Pekka Heinämäki — Page 2

arXiv2008

Recovering the real-space correlation function from photometric redshift surveys

Measurements of clustering in large-scale imaging surveys that make use of photometric redshifts depend on the uncertainties in the redshift determination. We have used light-cone simulations to show how the deprojection method successfully recovers the real space correlation function when applied to mock photometric redshift surveys. We study how the errors in the redshift determination affect the quality of the recovered two-point correlation function. Considering the expected errors associated to the planned photometric redshift surveys, we conclude that this method provides information on the clustering of matter useful for the estimation of cosmological parameters that depend on the large scale distribution of galaxies.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Are the nearby groups of galaxies gravitationally bound objects?

We have compared numerical simulations to observations for the nearby (< 40 Mpc) groups of galaxies (Huchra & Geller 1982 and Ramella et al. 2002). The group identification is carried out using a group-finding algorithm developed by Huchra and Geller (1982). Using cosmological N-body simulation code with the LambdaCDM cosmology, we show that the dynamical properties of groups of galaxies identified from the simulation data are, in general, in a moderate, within 2sigma, agreement with the observational catalogues of groups of galaxies. As simulations offer more dynamical information than observations, we used the N-body simulation data to calculate whether the nearby groups of galaxies are gravitationally bound objects by using their virial ratio. We show that in a LambdaCDM cosmology about 20 per cent of nearby groups of galaxies, identified by the same algorithm as in the case of observations, are not bound, but merely groups in a visual sense. This is quite significant, specifically because estimations of group masses in observations are often based on an assumption that groups of galaxies found by the friends-of-friends algorithm are gravitationally bound objects. Simulations with different resolutions show the same results. We also show how the fraction of gravitationally unbound groups varies when the apparent magnitude limit of the sample and the value of the cosmological constant is changed. In general, a larger value of the Omega_Lambda generates slightly more unbound groups.

astro-ph↗