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The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: measuring structure growth using passive galaxies

Citation:

Tojeiro R, Percival WJ, Brinkmann J, Brownstein JR, Eisenstein DJ, Manera M, Maraston C, McBride CK, Muna D, Reid B, et al. The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: measuring structure growth using passive galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 2012;424 :2339-2344.

Date Published:

August 1, 2012

Abstract:

We explore the benefits of using a passively evolving population ofgalaxies to measure the evolution of the rate of structure growthbetween z = 0.25 and 0.65 by combining data from the Sloan Digital SkySurvey (SDSS) I/II and SDSS-III surveys. The large-scale linear bias ofa population of dynamically passive galaxies, which we select from bothsurveys, is easily modelled. Knowing the bias evolution breaksdegeneracies inherent to other methodologies, and decreases theuncertainty in measurements of the rate of structure growth and thenormalization of the galaxy power spectrum by up to a factor of 2. If wetranslate our measurements into a constraint on σ8(z =0) assuming a concordance cosmological model and general relativity(GR), we find that using a bias model improves our uncertainty by afactor of nearly 1.5. Our results are consistent with a flat Λcold dark matter model and with GR.

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