Mass functions, luminosity functions, and completeness measurements from clustering redshifts

Journal Article · Wed Apr 24 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz997· OSTI ID:1509495

Bates, Dominic J.  ^[1]; Tojeiro, Rita  ^[1]; Newman, Jeffrey A. ^[2]; Gonzalez-Perez, Violeta  ^[3]; Comparat, Johan ^[4]; Schneider, Donald P. ^[5]; Lima, Marcos ^[6]; Streblyanska, Alina ^[7]

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1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews KY16 9SS, UK
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, 3941 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
3. University of Portsmouth Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Dennis Sciama Building, 1-8 Burnaby Rd, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, UK
4. Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstraße, D-85748 Garching, Germany
5. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA, Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
6. Departamento de Física Matemática, Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, CP 66318, CEP 05314-970 São Paulo, SP, Brazil
7. Instituto de Astrofısica de Canarias, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Abstract This paper presents stellar mass functions and i-band luminosity functions for Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxies with i < 21 using clustering redshifts. From these measurements, we also compute targeting completeness measurements for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Clustering redshifts is a method of obtaining the redshift distribution of a sample of galaxies with only photometric information by measuring the angular cross-correlation with a spectroscopic sample in different redshift bins. We construct a spectroscopic sample containing data from the BOSS + eBOSS surveys, allowing us to recover redshift distributions from photometric data out to z ≃ 2.5. We produce k-corrected i-band luminosity functions and stellar mass functions by applying clustering redshifts to SDSS DR8 galaxies in small bins of colour and magnitude. There is little evolution in the mass function between 0.2 < z < 0.8, implying that the most massive galaxies form most of their mass before z = 0.8. These mass functions are used to produce stellar mass completeness estimates for the BOSS, giving a stellar mass completeness of $$80{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ above M⋆ > 1011.4 between 0.2 < z < 0.7, with completeness falling significantly at redshifts higher than 0.7, and at lower masses. Large photometric data sets will be available in the near future (DECaLS, DES, Euclid), so this and similar techniques will become increasingly useful in order to fully utilize these data.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1509495
• Journal Information: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 486 Journal Issue: 3; ISSN 0035-8711
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English