arXiv subjects

N. McCullagh

Publications and source records attributed to N. McCullagh.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2017

The host dark matter halos of [OII] emitters at 0.5< z< 1.5

Emission line galaxies (ELGs) are used in several ongoing and upcoming surveys (SDSS-IV/eBOSS, DESI) as tracers of the dark matter distribution. Using a new galaxy formation model, we explore the characteristics of [OII] emitters, which dominate optical ELG selections at $z\simeq 1$. Model [OII] emitters at $0.5<z<1.5$ are selected to mimic the DEEP2, VVDS, eBOSS and DESI surveys. The luminosity functions of model [OII] emitters are in reasonable agreement with observations. The selected [OII] emitters are hosted by haloes with $M_{\rm halo}\geq 10^{10.3}h^{-1}{\rm M}_{\odot}$, with ~90% of them being central star-forming galaxies. The predicted mean halo occupation distributions of [OII] emitters has a shape typical of that inferred for star-forming galaxies, with the contribution from central galaxies, $\langle N \rangle_{\left[OII\right]\, cen}$, being far from the canonical step function. The $\langle N \rangle_{\left[OII\right]\, cen}$ can be described as the sum of an asymmetric Gaussian for disks and a step function for spheroids, which plateaus below unity. The model [OII] emitters have a clustering bias close to unity, which is below the expectations for eBOSS and DESI ELGs. At $z\sim 1$, a comparison with observed g-band selected galaxy, which are expected to be dominated by [OII] emitters, indicates that our model produces too few [OII] emitters that are satellite galaxies. This suggests the need to revise our modelling of hot gas stripping in satellite galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

The Effect of Corner Modes in the Initial Conditions of Cosmological Simulations

In view of future high-precision large-scale structure surveys, it is important to quantify the percent and subpercent level effects in cosmological $N$-body simulations from which theoretical predictions are drawn. One such effect involves deciding whether to zero all modes above the one-dimensional Nyquist frequency, the so-called "corner" modes, in the initial conditions. We investigate this effect by comparing power spectra, density distribution functions, halo mass functions, and halo profiles in simulations with and without these modes. For a simulation with a mass resolution of $m_p \sim 10^{11}\,h^{-1}\,M_{\odot}$, we find that at $z>6$, the difference in the matter power spectrum is large at wavenumbers above $\sim 80$\% of $k_{\rm{Ny}}$, reducing to below 2\% at all scales by $z\sim 3$. Including corner modes results in a better match between low- and high-resolution simulations at wavenumbers around the Nyquist frequency of the low-resolution simulation, but the effect of the corner modes is smaller than the effect of particle discreteness. The differences in mass functions are 3\% for the smallest halos at $z=6$ for the $m_p \sim 10^{11}\,h^{-1}\,M_{\odot}$ simulation, but we find no significant difference in the stacked profiles of well-resolved halos at $z \leq 6$. Thus removing power at $|\mathbf{k}|>k_{\rm{Ny}}$ in the initial conditions of cosmological simulations has a small effect on small scales and high redshifts, typically below a few percent.

astro-ph.CO↗