field: the number of bright LAEs ($\log(L_{\rm Lyα}[erg\,s^{-1}]) \gtrsim 43.3$) is enhanced, while the number of fainter LAEs is relatively suppressed. These results suggest that some powerful radio galaxies associated with Ly$α$ nebulae reside in extreme overdensities on $\sim 3$--$6\, \rm Mpc$ scales, where star-formation and AGN activity may be enhanced via frequent galaxy mergers or high rates of gas accretion from the surroundings.

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arXiv2014

Simulated observations of sub-millimetre galaxies: the impact of single-dish resolution and field variance

Recent observational evidence suggests that the coarse angular resolution ($\sim20"$ FWHM) of single-dish telescopes at sub-mm wavelengths has biased the observed galaxy number counts by blending together the sub-mm emission from multiple sub-mm galaxies (SMGs). We use lightcones computed from an updated implementation of the \galform semi-analytic model to generate $50$ mock sub-mm surveys of $0.5$ deg$^2$ at $850$ $μ$m, taking into account the effects of the finite single-dish beam in a more accurate way than has been done previously. We find that blending of SMGs does lead to an enhancement of source extracted number counts at bright fluxes ($S_{\mathrm{850}μ\mathrm{m}}\gtrsim1$ mJy). Typically, $\sim3{-}6$ galaxies contribute $90\%$ of the flux of an $S_{850μ\mathrm{m}}=5$ mJy source and these blended galaxies are physically unassociated. We find that field-to-field variations are comparable to Poisson fluctuations for our $S_{850μ\mathrm{m}}>5$ mJy SMG population, which has a median redshift $z_{50}=2.0$, but are greater than Poisson for the $S_{850μ\mathrm{m}}>1$ mJy population ($z_{50}=2.8$). In a detailed comparison to a recent interferometric survey targeted at single-dish detected sources, we reproduce the difference between single-dish and interferometer number counts and find a median redshift ($z_{50}=2.5$) in excellent agreement with the observed value ($z_{50}=2.5\pm 0.2$). We also present predictions for single-dish survey number counts at $450$ and $1100$ $μ$m, which show good agreement with observational data.

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arXiv2014

The evolution of the star forming sequence in hierarchical galaxy formation models

It has been argued that the specific star formation rates of star forming galaxies inferred from observational data decline more rapidly below z = 2 than is predicted by hierarchical galaxy formation models. We present a detailed analysis of this problem by comparing predictions from the GALFORM semi-analytic model with an extensive compilation of data on the average star formation rates of star-forming galaxies. We also use this data to infer the form of the stellar mass assembly histories of star forming galaxies. Our analysis reveals that the currently available data favour a scenario where the stellar mass assembly histories of star forming galaxies rise at early times and then fall towards the present day. In contrast, our model predicts stellar mass assembly histories that are almost flat below z = 2 for star forming galaxies, such that the predicted star formation rates can be offset with respect to the observational data by factors of up to 2-3. This disagreement can be explained by the level of coevolution between stellar and halo mass assembly that exists in contemporary galaxy formation models. In turn, this arises because the standard implementations of star formation and supernova feedback used in the models result in the efficiencies of these process remaining approximately constant over the lifetime of a given star forming galaxy. We demonstrate how a modification to the timescale for gas ejected by feedback to be reincorporated into galaxy haloes can help to reconcile the model predictions with the data.

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arXiv2013

Clustering of Extremely Red Objects in Elais-N1 from the UKIDSS DXS with optical photometry from Pan-STARRS1 and Subaru

We measure the angular clustering of 33 415 extremely red objects (EROs) in the Elais-N1 field covering 5.33 deg$^{2}$, which cover the redshift range $z=0.8$ to $2$. This sample was made by merging the UKIDSS Deep eXtragalactic Survey (DXS) with the optical Subaru and Pan-STARRS PS1 datasets. We confirm the existence of a clear break in the angular correlation function at $\sim 0.02^{\circ}$ corresponding to $1 h^{-1}$ Mpc at $z\sim1$. We find that redder or brighter EROs are more clustered than bluer or fainter ones. Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) model fits imply that the average mass of dark matter haloes which host EROs is over $10^{13} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$ and that EROs have a bias ranging from 2.7 to 3.5. Compared to EROs at $z\sim1.1$, at $z\sim1.5$ EROs have a higher bias and fewer are expected to be satellite galaxies. Furthermore, EROs reside in similar dark matter haloes to those that host $10^{11.0} M_{\odot}<M_{*}<10^{11.5} M_{\odot}$ galaxies. We compare our new measurement and HOD fits with the predictions of the GALFORM semi-analytical galaxy formation model. Overall, the clustering predicted by GALFORM gives an encouraging match to our results. However, compared to our deductions from the measurements, GALFORM puts EROs into lower mass haloes and predicts that a larger fraction of EROs are satellite galaxies. This suggests that the treatment of gas cooling may need to be revised in the model. Our analysis illustrates the potential of clustering analyses to provide observational constraints on theoretical models of galaxy formation.

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arXiv2013

Extending the halo mass resolution of $N$-body simulations

We present a scheme to extend the halo mass resolution of N-body simulations of the hierarchical clustering of dark matter. The method uses the density field of the simulation to predict the number of sub-resolution dark matter haloes expected in different regions. The technique requires as input the abundance of haloes of a given mass and their average clustering, as expressed through the linear and higher order bias factors. These quantities can be computed analytically or, more accurately, derived from a higher resolution simulation as done here. Our method can recover the abundance and clustering in real- and redshift-space of haloes with mass below $\sim 7.5 \times 10^{13}h^{-1}M_{\odot}$ at $z=0$ to better than 10%. We demonstrate the technique by applying it to an ensemble of 50 low resolution, large-volume $N$-body simulations to compute the correlation function and covariance matrix of luminous red galaxies (LRGs). The limited resolution of the original simulations results in them resolving just two thirds of the LRG population. We extend the resolution of the simulations by a factor of 30 in halo mass in order to recover all LRGs. With existing simulations it is possible to generate a halo catalogue equivalent to that which would be obtained from a $N$-body simulation using more than 20 trillion particles; a direct simulation of this size is likely to remain unachievable for many years. Using our method it is now feasible to build the large numbers of high-resolution large volume mock galaxy catalogues required to compute the covariance matrices necessary to analyse upcoming galaxy surveys designed to probe dark energy.

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arXiv2013

A dynamical model of supernova feedback: gas outflows from the interstellar medium

We present a dynamical model of supernova feedback which follows the evolution of pressurised bubbles driven by supernovae in a multi-phase interstellar medium (ISM). The bubbles are followed until the point of break-out into the halo, starting from an initial adiabatic phase to a radiative phase. We show that a key property which sets the fate of bubbles in the ISM is the gas surface density, through the work done by the expansion of bubbles and its role in setting the gas scaleheight. The multi-phase description of the ISM is essential, and neglecting it leads to order of magnitude differences in the predicted outflow rates. We compare our predicted mass loading and outflow velocities to observations of local and high-redshift galaxies and find good agreement over a wide range of stellar masses and velocities. With the aim of analysing the dependence of the mass loading of the outflow, beta (i.e. the ratio between the outflow and star formation rates), on galaxy properties, we embed our model in the galaxy formation simulation, GALFORM, set in the LCDM framework. We find that a dependence of beta solely on the circular velocity, as is widely assumed in the literature, is actually a poor description of the outflow rate, as large variations with redshift and galaxy properties are obtained. Moreover, we find that below a circular velocity of 80km/s the mass loading saturates. A more fundamental relation is that between beta and the gas scaleheight of the disk, hg, and the gas fraction, fgas, as beta hg^(1.1) fgas^(0.4), or the gas surface density, Σ_g, and the gas fraction, as beta Σ_g^(-0.6) fgas^(0.8). We find that using the new mass loading model leads to a shallower faint-end slope in the predicted optical and near-IR galaxy luminosity functions.

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arXiv2013

Single Colour Diagnostics of the Mass-to-light Ratio: Predictions from Galaxy Formation Models

Accurate galaxy stellar masses are crucial to better understand the physical mechanisms driving the galaxy formation process. We use synthetic star formation and metal enrichment histories predicted by the {\sc galform} galaxy formation model to investigate the precision with which various colours $(m_{a}-m_{b})$ can alone be used as diagnostics of the stellar mass-to-light ratio. As an example, we find that, at $z=0$, the {\em intrinsic} (B$_{f435w}-$V$_{f606w}$) colour can be used to determine the intrinsic rest-frame $V$-band stellar mass-to-light ratio ($\log_{10}Γ_{V}=\log_{10}[(M/M_{\odot})/(L_{V}/L_{V\odot})]$) with a precision of $σ_{lgΓ}\simeq 0.06$ when the initial mass function and redshift are known beforehand. While the presence of dust, assuming a universal attenuation curve, can have a systematic effect on the inferred mass-to-light ratio using a single-colour relation, this is typically small as it is often possible to choose a colour for which the dust reddening vector is approximately aligned with the $(m_{a}-m_{b})-\log_{10}Γ_{V}$ relation. The precision with which the stellar mass-to-light ratio can be recovered using a single colour diagnostic rivals implementations of SED fitting using more information but in which simple parameterisations of the star formation and metal enrichment histories are assumed. To facilitate the wide use of these relations, we provide the optimal observer frame colour to estimate the stellar mass-to-light ratio, along with the associated parameters, as a function of redshift ($0<z<1.5$) for two sets of commonly used filters.

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arXiv2013

Lightcone mock catalogues from semi-analytic models of galaxy formation - I. Construction and application to the BzK colour selection

We introduce a method for constructing end-to-end mock galaxy catalogues using a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation, applied to the halo merger trees extracted from a cosmological N-body simulation. The mocks that we construct are lightcone catalogues, in which a galaxy is placed according to the epoch at which it first enters the past lightcone of the observer, and incorporate the evolution of galaxy properties with cosmic time. We determine the position between the snapshot outputs at which a galaxy enters the observer's lightcone by interpolation. As an application, we consider the effectiveness of the BzK colour selection technique, which was designed to isolate galaxies in the redshift interval 1.4<z<2.5. The mock catalogue is in reasonable agreement with the observed number counts of all BzK galaxies, as well as with the observed counts of the subsample of BzKs that are star-forming galaxies. We predict that over 75 per cent of the model galaxies with K_{AB}<=23, and 1.4<z<2.5, are selected by the BzK technique. Interloper galaxies, outside the intended redshift range, are predicted to dominate bright samples of BzK galaxies (i.e. with K_{AB}<=21). Fainter K-band cuts are necessary to reduce the predicted interloper fraction. We also show that shallow B-band photometry can lead to confusion in classifying BzK galaxies as being star-forming or passively evolving. Overall, we conclude that the BzK colour selection technique is capable of providing a sample of galaxies that is representative of the 1.4<z<2.5 galaxy population.

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arXiv2012

Simulations and modelling of the ISM in galaxies

The latest observations of molecular gas and the atomic hydrogen content of local and high-redshift galaxies, coupled with how these correlate with star formation activity, have revolutionized our ideas about how to model star formation in a galactic context. A successful theory of galaxy formation has to explain some key facts: (i) high-redshift galaxies have higher molecular gas fractions and star formation rates than local galaxies, (ii) scaling relations show that the atomic-to-stellar mass ratio decreases with stellar mass in the local Universe, and (iii) the global abundance of atomic hydrogen evolves very weakly with time. We review how modern cosmological simulations of galaxy formation attempt to put these pieces together and highlight how approaches simultaneously solving dark matter and gas physics, and approaches first solving the dark matter N-body problem and then dealing with gas physics using semi-analytic models, differ and complement each other. We review the observable predictions, what we think we have learned so far and what still needs to be done in the simulations to allow robust testing by the new observations expected from telescopes such as ALMA, PdBI, LMT, JVLA, ASKAP, MeerKAT, SKA.

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arXiv2012

The accuracy of the UV continuum as an indicator of the star formation rate in galaxies

The rest-frame intrinsic UV luminosity is often used as an indicator of the instantaneous star formation rate (SFR) in a galaxy. While it is in general a robust indicator of the ongoing star formation activity, the precise value of the calibration relating the UV luminosity to the SFR ($B_ν$), is sensitive to various physical properties, such as the recent star formation and metal enrichment histories, along with the choice of stellar initial mass function. The distribution of these properties for the star-forming galaxy population then suggests that the adoption of a single calibration is not appropriate unless properly qualified with the uncertainties on the calibration. We investigate, with the aid of the {\sc galform} semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, the distribution of UV-SFR calibrations obtained using realistic star formation and metal enrichment histories. At $z=0$, we find that when the initial mass function is fixed (to the Kennicutt IMF), the median calibration is $B_{\rm fuv}=0.9$ where ${\rm SFR}/[{\rm M_{\odot}\,yr^{-1}}]=B_ν\times 10^{-28}\times L_ν/[{\rm ergs\,s^{-1}\,Hz^{-1}}]$. However, the width of the distribution $B_{\rm fuv}$ suggests that for a single object there is around a 20% {\em intrinsic} uncertainty (at $z=0$, rising to $\simeq 30%$ at $z=6$) on the star formation rate inferred from the FUV luminosity without additional constraints on the star formation history or metallicity. We also find that the median value of the calibration $B_{\rm fuv}$ is correlated with the star formation rate and redshift (at $z>3$) raising implications for the correct determination of the star formation rate from the UV.

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arXiv2012

Predictions for the CO emission of galaxies from a coupled simulation of galaxy formation and photon dominated regions

We combine the galaxy formation model GALFORM with the Photon Dominated Region code UCL_PDR to study the emission from the rotational transitions of 12CO (CO) in galaxies from z=0 to z=6 in the Lambda CDM framework. GALFORM is used to predict the molecular (H2) and atomic hydrogen (HI) gas contents of galaxies using the pressure-based empirical star formation relation of Blitz & Rosolowsky. From the predicted H2 mass and the conditions in the interstellar medium, we estimate the CO emission in the rotational transitions 1-0 to 10-9 by applying the UCL_PDR model to each galaxy. We find that deviations from the Milky-Way CO-H2 conversion factor come mainly from variations in metallicity, and in the average gas and star formation rate surface densities. In the local universe, the model predicts a CO(1-0) luminosity function (LF), CO-to-total infrared (IR) luminosity ratios for multiple CO lines and a CO spectral line energy distribution (SLED) which are in good agreement with observations of luminous and ultra-luminous IR galaxies. At high redshifts, the predicted CO SLED of the brightest IR galaxies reproduces the shape and normalization of the observed CO SLED. The model predicts little evolution in the CO-to-IR luminosity ratio for different CO transitions, in good agreement with observations up to z~5. We use this new hybrid model to explore the potential of using colour selected samples of high-redshift star-forming galaxies to characterise the evolution of the cold gas mass in galaxies through observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array.

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arXiv2012

Predictions for the intrinsic UV continuum properties of star forming galaxies and the implications for inferring dust extinction

The observed ultraviolet continuum (UVC) slope is potentially a powerful diagnostic of dust obscuration in star forming galaxies. However, the intrinsic slope is also sensitive to the form of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and to the recent star formation and metal enrichment histories of a galaxy. Using the galform semi-analytical model of galaxy formation, we investigate the intrinsic distribution of UVC slopes. For star-forming galaxies, we find that the intrinsic distribution of UVC slopes at z=0, parameterised by the power law index beta, has a standard deviation of sigma_beta=0.30. This suggests an uncertainty on the inferred UV attenuation of A_fuv=0.7$ (assuming a Calzetti attenuation curve) for an individual object, even with perfect photometry. Furthermore, we find that the intrinsic UVC slope correlates with star formation rate, intrinsic UV luminosity, stellar mass and redshift. These correlations have implications for the interpretation of trends in the observed UVC slope with these quantities irrespective of the sample size or quality of the photometry. Our results suggest that in some cases the attenuation by dust has been incorrectly estimated.

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arXiv2011

Can galactic outflows explain the properties of Ly-alpha emitters?

We study the properties of Ly-alpha emitters in a cosmological framework by computing the escape of Ly-alpha photons through galactic outflows. We combine the GALFORM semi-analytical model of galaxy formation with a Monte Carlo Ly-alpha radiative transfer code. The properties of Ly-alpha emitters at 0<z<7 are predicted using two outflow geometries: a Shell of neutral gas and a Wind ejecting material, both expanding at constant velocity. We characterise the differences in the Ly-alpha line profiles predicted by the two outflow geometries in terms of their width, asymmetry and shift from the line centre for a set of outflows with different hydrogen column densities, expansion velocities and metallicities. In general, the Ly-alpha line profile of the Shell geometry is broader and more asymmetric, and the Ly-alpha escape fraction is lower than with the Wind geometry for the same set of parameters. In order to implement the outflow geometries in the semi-analytical model GALFORM, a number of free parameters in the outflow model are set by matching the luminosity function of Ly-alpha emitters over the whole observed redshift range. The models are consistent with the observationally inferred Ly-alpha escape fractions, equivalent width distributions and with the shape of the Ly-alpha line from composite spectra. Interestingly, our predicted UV luminosity function of Ly-alpha emitters and the fraction of Ly-alpha emitters in Lyman-break galaxy samples at high redshift are in partial agreement with observations. Attenuation of the Ly-alpha line by the presence of a neutral intergalactic medium at high redshift could be responsible for this disagreement. We predict that Ly-alpha emitters constitute a subset of the galaxy population with lower metallicities, lower instantaneous star formation rates and larger sizes than the overall population at the same UV luminosity.

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arXiv2011

Cosmic evolution of the atomic and molecular gas content of galaxies

We study the evolution of the cold gas content of galaxies by splitting the interstellar medium into its atomic and molecular hydrogen components, using the galaxy formation model GALFORM in the LCDM framework. We calculate the molecular-to-atomic hydrogen mass ratio, H2/HI, in each galaxy using two different approaches; the pressure-based empirical relation of Blitz & Rosolowsky and the theoretical model of Krumholz, McKeee & Tumlinson, and apply them to consistently calculate the star formation rates of galaxies. We find that the model based on the Blitz & Rosolowsky law predicts an HI mass function, CO(1-0) luminosity function, correlations between the H2/HI ratio and stellar and cold gas mass, and infrared-CO luminosity relation in good agreement with local and high redshift observations. The HI mass function evolves weakly with redshift, with the number density of high mass galaxies decreasing with increasing redshift. In the case of the H2 mass function, the number density of massive galaxies increases strongly from z=0 to z=2, followed by weak evolution up to z=4. We also find that the H2/HI ratio of galaxies is strongly dependent on stellar and cold gas mass, and also on redshift. The slopes of the correlations between H2/HI and stellar and cold gas mass hardly evolve, but the normalisation increases by up to two orders of magnitude from z=0-8. The strong evolution in the H2 mass function and the H2/HI ratio is primarily due to the evolution in the sizes of galaxies and secondarily, in the gas fractions. The predicted cosmic density evolution of HI agrees with the observed evolution inferred from DLAs, and is dominated by low/intermediate mass halos. We find that previous theoretical studies have largely overestimated the redshift evolution of the global H2/HI ratio due to limited resolution. We predict a maximum of rho_H2/rho_HI~1.2 at z~3.5.

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arXiv2011

Numerical overcooling in shocks

We present a study of cooling in radiative shocks simulated with smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and adaptive mesh refinement codes. We obtain a similarity solution for a shock-tube problem in the presence of radiative cooling, and test how well the solution is reproduced in Gadget and Flash. Shock broadening governed by the details of the numerical scheme (artificial viscosity or Riemann solvers) leads to potentially significant overcooling in both codes. We interpret our findings in terms of a resolution criterion, and apply it to realistic simulations of cosmological accretion shocks onto galaxy haloes, cold accretion and thermal feedback from supernovae or active galactic nuclei. To avoid numerical overcooling of accretion shocks onto haloes that should develop a hot corona requires a particle or cell mass resolution of 10^6 M_sun, which is within reach of current state-of-the-art simulations. At this mass resolution, thermal feedback in the interstellar medium of a galaxy requires temperatures of supernova or AGN driven bubbles to be in excess of 10^7 K at densities of n_H=1.0 cm^-3, in order to avoid spurious suppression of the feedback by numerical overcooling.

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arXiv2011

On the impact of empirical and theoretical star formation laws on galaxy formation

We investigate the consequences of applying different star formation laws in the galaxy formation model GALFORM. Three broad star formation laws are implemented: the empirical relations of Kennicutt and Schmidt and Blitz & Rosolowsky and the theoretical model of Krumholz, McKee & Tumlinson. These laws have no free parameters once calibrated against observations of the star formation rate (SFR) and gas surface density in nearby galaxies. We start from published models, and investigate which observables are sensitive to a change in the star formation law, without altering any other model parameters. We show that changing the star formation law (i) does not significantly affect either the star formation history of the universe or the galaxy luminosity functions in the optical and near-IR, due to an effective balance between the quiescent and burst star formation modes; (ii) greatly affects the cold gas contents of galaxies; (iii) changes the location of galaxies in the SFR versus stellar mass plane, so that a second sequence of "passive" galaxies arises, in addition to the known "active" sequence. We show that this plane can be used to discriminate between the star formation laws.

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arXiv2010

Which halos host Herschel-ATLAS galaxies in the local Universe?

We measure the projected cross-correlation between low redshift (z < 0.5) far-IR selected galaxies in the SDP field of the Herschel-ATLAS (H-ATLAS) survey and optically selected galaxies from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) redshift survey. In order to obtain robust correlation functions, we restrict the analysis to a subset of 969 out of 6900 H-ATLAS galaxies, which have reliable optical counterparts with r<19.4 mag and well-determined spectroscopic redshifts. The overlap region between the two surveys is 12.6 sq. deg; the matched sample has a median redshift of z ~ 0.2. The cross-correlation of GAMA and H-ATLAS galaxies within this region can be fitted by a power law, with correlation length r_0 ~ 4.63 +/- 0.51 Mpc. Comparing with the corresponding auto-correlation function of GAMA galaxies within the SDP field yields a relative bias (averaged over 2-8 Mpc) of H-ATLAS and GAMA galaxies of b_H/b_G ~ 0.6. Combined with clustering measurements from previous optical studies, this indicates that most of the low redshift H-ATLAS sources are hosted by halos with masses comparable to that of the Milky Way. The correlation function appears to depend on the 250 um luminosity, L_250, with bright (median luminosity νL_250 ~ 1.6 x 10^10 L_sun) objects being somewhat more strongly clustered than faint (νL_250 ~ 4.0 x 10^9 L_sun) objects. This implies that galaxies with higher dust-obscured star formation rates are hosted by more massive halos.

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