Misc,

The MUSE-Wide survey: Three-dimensional clustering analysis of Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters at $3.3<z<6$

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(2021)cite arxiv:2107.03723Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 22 pages, 20 figures, 4 tables.

Abstract

We present an analysis of the spatial clustering of 695 Ly$\alpha$-emitting galaxies (LAE) in the MUSE-Wide survey. All objects have spectroscopically confirmed redshifts in the range $3.3<z<6$. We employ the K-estimator of Adelberger et al. (2005), adapted and optimized for our sample. We also explore the standard two-point correlation function approach, which is however less suited for a pencil-beam survey such as ours. The results from both approaches are consistent. We parametrize the clustering properties by, (i) modelling the clustering signal with a power law (PL), and (ii) adopting a Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) model. Applying HOD modeling, we infer a large-scale bias of $b_HOD=2.80^+0.38_-0.38$ at a median redshift of the number of galaxy pairs $z_pair\rangle\simeq3.82$, while the PL analysis results in $b_PL=3.03^+1.51_-0.52$ ($r_0=3.60^+3.10_-0.90\;h^-1$Mpc and $\gamma=1.30^+0.36_-0.45$). The implied typical dark matter halo (DMH) mass is $łog(M_DMH/h^-1M_ødot)=11.34^+0.23_-0.27$. We study possible dependencies of the clustering signal on object properties by bisecting the sample into disjoint subsets, considering Ly$\alpha$ luminosity, UV absolute magnitude, Ly$\alpha$ equivalent width, and redshift as variables. We find a suggestive trend of more luminous Ly$\alpha$ emitters residing in more massive DMHs than their lower Ly$\alpha$ luminosity counterparts. We also compare our results to mock LAE catalogs based on a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation and find a stronger clustering signal than in our observed sample. By adopting a galaxy-conserving model we estimate that the LAEs in the MUSE-Wide survey will typically evolve into galaxies hosted by halos of $łog(M_DMH/h^-1M_ødot)\approx13.5$ at redshift zero, suggesting that we observe the ancestors of present-day galaxy groups.

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