The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Higher-order galaxy correlation functions
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 352:4 (2004) 1232-1244
Authors:
DJ Croton, E Gazta帽aga, CM Baugh, P Norberg, M Colless, LK Baldry, J Bland-Hawthorn, T Bridges, R Cannon, S Cole, C Collins, W Couch, G Dalton, R De Propris, SP Driver, G Efstathiou, RS Ellis, CS Frenk, K Glazebrook, C Jackson, O Lahav, I Lewis, S Lumsden, S Maddox, D Madgwick, JA Peacock, BA Peterson, W Sutherland, K Taylor
Abstract:
We measure moments of the galaxy count probability distribution function in the Two-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS). The survey is divided into volume-limited subsamples in order to examine the dependence of the higher-order clustering on galaxy luminosity. We demonstrate the hierarchical scaling of the averaged p-point galaxy correlation functions, 尉虅p, up to p = 6. The hierarchical amplitudes, Sp = S2Sp-1, are approximately independent of the cell radius used to smooth the galaxy distribution on small to medium scales. On larger scales we find that the higher-order moments can be strongly affected by the presence of rare, massive superstructures in the galaxy distribution. The skewness S3 has a weak dependence on luminosity, approximated by a linear dependence on log luminosity. We discuss the implications of our results for simple models of linear and non-linear bias that relate the galaxy distribution to the underlying mass.