The Time Evolution of Bias

Abstract

We study the evolution of the bias factor b and the mass-galaxy correlation coefficient r in a simple analytic model for galaxy formation and the gravitational growth of clustering. The model shows that b and r can be strongly time dependent but tend to approach unity even if galaxy formation never ends as the gravitational growth of clustering debiases the older galaxies. The presence of random fluctuations in the sites of galaxy formation relative to the mass distribution can cause large and rapidly falling bias values at high redshift.