Bibcode
Berrier, Joel C.; Cooke, J.; Bullock, J.; Barton, E.
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #410.28; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.239
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1
2010
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We use a well understood N-body simulation combined with an analytic
subhalo model to generate statistics for a defined sample of z 3 Lyman
break galaxy (LBG) pairs. We select our sample by matching the two-point
correlation function in the simulation to the observed correlation
function for LBG's. We calculate the mean number of companions (Nc) per
galaxy, or the close pair fraction, in the volume of our sample using
two techniques. First, a standard cylinder is used to calculate the
total close pair fraction that would be observed. Second, mock
spectroscopic slits are constructed to mimic existing spectroscopic
samples and are "observed" with multiple on-the-sky orientations. The
results are used to calculate Nc for a randomly oriented spectroscopic
slit geometry and are compared to the results from a sample of observed
z 3 LBGs. We use mock spectroscopic slits whose lengths are randomly
chosen from a catalog of slit lengths used in our observational sample.
We use a maximum velocity separation of +/- 500 km/s to define our close
pairs. We find Nc = 4.8% +- 0.2% for the spectroscopic slit, a value
which is consistent with the observational results of 6.8% +- 1.2%. This
implies a total close pair fraction of 42.2% +/- 1.1% using cylinder
radii generated by our random slit lengths for each sample.