arXiv subjects

Masami Ouchi

Publications and source records attributed to Masami Ouchi.

At least 289 records · Page 16Linked to original sources

arXiv2006

A galaxy at a redshift z = 6.96

When galaxy formation started in the history of the Universe remains unclear. Studies of the cosmic microwave background indicate that the Universe, after initial cooling (following the Big Bang), was reheated and reionized by hot stars in newborn galaxies at a redshift in the range 6 < z < 14 (ref. 1). Though several candidate galaxies at redshift z > 7 have been identified photometrically (refs 2,3), galaxies with spectroscopically confirmed redshifts have been confined to z < 6.6 (refs. 4-8). Here we report a spectroscopic redshift of z = 6.96 (corresponding to just 750 Myr after the Big Bang) for a galaxy whose spectrum clearly shows Lyman-alpha emission at 9,682 A, indicating active star formation at a rate of about 10 M_sun/yr, where M_sun us the mass of the Sun. This demonstrates that galaxy formation was under way when the Universe was only about 6 per cent of its present age. The number density of galaxies at z = 7 seems to be only 18-36 per cent of the density at z = 6.6.

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arXiv2006

Luminosity Functions of Lyman-Break Galaxies at z~4 and 5 in the Subaru Deep Field

We investigate the luminosity functions of Lyman-break galaxies (LBG) at z~4 and 5 based on the optical imaging data obtained in the Subaru Deep Field Project. Three samples of LBGs in a contiguous 875 arcmin^2 area are constructed. One consists of 3,808 LBGs at z~4 down to i'=26.85 selected with the B-R vs R-i' diagram. The other two consist of 539 and 240 LBGs at z~5 down to z'=26.05 selected with two kinds of two-color diagrams: V-i' vs i'-z' and R-i' vs i'-z'. The adopted selection criteria are proved to be fairly reliable by spectroscopic observation. We derive the luminosity functions of the LBGs at rest-frame ultraviolet wavelengths down to M_{UV}=-19.2 at z~4 and M_{UV}=-20.3 at z~5. We find clear evolution of the luminosity function over the redshift range of 0 4.

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arXiv2006

Systematic Survey of Extended Lyman-alpha Sources over z~3-5

Spatially extended Ly-alpha sources which are faint and compact in coninuum are candidates for extremely young galaxies (age of ~<10e+7 yrs) at high redshifts. We carried out a systematic survey for extended Ly-alpha sources, using deep intermediate-band imaging data taken with the Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope. Our survey covers a field of view of 33' * 25' and a redshift range of 3.24<z<4.95, down to a Ly-alpha flux of ~1e-17 ergs/cm^2/s. We identified 41 extended Ly-alpha sources. The redshift distribution of these sources shows that this kind of objects are common in the early universe over the surveyed redshift range. The identified objects have typical sizes of \~10-15 kpc and luminosities of ~10^42 ergs/s. Follow-up spectroscopy made for 7 of the 41 objects showed that our sample suffers from little contamination. All 7 objects have large equivalent widths of Ly-alpha emission line, all but one exceeding 240A in the rest frame. The large equivalent widths suggest that their extended Ly-alpha emissions are unlikely to be due to normal starbursts, but possibly originated from very young galaxies. All 41 objects in our sample have much smaller Ly-alpha luminosities than the two Ly-alpha Blobs (LABs) found by Steidel et al. (2000) in spite of our much larger survey volume. This suggests that large and luminous extended Ly-alpha objects like the two LABs are very rare and are clustered in overdense regions.

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arXiv2006

Where are the z=4 Lyman Break Galaxies? Results from Conditional Luminosity Function Models of Luminosity-dependent Correlation Functions

Using the conditional luminosity function (CLF) -- the luminosity distribution of galaxies in a dark matter halo -- as a way to model galaxy statistics, we study how z=4 Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) are distributed in dark matter halos. For this purpose, we measure luminosity-dependent clustering of LBGs in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field by separating a sample of 16,920 galaxies to three magnitude bins in i'-band between 24.5 and 27.5. Our models fits to data show a possible trend for more luminous galaxies to appear as satellites in more massive halos. The satellite fraction of galaxies at z=4 in these magnitude bins is 0.13 to 0.3, 0.09 to 0.22, and 0.03 to 0.14, respectively, where the 1 sigma ranges account for differences coming from two different estimates of the z=4 LF from the literature. To jointly explain the LF and the large-scale linear bias factor of z=4 LBGs as a function of rest-UV luminosity requires central galaxies to be brighter in UV at z =4 than present-day galaxies in same dark matter mass halos. Moreover, UV luminosity of central galaxies in halos with total mass greater than roughly 10^{12} M_sun must decrease from z=4 to today by an amount more than the luminosity change for galaxies in halos below this mass. This mass-dependent luminosity evolution is preferred at more than 3 sigma confidence level compared to a pure-luminosity evolution scenario where all galaxies decrease in luminosity by the same amount from z=4 to today. The scenario preferred by the data is consistent with the ``down-sizing'' picture of galaxy evolution.

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arXiv2006

Clustering of Lyman Break Galaxies at z=4 and 5 in The Subaru Deep Field: Luminosity Dependence of The Correlation Function Slope

We explored the clustering properties of Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) at z=4 and 5 with an angular two-point correlation function on the basis of the very deep and wide Subaru Deep Field data. We found an apparent dependence of the correlation function slope on UV luminosity for LBGs at both z=4 and 5. More luminous LBGs have a steeper correlation function. To compare these observational results, we constructed numerical mock LBG catalogs based on a semianalytic model of hierarchical clustering combined with high-resolution N-body simulation, carefully mimicking the observational selection effects. The luminosity functions for LBGs predicted by this mock catalog were found to be almost consistent with the observation. Moreover, the overall correlation functions of LBGs were reproduced reasonably well. The observed dependence of the clustering on UV luminosity was not reproduced by the model, unless subsamples of distinct halo mass were considered. That is, LBGs belonging to more massive dark haloes had steeper and larger-amplitude correlation functions. With this model, we found that LBG multiplicity in massive dark halos amplifies the clustering strength at small scales, which steepens the slope of the correlation function. The hierarchical clustering model could therefore be reconciled with the observed luminosity-dependence of the angular correlation function, if there is a tight correlation between UV luminosity and halo mass. Our finding that the slope of the correlation function depends on luminosity could be an indication that massive dark halos hosted multiple bright LBGs (abridged).

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arXiv2005

The Large-scale and Small-scale Clustering of Lyman-Break Galaxies at 3.5 < z< 5.5 from the GOODS survey

We report on the angular correlation function of Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z~4 and 5 from deep samples obtained from the Great Observatories Deep Origins Survey (GOODS). Similar to LBGs at z~3, the shape of w(theta) of the GOODS LBGs is well approximated by a power-law with slope beta~0.6 at angular separation theta > 10 arcsec. The clustering strength of z~4, 5 LBGs also depends on the rest-frame UV luminosity, with brighter galaxies more strongly clustered than fainter ones, implying a general correlation between halos' mass and LBGs' star-formation rate. At smaller separations, w(theta) of deep samples significantly exceeds the extrapolation of the large-scale power-law fit, implying enhanced spatial clustering at scales r < 1 Mpc. We also find that bright LBGs statistically have more faint companions on scales theta < 20 arcsec than fainter ones, showing that the enhanced small-scale clustering is very likely due to sub-structure, namely the fact that massive halos can host multiple galaxies. A simple model for the halo occupation distribution and the CDM halo mass function reproduce well the observed w(theta). The scaling relationship of the clustering strength with volume density and with redshift is quantitatively consistent with that of CDM halos. A comparison of the clustering strength of three samples of equal luminosity limit at z ~ 3, 4 and 5 shows that the LBGs at z~5 are hosted in halos about one order of magnitude less massive than those in the lower redshift bins, suggesting that star-formation was more efficient at higher-redshift.

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arXiv2005

The Number Density of Old Passively-Evolving Galaxies at z=1 in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey Field

We obtained the number counts and the rest-frame B-band luminosity function of the color-selected old passively-evolving galaxies (OPEGs) at z=1 with very high statistical accuracy using a large and homogeneous sample of about 4000 such objects with z' <25 detected in the area of 1.03 deg^2 in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS) field. Our selection criteria are defined on the i'-z' and R-z' color-magnitude plane so that OPEGs at z=0.9-1.1 with formation redshift z_f=2-10 are properly sampled. The limiting magnitude corresponds to the luminosity of galaxies with M_*+3 at z=0. We made a pilot redshift observations for 99 OPEG candidates with 19 < z' < 22 and found that at least 78% (73/93) of the entire sample, or 95% (73/77) of these whose redshifts were obtained are indeed lie between z=0.87 and 1.12 and the most of their spectra show the continuum break and strong Ca H and K lines, indicating that these objects are indeed dominated by the old stellar populations. We then compare our results with the luminosity functions of the color- or the morphologically-selected early type galaxies at z=0 taking the evolutionary factor into account and found that the number density of old passive galaxies with sim M_* magnitude at z~1 averaged over the SXDS area is 40-60% of the equivalently red galaxies and 60-85% of the morphologically-selected E/S0 galaxies at z=0 depending on their luminosity evolution. It is revealed that more than half, but not all, of the present-day early-type galaxies had already been formed into quiescent passive galaxies at z=1.

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arXiv2005

Masses of high-z galaxy hosting haloes from angular clustering and their evolution in the CDM model

We examine masses of hosting haloes of two photometrically-selected high-z galaxy samples: the old passively-evolving galaxies (OPEGs) and Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) both taken from the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS). The large survey area of the SXDS (1sq deg) allows us to measure the angular two-point correlation functions to a wide separation of >10 arcmin with a good statistical quality. We utilize the halo model prescription for estimating characteristic masses of hosting haloes from the measured large-scale clustering amplitudes. It is found that the hosting halo mass positively correlates with the luminosity of galaxies. Then, adopting the extended Press-Schechter model (EPS), we compute the predictions for the mass evolution of the hosting haloes in the framework of the cold dark matter (CDM) cosmology in order to make an evolutionary link between the two galaxy samples at different redshifts and to identify their present-day descendants by letting their haloes evolve forward in time. It is found that, in the view of the mass evolution of hosting haloes in the CDM model, bright LBGs are consistent with being the progenitor of the OPEGs, whereas it is less likely that the LBG population, as a whole, have evolved into the OPEG population. It is also found that the present-day descendants of both the bright LBGs and OPEGs are likely to be located in massive systems such as groups of galaxies or clusters of galaxies. Finally, we estimate the hosting halo mass of local early-type galaxy samples from the 2dF and SDSS based on the halo model and it turns out that their expected characteristic mass of hosting haloes is in good agreement with the EPS predictions for the descendant's mass of both the bright LBGs and OPEGs.

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arXiv2005

Rest-frame Ultraviolet-to-Optical Properties of Galaxies at z ~ 6 and 5 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: from Hubble to Spitzer

We use data from the first epoch of observations with the IRAC/Spitzer for the GOODS to detect and study a collection of LBGs at z ~ 6 to 5 in the HUDF, six of which have spectroscopic confirmation. At these redshifts, IRAC samples rest-frame optical light in the range 0.5 to 0.8 um, where the effects of dust extinction are smaller and the sensitivity to light from evolved stars is greater than at shorter, rest-frame UV observable from the ground or with the HST. As such, it provides useful constraints on the ages and masses of these galaxies' stellar populations. We find that the SEDs for many of these galaxies are best fitted by models of stellar populations with masses of a few x 1e10 M_sun, and with ages of a few hundred Myrs, values quite similar to those derived for typical LBGs at z ~ 3. When the universe was only 1 Gyr old, some galaxies had already formed a mass of stars approaching that of the present-day Milky Way, and that they started forming those stars at z > 7, and in some cases much earlier. We find that the lower limits to the space density for galaxies in this mass range are consistent with predictions from recent hydrodynamic simulations of structure formation in a LCDM universe. All objects in our samples are consistent with having solar metallicity, suggesting that they might have already been significantly polluted by metals. The values for dust reddening derived from the model fitting are low or zero, and we find that some of the galaxies have rest-frame UV colors that are even bluer than those predicted by the stellar population models to which we compare them. These colors might be attributed to the presence of very massive stars (> 100 M_sun), or by weaker intergalactic HI absorption than what is commonly assumed.

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arXiv2004

Discovery of a Large Scale Clumpy Structure around the Lynx Supercluster at z~1.27

We report the discovery of a probable large scale structure composed of many galaxy clumps around the known twin clusters at z=1.26 and z=1.27 in the Lynx region. Our analysis is based on deep, panoramic, and multi-colour imaging (26.4'x24.1') in VRi'z'-bands with the Suprime-Cam on the 8.2m Subaru telescope. This unique, deep and wide-field imaging data-set allows us for the first time to map out the galaxy distribution in the highest redshift supercluster known. We apply a photometric redshift technique to extract plausible cluster members at z~1.27 down to i'=26.15 (5sigma) corresponding to M*+2.5 at this redshift. From the 2-D distribution of these photometrically selected galaxies, we newly identify seven candidates of galaxy groups or clusters where the surface density of red galaxies is significantly high (>5sigma), in addition to the two known clusters. These candidates show clear red colour-magnitude sequences consistent with a passive evolution model, which suggests the existence of additional high density regions around the Lynx superclusters.

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arXiv2003

Properties of host haloes of Lyman-break galaxies and Lyman-alpha Emitters from their number densities and angular clustering

We explore empirical relations between three different populations of high-redshift galaxies and their hosting dark halos employing the halo model approach. Specifically we consider Lyman-break galaxies at z\sim4 and at z\sim5, and Lyman-Alpha emitters at z\simeq 4.86. We adopt a halo occupation function prescription to parameterize the properties of their hosting halos and the efficiency of halo-dependent star formation. We find that the two LBG samples are well described by the halo model with an appropriate HOF. We obtain constraints on properties of their hosting halos. A typical mass of hosting halos for LBGs is 5\times10^{11}h^{-1}M_\odot and the expected number of LBGs per halo is \sim0.5, therefore there is an approximate one-to-one correspondence between halos and LBGs. We also find a sign of the minimum mass of LBG hosting halos decreasing with time. We discuss implications of these findings on the star formation history of LBGs. On the other hand, for LAEs, our simple HOF prescription fails to reproduce simultaneously the observed angular correlation function and the number density. This might imply either that the distribution of LAEs within hosting halos differs from that of dark matter, or that the strong large-scale correlation is due to the existence of an unusual, large overdense region, and so the survey region is not a representative of the z\sim5 universe, the definite answer should wait for a much wider survey of LAEs at high redshifts.

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arXiv2002

Subaru Prime Focus Camera -- Suprime-Cam --

We have built an 80-mega pixels (10240 X 8192) mosaic CCD camera, called Suprime-Cam, for the wide-field prime focus of the 8.2 m Subaru telescope. Suprime-Cam covers a field of view 34' X 27', a unique facility among the the 8-10 m class telescopes, with a resolution of 0.''202 per pixel. The focal plane consists of ten high-resistivity 2k X 4k CCDs developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, which are cooled by a large stirling-cycle cooler. The CCD readout electronics was designed to be scalable, which allows the multiple read-out of tens of CCDs. It takes 50 seconds to readout entire arrays. We designed a filter-exchange mechanism of the jukebox type that can hold up to ten large filters (205 X 170 X 15 mm^3). The wide-field corrector is basically a three-lens Wynne-type, but has a new type of atmospheric dispersion corrector. The corrector provides a flat focal plane and an un-vignetted field of view of 30' in diameter. The achieved co-planarity of the focal array mosaic is smaller than 30 micron peak-to-peak, which realizes mostly the seeing limited image over the entire field. The median seeing in the Ic-band, measured over one year and a half, is 0.''61. The PSF anisotropy in Suprime-Cam images, estimated by stellar ellipticities, is about 2% under this median seeing condition. At the time of commissioning, Suprime-Cam had the largest survey speed, which is defined as the field of view multiplied by the primary mirror area of the telescope, among those cameras built for sub-arcsecond imaging.

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arXiv2002

Subaru Deep Survey III. Evolution of Rest-Frame Luminosity Functions Based on the Photometric Redshifts for A K'-band Selected Galaxy Sample

We have constructed a very deep K'-selected multicolor BVRIz'JK' sample of 439 field galaxies. Photometric redshifts for sample galaxies were estimated. The overall redshift distribution N(z) for the K'<21.0 sample is consistent with previous observations, and for the first time we derive the N(z) down to K'=24.0. After taking account of the dust extinction and selection effects of the sample, the observed N(z) distribution is well described with the PLE model, while the hierarchical galaxy formation model shows an apparent deficiency of galaxies especially at z>2. The photometric redshift and the best-fit SED model evaluations allow the derivation of the rest-frame K', B, and UV(2000A) luminosity functions (LFs) and their evolutions. The rest-K' LF shows almost no evolution up to z=3, while the rest B LF shows mild luminosity evolution, and the rest UV LF shows strong luminosity evolution. This trend corresponds to the evolution of the rest UV-K' color, which gets bluer with increasing redshift. We also found that more massive galaxies are redder in this rest-frame color in every epoch. The rest-UV LF of our K'-selected galaxies shows a much shallower faint end slope at z=3 than that of previous estimations for rest-UV selected Lyman break galaxies. As a consequence, the contribution to the global star formation rate of our K'-selected galaxies is about 42% of that derived from the integration of LF of Lyman break galaxies at z=3. This result suggests that a large fraction of the star formation rate density at z>1.5 comes from the contribution from the faint (M_2000A>-20) blue galaxy population at high redshift universe that have not yet obviously been identified. (abridged)

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arXiv2002

A Search for Lyman alpha Emitters at Redshift 3.7

We present the results of a survey for emission-line objects based on optical intermediate-band ($λ_{\rm c}$ = 5736 Å~ and $Δλ$ = 280 Å) and broad-band ($B$, $V$, $R$, and $i^\prime$) observations of the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field on the 8.2 m Subaru telescope with the Subaru Prime Focus Camera, Suprime-Cam. All the data were obtained during the guaranteed time observations of the Suprime-Cam instrument. The intermediate-band image covered a sky area with 10\minpoint62 $\times 12\minpoint40 \approx 132$ arcmin$^2$ in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field (Ouchi et al.). Using this image, we have found 23 emission-line sources whose observed emission-line equivalent widths are greater than 250 Å. Their optical multicolor properties indicate that six emission-line sources are Ly$α$ emitters at $z \approx$ 3.7 ($Δz \approx 0.22$). They are either intense starburst galaxies or active galactic nuclei like quasars at $z \approx$ 3.7. Two more emission-line sources may also be Ly$α$ emitters at $z \approx$ 3.7 although their multicolor properties are marginal. Among the remaining 15 emission-line objects, eight objects appear strong emission-line galaxies at lower redshift; e.g., [O {\sc ii}] $λ$3727 emitters at $z \approx 0.54$, H$β$ at $z \approx 0.18$, or [O {\sc iii}]$λ$5007 emitters at $z \approx 0.15$. The remaining seven objects are unclassified because they are too faint to be detected in broad-band images. We discuss observational properties of these strong emission-line sources. In particular, our data allow us to estimate the star formation density at $z \approx 3.7$ for the first time.

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arXiv2001

Discovery of Very Extended Emission-Line Region around the Seyfert 2 Galaxy NGC 4388

We found a very large, 35 kpc, emission-line region around the Seyfert type 2 galaxy NGC 4388, using deep narrow-band imaging with the prime focus camera (Suprime-Cam) of the Subaru telescope. This region consists of many faint gas clouds or filaments, and extends northeastwards from the galaxy. The typical H-alpha luminosity L(H-alpha) of the clouds is 10^37 erg s^-1, and the total L(H-alpha) of the region within 10 kpc from the nucleus is 2 x 10^38 erg s^-1, which corresponds to an ionized gas mass of 10^5 M_solar. The map of the emission-line intensity ratio I([OIII])/I(H-alpha) indicates that the inner (r < 12 kpc) region of the VEELR may be excited by nuclear ionizing radiation. The excitation mechanism of the outer (r > 12 kpc) region is unclear, but it is likely that the nuclear radiation is also a dominant source of its ionization. We discuss the origin of the ionized gas. Two plausible origins of the gas in the VEELR are (i) the tidal debris resulting from a past interaction with a gas-rich dwarf galaxy, i.e., a minor merger, or (ii) the interstellar medium of NGC 4388, stripped by the ram pressure of the hot intracluster medium of the Virgo cluster.

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arXiv2001

Galaxy Population in a Cluster of Galaxies around the Radio Galaxy 3C 324 at z=1.2

We discuss the properties of galaxies around the radio galaxy 3C 324 at z=1.2 based on BVRIK' multi-band imaging data. We have applied a photometric-redshift technique to objects in the 3C 324 field, and identified 35 objects as plausible cluster members. We have found that red and luminous members are concentrated in a small region enclosed by a circle of 40" radius (0.33 Mpc at z=1.2 for Ω_0=0.3, λ_0=0.7, H_0=70km/s/Mpc cosmology) from the 3C 324 galaxy. The 3C 324 cluster is probably much more compact in size compared with the local clusters. We constructed a K'-band luminosity function of the cluster members and fit a Schechter function, and found the characteristic magnitude to be K*_{AB}=20.2+-0.6. This value is consistent with the extrapolation of the pure passive evolution seen for z<1 clusters. We have identified eight bright galaxies which form a red color-magnitude sequence. The slope of the sequence is consistent with the passive evolution model down to K'_{AB}<22; we also found that there is no clear age variation in these bright red galaxies. However, seven out of these eight galaxies exhibit a significant excess in the rest UV light with respect to the passive evolution model. This may suggest that the massive early-type galaxies in this high-redshift cluster are still forming stars to some extent. We have confirmed a truncation of the color-magnitude sequence at K'_{AB}\sim22; faint passively-evolving galaxies may not yet be present in this cluster at z\sim1.2. The overall color distribution of the cluster members, selected by the photometric redshift technique, is found to be very broad. We derived the fraction of blue galaxies in this cluster following a

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arXiv2001

Statistical Properties of Lyman Break Galaxies at z~4

We study the luminosity function and the correlation function of about 1200 z~4 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) with i'<26 that are photometrically selected from deep BRi' imaging data of a 618 arcmin^2 area in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field taken with Subaru Prime Focus Camera. The contamination and completeness of our LBG sample are evaluated, on the basis of the Hubble Deep Field-North (HDF-N) objects, to be 17% and 45%, respectively. We derive the UV (rest 1700A) luminosity functions (LFs) and find a large population of UV-luminous galaxies at z~4. The LFs of the red and blue subsamples imply that the bright LBGs are redder in the UV continuum than the average color of the LBGs. Then we calculate the correlation function over theta = 2''-1000'' and find that it is fitted fairly well by a power law, omega(theta)=A_omega theta^(-0.8), with A_omega=0.71 +/- 0.26. We estimate the correlation length r_0 (in comoving units) of the two-point spatial correlation function xi(r) = (r/r_0)^(-1.8) to be r_0=2.7 +0.5/-0.6 h^(-1) Mpc (Omega_m=0.3 and Omega_Lambda=0.7). The correlation function shows an excess of omega (theta) on small scales (theta < 5''), departing from the power-law fit at > 3 sigma significance level. Interpreting this as being due to galaxy mergers, we evaluate the fraction of galaxies undergoing mergers to be 3.0 +/- 0.9%, which is significantly smaller than those of galaxies at intermediate redshifts.

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arXiv2001

Clustering Properties of Galaxies at z~4 in the Subaru/XMM Deep Survey Field

We study the clustering properties of about 1200 z~4 Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) candidates with i'<26 which are selected by color from deep BRi' imaging data of a 618 arcmin^2 area in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field taken with Subaru Prime Focus Camera. The contamination and completeness of our LBG sample are evaluated, on the basis of the Hubble Deep Field North (HDFN) objects, to be 17% and 45%, respectively. We derive the angular correlation function over theta = 2''-1000'', and find that it is fitted fairly well by a power law, omega(theta)=A_omega theta^{-0.8}, with A_omega = 0.71 +/- 0.26. We then calculate the correlation length r0 (in comoving units) of the two-point spatial correlation function xi(r) = (r/r0)^{-1.8} from A_omega using the redshift distribution of LBGs derived from the HDFN, and find r0=2.7 (+0.5/-0.6) h^{-1} Mpc in a Lambda-dominated universe (Omega_m=0.3 and Omega_Lambda=0.7). This is twice larger than the correlation length of the dark matter at z~4 predicted from an analytic model by Peacock & Dodds but about twice smaller than that of bright galaxies predicted by a semi-analytic model of Baugh et al. We find an excess of omega(theta) on small scales (theta < 5'') departing from the power law fit over 3 sigma significance levels. Interpreting this as due to galaxy mergers, we estimate the fraction of galaxies undergoing mergers in our LBG sample to be 3.0 +/- 0.9%, which is significantly smaller than those of galaxies at intermediate redshifts.

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