Halo occupation distribution of massive galaxies since z= 1

Abstract

We present a clustering analysis of ∼60 000 massive (stellar mass M★ > 1011 M⊙) galaxies out to z= 1 drawn from 55.2 deg2 of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) II Supernova Survey. Strong clustering is detected for all the subsamples of massive galaxies characterized by different stellar masses (M★= 1011.0−11.5 M⊙, 1011.5−12.0 M⊙) or rest-frame colours (blue: U−V < 1.0, red: U−V > 1.0). We find that more mature (more massive or redder) galaxies are more clustered, which implies that the more mature galaxies have started stellar-mass assembly earlier within the highly biased region where the structure formation has also started earlier. By means of halo occupation distribution (HOD) models fitted to the observed angular correlation function, we infer the properties of the underlying host dark haloes. We find that the estimated bias factors and host halo masses are systematically larger for galaxies with larger stellar masses, which is consistent with the general agreement that the capability of hosting massive galaxies depends strongly on halo mass. The estimated effective halo masses are ∼1014 M⊙, which gives the stellar-mass to halo-mass ratios of ∼0.003. The observed evolution of bias factors indicates rapid evolution of spatial distributions of cold dark matter relative to those traced by the massive galaxies, while the transition of host halo masses might imply that the fractional mass growth rate of haloes is less than those of stellar systems. The inferred halo masses and high fractions of central galaxies indicate that the massive galaxies in the current sample are possibly equivalent to central galaxies of galaxy clusters.