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H. J. Mo

Publications and source records attributed to H. J. Mo.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Properties of the ionized CGM and IGM: a comparison of galaxy formation models via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect

We present a comparison of the physical properties of the ionized gas in the circumgalactic (CGM) and intergalactic (IGM) media at $z\sim0$ between observations and four cosmological hydrodynamical simulations: Illustris, TNG300 of the IllustrisTNG project, EAGLE, and one of the Magneticum simulations. For the observational data, we use the gas properties that are inferred from cross-correlating the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) from the {\it Planck} CMB maps with the haloes and the large-scale structure reconstructed from Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. Both the observational and simulation results indicate that the integrated gas pressure in haloes deviates from the self-similar case, showing that feedback impacts haloes with $M_{500}\sim 10^{12-13}\,{\rm M_\odot}$. The simulations predict that more than half the baryons are displaced from haloes, while the gas fraction inferred from our observational data roughly equals the cosmic baryon fraction throughout the $M_{500}\sim 10^{12-14.5}\,{\rm M_\odot}$ halo mass range. All simulations tested here predict that the mean gas temperature in haloes is about the virial temperature, while that inferred from the SZE is up to one order of magnitude lower than that from the simulations (and also from X-ray observations). While a remarkable agreement is found for the average properties of the IGM between the observation and some simulations, we show that their dependence on the large-scale tidal field can break the degeneracy between models that show similar predictions otherwise. Finally, we show that the gas pressure and the electron density profiles from simulations are not well described by a generalized NFW (GNFW) profile. Instead, we present a new model with a mass-dependent shape that fits the profiles accurately.

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How to empirically model star formation in dark matter halos: I. Inferences about central galaxies from numerical simulations

We use TNG and EAGLE hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the central galaxy - dark matter halo relations that are needed for a halo-based empirical model of star formation in galaxies. Using a linear dimension reduction algorithm and a model ensemble method, we find that for both star-forming and quenched galaxies, the star formation history (SFH) is tightly related to the halo mass assembly history (MAH). The quenching of a low-mass galaxy is mainly due to the infall-ejection process related to a nearby massive halo, while the quenching of a high-mass galaxy is closely related to the formation of a massive progenitor in its host halo. The classification of star-forming and quenched populations based solely on halo properties contains contamination produced by sample imbalance and overlapping distributions of the two populations. Guided by the results from hydrodynamic simulations, we build an empirical model to predict the SFH of central galaxies based on the MAH of their host halos, and we model the star-forming and quenched populations separately. Our model is based on the idea of adopting star formation templates from hydrodynamic simulations to reduce model complexity. We use various tests to demonstrate that the model can recover star formation histories of individual galaxies, and can statistically reproduce the galaxy bimodal distribution, stellar mass - halo mass and star formation rate - halo mass relations from low to high redshift, and assembly bias. Our study provides a framework of using hydrodynamic simulations to discover, and to motivate the use of, key ingredients to model galaxy formation using halo properties.

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SDSS-IV MaNGA: Bayesian analysis of the star formation history of low-mass galaxies in the local Universe

We measure the star formation histories (SFH) of a sample of low-mass galaxies with $M_\ast<10^9M_\odot$ from the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. The large number of IFU spectra for each galaxy are either combined to reach a high signal to noise ratio or used to investigate spatial variations. We use Bayesian inferences based on full spectrum fitting. Our analysis based on Bayesian evidence ratio indicates a strong preferencefor a model that allows the presence of an old stellar population, and that an improper model for the SFH can significantly underestimate the old population in these galaxies. The addition of NIR photometry to the constraining data can further distinguish between different SFH model families and significantly tighten the constraints on the mass fraction in the old population. On average more than half of the stellar mass in present-day low-mass galaxies formed at least 8 Gyrs ago, while about 30\% within the past 4 Gyrs. Satellite galaxies on average have formed their stellar mass earlier than central galaxies. The radial dependence of the SFH is quite weak. Our results suggest that most of the low-mass galaxies have an early episode of active star formation that produces a large fraction of their present stellar mass.

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Identifying galaxy groups at high redshift from incomplete spectroscopic data: I. The group finder and application to zCOSMOS

Identifying galaxy groups from redshift surveys of galaxies plays an important role in connecting galaxies with the underlying dark matter distribution. Current and future high-$z$ spectroscopic surveys, usually incomplete in redshift sampling, present both opportunities and challenges to identifying groups in the high-$z$ Universe. We develop a group finder that is based on incomplete redshift samples combined with photometric data, using a machine learning method to assign halo masses to identified groups. Test using realistic mock catalogs shows that $\gtrsim 90\%$ of true groups with halo masses $\rm M_h \gtrsim 10^{12} M_{\odot}/h$ are successfully identified, and that the fraction of contaminants is smaller than $10\%$. The standard deviation in the halo mass estimation is smaller than 0.25 dex at all masses. We apply our group finder to zCOSMOS-bright and describe basic properties of the group catalog obtained.

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Characteristic mass in galaxy quenching: environmental versus internal effects

A clear transition feature of galaxy quenching is identified in the multi-parameter space of stellar mass ($M_*$), bulge to total mass ratio ($B/T_{\rm m}$), halo mass ($M_{\rm h}$) and halo-centric distance ($r/r_{180}$). For given halo mass, the characteristic stellar mass ($M_{*, \rm ch}$) for the transition is about one-fifth of that of the corresponding central galaxy, and almost independent of $B/T_{\rm m}$. Once $B/T_{\rm m}$ is fixed, the quenched fraction of galaxies with $M_{*} < M_{*, \rm ch}$ increases with $M_{\rm h}$, but decreases with $M_*$ in the inner part of halos ($r/r_{180} < 0.5$). In the outer part ($r/r_{180} > 0.5$), the trend with $M_{\rm h}$ remains but the correlation with $M_*$ is absent or becomes positive. For galaxies above $M_{\rm *, ch}$ and with $B/T_{\rm m}$ fixed, the quenched fraction increases with $M_{\rm *}$, but depends only weakly on $M_{\rm h}$ in both the inner and outer regions. At fixed $B/T_{\rm m}$ and $M_*$, the quenched fraction increases with decreasing $r/r_{180}$ for galaxies with $M_{*} < M_{*, \rm ch}$, and depends only weakly on $r/r_{180}$ for galaxies with $M_{*} > M_{*, \rm ch}$. Our finding provides a physically-motivated way to classify galaxies in halos into two classes based on their quenching properties: an `upper class' with $M_{*} > M_{\rm *,ch}$ and a `lower class' with $M_{*} < M_{\rm *,ch}$. Environmental quenching is important for `lower class' galaxies, while internal quenching plays the dominating role for the `upper class'.

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Relating the structure of dark matter halos to their assembly and environment

We use a large $N$-body simulation to study the relation of the structural properties of dark matter halos to their assembly history and environment. The complexity of individual halo assembly histories can be well described by a small number of principal components (PCs), which, compared to formation times, provide a more complete description of halo assembly histories and have a stronger correlation with halo structural properties. Using decision trees built with the random ensemble method, we find that about $60\%$, $10\%$, and $20\%$ of the variances in halo concentration, axis ratio, and spin, respectively, can be explained by combining four dominating predictors: the first PC of the assembly history, halo mass, and two environment parameters. Halo concentration is dominated by halo assembly. The local environment is found to be important for the axis ratio and spin but is degenerate with halo assembly. The small percentages of the variance in the axis ratio and spin that are explained by known assembly and environmental factors suggest that the variance is produced by many nuanced factors and should be modeled as such. The relations between halo intrinsic properties and environment are weak compared to their variances, with the anisotropy of the local tidal field having the strongest correlation with halo properties. Our method of dimension reduction and regression can help simplify the characterization of the halo population and clarify the degeneracy among halo properties.

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Detection of missing baryons in galaxy groups with kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect

We present the detection of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (kSZE) signals from groups of galaxies as a function of halo mass down to $\log (M_{500}/{\rm M_\odot}) \sim 12.3$, using the {\it Planck} CMB maps and stacking about $40,000$ galaxy systems with known positions, halo masses, and peculiar velocities. The signals from groups of different mass are constrained simultaneously to take care of projection effects of nearby halos. The total kSZE flux within halos estimated implies that the gas fraction in halos is about the universal baryon fraction, even in low-mass halos, indicating that the `missing baryons' are found. Various tests performed show that our results are robust against systematic effects, such as contamination by infrared/radio sources and background variations, beam-size effects and contributions from halo exteriors. Combined with the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, our results indicate that the `missing baryons' associated with galaxy groups are contained in warm-hot media with temperatures between $10^5$ and $10^6\,{\rm K}$.

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SDSS-IV MaNGA: Stellar initial mass function variation inferred from Bayesian analysis of the integral field spectroscopy of early type galaxies

We analyze the stellar initial mass functions (IMF) of a large sample of early type galaxies (ETGs) provided by MaNGA. The large number of IFU spectra of individual galaxies provide high signal-to-noise composite spectra that are essential for constraining IMF and to investigate possible radial gradients of the IMF within individual galaxies. The large sample of ETGs also make it possible to study how the IMF shape depends on various properties of galaxies. We adopt a novel approach to study IMF variations in ETGs, use Bayesian inferences based on full spectrum fitting. The Bayesian method provides a statistically rigorous way to explore potential degeneracy in spectrum fitting, and to distinguish different IMF models with Bayesian evidence. We find that the IMF slope depends systematically on galaxy velocity dispersion, in that galaxies of higher velocity dispersion prefer a more bottom-heavy IMF, but the dependence is almost entirely due to the change of metallicity, $Z$, with velocity dispersion. The IMF shape also depends on stellar age, $A$, but the dependence is completely degenerate with that on metallicity through a combination $AZ^{-1.42}$. Using independent age and metallicity estimates we find that the IMF variation is produced by metallicity instead of age. The IMF near the centers of massive ETGs appears more bottom-heavy than that in the outer parts, while a weak opposite trend is seen for low-mass ETGs. Uncertainties produced by star formation history, dust extinction, $α$-element abundance enhancement and noise in the spectra are tested.

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Mapping the Real Space Distributions of Galaxies in SDSS DR7: II. Measuring the growth rate, clustering amplitude of matter and biases of galaxies at redshift $0.1$

We extend the real-space mapping method developed in Shi et at. (2016) so that it can be applied to flux-limited galaxy samples. We use an ensemble of mock catalogs to demonstrate the reliability of this extension, showing that it allows for an accurate recovery of the real-space correlation functions and galaxy biases. We also demonstrate that, using an iterative method applied to intermediate-scale clustering data, we can obtain an unbiased estimate of the growth rate of structure $fσ_8$, which is related to the clustering amplitude of matter, to an accuracy of $\sim 10\%$. Applying this method to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7), we construct a real-space galaxy catalog spanning the redshift range $0.01 \leq z \leq 0.2$, which contains 584,473 galaxies in the north Galactic cap (NGC). Using this data, we infer $\fss$ at a median redshift $z=0.1$, which is consistent with the WMAP9 cosmology at the $1σ$ level. By combining this measurement with the real-space clustering of galaxies and with galaxy-galaxy weak lensing measurements for the same sets of galaxies, we are able to break the degeneracy between $f$, $σ_8$, and $b$. From the SDSS DR7 data alone, we obtain the following cosmological constraints at redshift $z=0.1$: $f=$$0.464^{+0.040}_{-0.040}$, $σ_8=0.769^{+0.121}_{-0.089}$, and $b=1.910^{+0.234}_{-0.268}$, $1.449^{+0.194}_{-0.196}$, $1.301^{+0.170}_{-0.177}$, and $1.196^{+0.159}_{-0.161}~$ for galaxies within different absolute magnitude bins $^{0.1}{\rm M}_r-5\log h=[-23,0, -22.0], [-22,0, -21.0], [-21.0, -20.0]$ and $[-20.0, -19.0]$, respectively.

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ELUCID V. Lighting dark matter halos with galaxies

In a recent study, using the distribution of galaxies in the north galactic pole of SDSS DR7 region enclosed in a 500$\mpch$ box, we carried out our ELUCID simulation (Wang et al. 2016, ELUCID III). Here we {\it light} the dark matter halos and subhalos in the reconstructed region in the simulation with galaxies in the SDSS observations using a novel {\it neighborhood} abundance matching method. Before we make use of thus established galaxy-subhalo connections in the ELUCID simulation to evaluate galaxy formation models, we set out to explore the reliability of such a link. For this purpose, we focus on the following a few aspects of galaxies: (1) the central-subhalo luminosity and mass relations; (2) the satellite fraction of galaxies; (3) the conditional luminosity function (CLF) and conditional stellar mass function (CSMF) of galaxies; and (4) the cross correlation functions between galaxies and the dark matter particles, most of which are measured separately for all, red and blue galaxy populations. We find that our neighborhood abundance matching method accurately reproduces the central-subhalo relations, satellite fraction, the CLFs and CSMFs and the biases of galaxies. These features ensure that thus established galaxy-subhalo connections will be very useful in constraining galaxy formation processes. And we provide some suggestions on the three levels of using the galaxy-subhalo pairs for galaxy formation constraints. The galaxy-subhalo links and the subhalo merger trees in the SDSS DR7 region extracted from our ELUCID simulation are available upon request.

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Bimodal Formation Time Distribution for Infall Dark Matter Halos

We use a 200 $h^{-1}Mpc$ a side N-body simulation to study the mass accretion history (MAH) of dark matter halos to be accreted by larger halos, which we call infall halos. We define a quantity $a_{\rm nf}\equiv (1+z_{\rm f})/(1+z_{\rm peak})$ to characterize the MAH of infall halos, where $z_{\rm peak}$ and $z_{\rm f}$ are the accretion and formation redshifts, respectively. We find that, at given $z_{\rm peak}$, their MAH is bimodal. Infall halos are dominated by a young population at high redshift and by an old population at low redshift. For the young population, the $a_{\rm nf}$ distribution is narrow and peaks at about $1.2$, independent of $z_{\rm peak}$, while for the old population, the peak position and width of the $a_{\rm nf}$ distribution both increases with decreasing $z_{\rm peak}$ and are both larger than those of the young population. This bimodal distribution is found to be closely connected to the two phases in the MAHs of halos. While members of the young population are still in the fast accretion phase at $z_{\rm peak}$, those of the old population have already entered the slow accretion phase at $z_{\rm peak}$. This bimodal distribution is not found for the whole halo population, nor is it seen in halo merger trees generated with the extended Press-Schechter formalism. The infall halo population at $z_{\rm peak}$ are, on average, younger than the whole halo population of similar masses identified at the same redshift. We discuss the implications of our findings in connection to the bimodal color distribution of observed galaxies and to the link between central and satellite galaxies.

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SDSS-IV MaNGA: Global stellar population and gradients for about 2000 early-type and spiral galaxies on the mass-size plane

We perform full spectrum fitting stellar population analysis and Jeans Anisotropic modelling (JAM) of the stellar kinematics for about 2000 early-type galaxies (ETGs) and spiral galaxies from the MaNGA DR14 sample. Galaxies with different morphologies are found to be located on a remarkably tight mass plane which is close to the prediction of the virial theorem, extending previous results for ETGs. By examining an inclined projection (`the mass-size' plane), we find that spiral and early-type galaxies occupy different regions on the plane, and their stellar population properties (i.e. age, metallicity and stellar mass-to-light ratio) vary systematically along roughly the direction of velocity dispersion, which is a proxy for the bulge fraction. Galaxies with higher velocity dispersions have typically older ages, larger stellar mass-to-light ratios and are more metal rich, which indicates that galaxies increase their bulge fractions as their stellar populations age and become enriched chemically. The age and stellar mass-to-light ratio gradients for low-mass galaxies in our sample tend to be positive ($\rm centre<outer$), while the gradients for most massive galaxies are negative. The metallicity gradients show a clear peak around velocity dispersion $\log_{10} σ_{\rm e}\approx 2.0$, which corresponds to the critical mass $\sim 3\times 10^{10}M_{\odot}$ of the break in the mass-size relation. Spiral galaxies with large mass and size have the steepest gradients, while the most massive ETGs, especially above the critical mass $M_{\rm crit}\ge 2\times 10^{11} M_{\odot}$, where slow rotator ETGs start dominating, have much flatter gradients. This may be due to differences in their evolution histories, e.g. mergers.

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Galaxy-galaxy weak-lensing measurement from SDSS: II. host halo properties of galaxy groups

As the second paper of a series on studying galaxy-galaxy lensing signals using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7), we present our measurement and modelling of the lensing signals around groups of galaxies. We divide the groups into four halo mass bins, and measure the signals around four different halo-center tracers: brightest central galaxy (BCG), luminosity-weighted center, number-weighted center and X-ray peak position. For X-ray and SDSS DR7 cross identified groups, we further split the groups into low and high X-ray emission subsamples, both of which are assigned with two halo-center tracers, BCGs and X-ray peak positions. The galaxy-galaxy lensing signals show that BCGs, among the four candidates, are the best halo-center tracers. We model the lensing signals using a combination of four contributions: off-centered NFW host halo profile, sub-halo contribution, stellar contribution, and projected 2-halo term. We sample the posterior of 5 parameters i.e., halo mass, concentration, off-centering distance, sub halo mass, and fraction of subhalos via a MCMC package using the galaxy-galaxy lensing signals. After taking into account the sampling effects (e.g. Eddington bias), we found the best fit halo masses obtained from lensing signals are quite consistent with those obtained in the group catalog based on an abundance matching method, except in the lowest mass bin. Subject headings: (cosmology:) gravitational lensing, galaxies: clusters: general

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ELUCID IV: Galaxy Quenching and its Relation to Halo Mass, Environment, and Assembly Bias

We examine the quenched fraction of central and satellite galaxies as a function of galaxy stellar mass, halo mass, and the matter density of their large scale environment. Matter densities are inferred from our ELUCID simulation, a constrained simulation of local Universe sampled by SDSS, while halo masses and central/satellite classification are taken from the galaxy group catalog of Yang et al. The quenched fraction for the total population increases systematically with the three quantities. We find that the `environmental quenching efficiency', which quantifies the quenched fraction as function of halo mass, is independent of stellar mass. And this independence is the origin of the stellar mass-independence of density-based quenching efficiency, found in previous studies. Considering centrals and satellites separately, we find that the two populations follow similar correlations of quenching efficiency with halo mass and stellar mass, suggesting that they have experienced similar quenching processes in their host halo. We demonstrate that satellite quenching alone cannot account for the environmental quenching efficiency of the total galaxy population and the difference between the two populations found previously mainly arises from the fact that centrals and satellites of the same stellar mass reside, on average, in halos of different mass. After removing these halo-mass and stellar-mass effects, there remains a weak, but significant, residual dependence on environmental density, which is eliminated when halo assembly bias is taken into account. Our results therefore indicate that halo mass is the prime environmental parameter that regulates the quenching of both centrals and satellites.

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Constraining the HI-Halo Mass Relation From Galaxy Clustering

We study the dependence of galaxy clustering on atomic gas mass using a sample of $\sim$16,000 galaxies with redshift in the range of $0.0025 10^8M_{\odot}$, drawn from the 70% complete sample of the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey. We construct subsamples of galaxies with $M_{\rm HI}$ above different thresholds, and make volume-limited clustering measurements in terms of three statistics: the projected two-point correlation function, the projected cross-correlation function with respect to a reference sample selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the redshift-space monopole moment. In contrast to previous studies, which found no/weak HI-mass dependence, we find both the clustering amplitude on scales above a few Mpc and the bias factors to increase significantly with increasing HI mass for subsamples with HI mass thresholds above $10^9M_{\odot}$. For HI mass thresholds below $10^9M_{\odot}$, while the measurements have large uncertainties caused by the limited survey volume and sample size, the inferred galaxy bias factors are systematically lower than the minimum halo bias factor from mass-selected halo samples. The simple halo model, in which galaxy content is only determined by halo mass, has difficulties in interpreting the clustering measurements of the HI-selected samples. We extend the simple model by including the halo formation time as an additional parameter. A model that puts HI-rich galaxies into halos that formed late can reproduce the clustering measurements reasonably well. We present the implications of our best-fitting model on the correlation of HI mass with halo mass and formation time, as well as the halo occupation distributions and HI mass functions for central and satellite galaxies. These results are compared with the predictions from semi-analytic galaxy formation models and hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulations.

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ELUCID -- Exploring the Local Universe with the reConstructed Initial Density field. II: Reconstruction diagnostics, applied to numerical halo catalogs

The ELUCID project aims to build a series of realistic cosmological simulations that reproduce the spatial and mass distribution of the galaxies as observed in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This requires powerful reconstruction techniques to create constrained initial conditions. We test the reconstruction method by applying it to several $N$-body simulations. We use 2 medium resolution simulations from each of which three additional constrained $N$-body simulations were produced. We compare the resulting friend of friend catalogs by using the particle indexes as tracers, and quantify the quality of the reconstruction by varying the main smoothing parameter. The cross identification method we use proves to be efficient, and the results suggest that the most massive reconstructed halos are effectively traced from the same Lagrangian regions in the initial conditions. Preliminary time dependence analysis indicates that high mass end halos converge only at a redshift close to the reconstruction redshift. This suggests that, for earlier snapshots, only collections of progenitors may be effectively cross-identified.

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Mapping the real space distributions of galaxies in SDSS DR7: I. Two Point Correlation Functions

Using a method to correct redshift space distortion (RSD) for individual galaxies, we mapped the real space distributions of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7). We use an ensemble of mock catalogs to demonstrate the reliability of our method. Here as the first paper in a series, we mainly focus on the two point correlation function (2PCF) of galaxies. Overall the 2PCF measured in the reconstructed real space for galaxies brighter than $^{0.1}{\rm M}_r-5\log h=-19.0$ agrees with the direct measurement to an accuracy better than the measurement error due to cosmic variance, if the reconstruction uses the correct cosmology. Applying the method to the SDSS DR7, we construct a real space version of the main galaxy catalog, which contains 396,068 galaxies in the North Galactic Cap with redshifts in the range $0.01 \leq z \leq 0.12$. The Sloan Great Wall, the largest known structure in the nearby Universe, is not as dominant an over-dense structure as appears to be in redshift space. We measure the 2PCFs in reconstructed real space for galaxies of different luminosities and colors. All of them show clear deviations from single power-law forms, and reveal clear transitions from 1-halo to 2-halo terms. A comparison with the corresponding 2PCFs in redshift space nicely demonstrates how RSDs boost the clustering power on large scales (by about $40-50\%$ at scales $\sim 10 h^{-1}{\rm {Mpc}}$) and suppress it on small scales (by about $70-80\%$ at a scale of $0.3 h^{-1}{\rm {Mpc}}$).

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Galaxy groups in the 2MASS Redshift Survey

A galaxy group catalog is constructed from the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) with the use of a halo-based group finder. The halo mass associated with a group is estimated using a `GAP' method based on the luminosity of the central galaxy and its gap with other member galaxies. Tests using mock samples shows that this method is reliable, particularly for poor systems containing only a few members. On average 80% of all the groups have completeness >0.8, and about 65% of the groups have zero contamination. Halo masses are estimated with a typical uncertainty $\sim 0.35\,{\rm dex}$. The application of the group finder to the 2MRS gives 29,904 groups from a total of 43,246 galaxies at $z \leq 0.08$, with 5,286 groups having two or more members. Some basic properties of this group catalog is presented, and comparisons are made with other groups catalogs in overlap regions. With a depth to $z\sim 0.08$ and uniformly covering about 91% of the whole sky, this group catalog provides a useful data base to study galaxies in the local cosmic web, and to reconstruct the mass distribution in the local Universe.

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