Galaxy bias from the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data: combining galaxy density maps and weak lensing maps

Journal Article · Fri Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw861· OSTI ID:1244414

Chang, C.; Pujol, A.; Gaztañaga, E.; Amara, A.; Réfrégier, A.; Bacon, D.; Becker, M. R.; Bonnett, C.; Carretero, J.; Castander, F. J.; Crocce, M.; Fosalba, P.; Giannantonio, T.; Hartley, W.; Jarvis, M.; Kacprzak, T.; Ross, A. J.; Sheldon, E.; Troxel, M. A.; Vikram, V. ; Zuntz, J.; Abbott, T. M. C.; Abdalla, F. B.; Allam, S.; Annis, J.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bertin, E.; Brooks, D.; Buckley-Geer, E.; Burke, D. L.; Capozzi, D.; Rosell, A. Carnero; Kind, M. Carrasco; Cunha, C. E.; D'Andrea, C. B.; da Costa, L. N.; Desai, S.; Diehl, H. T.; Dietrich, J. P.; Doel, P.; Eifler, T. F.; Estrada, J.; Evrard, A. E.; Flaugher, B.; Frieman, J.; Goldstein, D. A.; Gruen, D.; Gruendl, R. A.; Gutierrez, G.; Honscheid, K.; Jain, B.; James, D. J.; Kuehn, K.; Kuropatkin, N.; Lahav, O.; Li, T. S.; Lima, M.; Marshall, J. L.; Martini, P.; Melchior, P.; Miller, C. J.; Miquel, R.; Mohr, J. J.; Nichol, R. C.; Nord, B.; Ogando, R.; Plazas, A. A.; Reil, K.; Romer, A. K.; Roodman, A.; Rykoff, E. S.; Sanchez, E.; Scarpine, V.; Schubnell, M.; Sevilla-Noarbe, I.; Smith, R. C.; Soares-Santos, M.; Sobreira, F.; Suchyta, E.; Swanson, M. E. C.; Tarle, G.; Thomas, D.; Walker, A. R.

We measure the redshift evolution of galaxy bias from a magnitude-limited galaxy sample by combining the galaxy density maps and weak lensing shear maps for a $$\sim$$116 deg$$^{2}$$ area of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification data. This method was first developed in Amara et al. (2012) and later re-examined in a companion paper (Pujol et al., in prep) with rigorous simulation tests and analytical treatment of tomographic measurements. In this work we apply this method to the DES SV data and measure the galaxy bias for a magnitude-limited galaxy sample. We find the galaxy bias and 1$$\sigma$$ error bars in 4 photometric redshift bins to be 1.33$$\pm$$0.18 (z=0.2-0.4), 1.19$$\pm$$0.23 (z=0.4-0.6), 0.99$$\pm$$0.36 ( z=0.6-0.8), and 1.66$$\pm$$0.56 (z=0.8-1.0). These measurements are consistent at the 1-2$$\sigma$$ level with mea- surements on the same dataset using galaxy clustering and cross-correlation of galaxies with CMB lensing. In addition, our method provides the only $$\sigma_8$$-independent constraint among the three. We forward-model the main observational effects using mock galaxy catalogs by including shape noise, photo-z errors and masking effects. We show that our bias measurement from the data is consistent with that expected from simulations. With the forthcoming full DES data set, we expect this method to provide additional constraints on the galaxy bias measurement from more traditional methods. Furthermore, in the process of our measurement, we build up a 3D mass map that allows further exploration of the dark matter distribution and its relation to galaxy evolution.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Contributing Organization: DES
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 1244414
• Report Number(s): arXiv:1601.00405; FERMILAB-PUB-16-010-AE; 1412021
• Journal Information: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 459, Issue 3; ISSN 0035-8711
• Publisher: Royal Astronomical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS