The galaxy-mass correlation function measured from weak lensing in the sloan digital sky survey

Erin S. Sheldon, David E. Johnston, Joshua A. Frieman, Ryan Scranton, Timothy A. McKay, A. J. Connolly, Tamás Budávari, Idit Zehavi, Neta A. Bahcall, J. Brinkmann, Masataka Fukugita

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

263 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements over scales 0.025 to 10 h -1 Mpc in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Using a flux-limited sample of 127,001 lens galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts and mean luminosity 〈L〉 ∼ L* and 9,020,388 source galaxies with photometric redshifts, we invert the lensing signal to obtain the galaxy-mass correlation function ξ gm. We find ξ gm is consistent with a power law, ξ gm = (r/ro) , with best-fit parameters γ = 1.79 ± 0.06 and r 0 = (5.4 ± 0.7)(0.27/Ω m) 1/γ h -1 Mpc. At fixed separation, the ratio ξ gggm = b/r, where b is the bias and r is the correlation coefficient. Comparing with the galaxy autocorrelation function for a similarly selected sample of SDSS galaxies, we find that b/r is approximately scale-independent over scales 0.2-6.7 h -1 Mpc, with mean (b/r) = (1.3 ± 0.2)(Ω m/0. 27). We also find no scale dependence in b/r for a volume-limited sample of luminous galaxies (-23.0 < M r < -21.5). The mean b/r for this sample is 〈b/r〉 vlim = (2-0 ± 0.7) (Ω m/0.27). We split the lens galaxy sample into subsets based on luminosity, color, spectral type, and velocity dispersion and see clear trends of the lensing signal with each of these parameters. The amplitude and logarithmic slope of ξ gm increase with galaxy luminosity. For high luminosities (L ∼ 5 L*), ξ gm deviates significantly from a power law. These trends with luminosity also appear in the subsample of red galaxies, which are more strongly clustered than blue galaxies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2544-2564
Number of pages21
JournalAstronomical Journal
Volume127
Issue number5 1781
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2004

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • Cosmology: observations
  • Dark matter
  • Gravitational lensing large-scale structure of universe

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