TY - JOUR
T1 - Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA)
T2 - the large-scale structure of galaxies and comparison to mock universes
AU - Alpaslan, Mehmet
AU - Robotham, Aaron S. G.
AU - Driver, Simon
AU - Norberg, Peder
AU - Baldry, Ivan
AU - Bauer, Amanda E.
AU - Bland-Hawthorn, Joss
AU - Brown, Michael
AU - Cluver, Michelle
AU - Colless, Matthew
AU - Foster, Caroline
AU - Hopkins, Andrew
AU - Van Kampen, Eelco
AU - Kelvin, Lee Steven
AU - Lara-Lopez, Maritza A.
AU - Liske, Jochen
AU - Lopez-Sanchez, Angel R.
AU - Loveday, Jon
AU - McNaught-Roberts, Tamsyn
AU - Merson, Alexander
AU - Pimbblet, Kevin
N1 - MA acknowledges funding from the University of St Andrews and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. ASGR is supported by funding from a UWA Fellowship. PN acknowledges the support of the Royal Society through the award of a University Research Fellowship and the European Research Council, through receipt of a Starting Grant (DEGAS-259586). MJIB acknowledges the financial support of the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship 100100280. TMR acknowledges support from a European Research Council Starting Grant (DEGAS-259586).
PY - 2014/2/11
Y1 - 2014/2/11
N2 - From a volume-limited sample of 45 542 galaxies and 6000 groups with z ≤ 0.213, we use an adapted minimal spanning tree algorithm to identify and classify large-scale structures within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Using galaxy groups, we identify 643 filaments across the three equatorial GAMA fields that span up to 200 h−1 Mpc in length, each with an average of eight groups within them. By analysing galaxies not belonging to groups, we identify a secondary population of smaller coherent structures composed entirely of galaxies, dubbed ‘tendrils’ that appear to link filaments together, or penetrate into voids, generally measuring around 10 h−1 Mpc in length and containing on average six galaxies. Finally, we are also able to identify a population of isolated void galaxies. By running this algorithm on GAMA mock galaxy catalogues, we compare the characteristics of large-scale structure between observed and mock data, finding that mock filaments reproduce observed ones extremely well. This provides a probe of higher order distribution statistics not captured by the popularly used two-point correlation function.
AB - From a volume-limited sample of 45 542 galaxies and 6000 groups with z ≤ 0.213, we use an adapted minimal spanning tree algorithm to identify and classify large-scale structures within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Using galaxy groups, we identify 643 filaments across the three equatorial GAMA fields that span up to 200 h−1 Mpc in length, each with an average of eight groups within them. By analysing galaxies not belonging to groups, we identify a secondary population of smaller coherent structures composed entirely of galaxies, dubbed ‘tendrils’ that appear to link filaments together, or penetrate into voids, generally measuring around 10 h−1 Mpc in length and containing on average six galaxies. Finally, we are also able to identify a population of isolated void galaxies. By running this algorithm on GAMA mock galaxy catalogues, we compare the characteristics of large-scale structure between observed and mock data, finding that mock filaments reproduce observed ones extremely well. This provides a probe of higher order distribution statistics not captured by the popularly used two-point correlation function.
KW - Methods: observational
KW - Surveys
KW - Large-scale structure of Universe
KW - Cosmic web
KW - Redshift survey
KW - Luminosity functions
KW - Filaments
KW - Clusters
KW - Catalog
KW - Voids
KW - Superstructures
KW - Classification
KW - Morphology
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stt2136
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stt2136
M3 - Article
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 438
SP - 177
EP - 194
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 1
ER -