The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: a large sample of mock galaxy catalogues

Marc Manera, Roman Scoccimarro, Will J. Percival, Lado Samushia, Cameron K. McBride, Ashley J. Ross, Ravi K. Sheth, Martin White, Beth A. Reid, Ariel G. Sánchez, Roland de Putter, Xiaoying Xu, Andreas A. Berlind, Jonathan Brinkmann, Claudia Maraston, Bob Nichol, Francesco Montesano, Nikhil Padmanabhan, Ramin A. Skibba, Rita TojeiroBenjamin A. Weaver

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We present a fast method for producing mock galaxy catalogues that can be used to compute the covariance of large-scale clustering measurements and test analysis techniques. Our method populates a second-order Lagrangian perturbation theory (2LPT) matter field, where we calibrate masses of dark matter haloes by detailed comparisons with N-body simulations. We demonstrate that the clustering of haloes is recovered at ∼10 per cent accuracy. We populate haloes with mock galaxies using a halo occupation distribution (HOD) prescription, which has been calibrated to reproduce the clustering measurements on scales between 30and 80 h-1 Mpc. We compare the sample covariance matrix from our mocks with analytic estimates, and discuss differences. We have used this method to make catalogues corresponding to Data Release 9 of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), producing 600 mock catalogues of the 'CMASS' galaxy sample. These mocks have enabled detailed tests of methods and errors, and have formed an integral part of companion analyses of these galaxy data.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1036-1054
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume428
Issue number2
Early online date31 Oct 2012
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Jan 2013

Keywords

  • Galaxies: haloes
  • Large-scale structure of Universe

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