Red Galaxies Research Articles

Weak lensing tomographic redshift distribution inference for the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program three-year shape catalogue

ABSTRACTWe present posterior sample redshift distributions for the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program Weak Lensing three-year (HSC Y3) analysis. Using the galaxies’ photometry and spatial cross-correlations, we conduct a combined Bayesian Hierarchical Inference of the sample redshift distributions. The spatial cross-correlations are derived using a subsample of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) with accurate redshift information available up to a photometric redshift of z < 1.2. We derive the photometry-based constraints using a combination of two empirical techniques calibrated on spectroscopic and multiband photometric data that cover a spatial subset of the shear catalogue. The limited spatial coverage induces a cosmic variance error budget that we include in the inference. Our cross-correlation analysis models the photometric redshift error of the LRGs to correct for systematic biases and statistical uncertainties. We demonstrate consistency between the sample redshift distributions derived using the spatial cross-correlations, the photometry, and the posterior of the combined analysis. Based on this assessment, we recommend conservative priors for sample redshift distributions of tomographic bins used in the three-year cosmological Weak Lensing analyses.

Velocity Dispersion σ aper Aperture Corrections as a Function of Galaxy Properties from Integral-field Stellar Kinematics of 10,000 MaNGA Galaxies

The second moment of the stellar velocity within the effective radius, denoted by , is a crucial quantity in galaxy studies, as it provides insight into galaxy properties and their mass distributions. However, large spectroscopic surveys typically do not measure σ e directly, instead providing σ aper, the second moment of the stellar velocity within a fixed fiber aperture. In this paper, we derive an empirical aperture correction formula, given by , using spatially resolved stellar kinematics extracted from approximately 10,000 Sloan Digital Sky Survey–Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory integral field unit observations. Our analysis reveals a strong dependence of α on the r-band absolute magnitude M r, g–i color, and Sérsic index n Ser, where α values are lower for brighter, redder galaxies with higher Sérsic indices. Our results demonstrate that the aperture correction derived from previous literature on early-type galaxies cannot be applied to predict the aperture corrections for galaxies with intermediate Sérsic indices. We provide a lookup table of α values for different galaxy types, with parameters in the ranges of −18 > M r > −24, 0.4 < g–i < 1.6, and 0 < n Ser < 8. A Python script is provided to obtain the correction factors from the lookup table.

Clustering of red sequence galaxies in the fourth data release of the Kilo-Degree Survey

We present a sample of luminous red sequence galaxies as the basis for a study of the large-scale structure in the fourth data release of the Kilo-Degree Survey. The selected galaxies are defined by a red sequence template, in the form of a data-driven model of the colour-magnitude relation conditioned on redshift. In this work, the red sequence template was built using the broad-band optical+near infrared photometry of KiDS-VIKING and the overlapping spectroscopic data sets. The selection process involved estimating the red sequence redshifts, assessing the purity of the sample and estimating the underlying redshift distributions of redshift bins. After performing the selection, we mitigated the impact of survey properties on the observed number density of galaxies by assigning photometric weights to the galaxies. We measured the angular two-point correlation function of the red galaxies in four redshift bins and constrain the large-scale bias of our red sequence sample assuming a fixed ΛCDM cosmology. We find consistent linear biases for two luminosity-threshold samples (‘dense’ and ‘luminous’). We find that our constraints are well characterised by the passive evolution model.

Non-Gaussian assembly bias from a semi-analytic galaxy formation model

ABSTRACT We produce z = 1 galaxy catalogues with the semi-analytic code galacticus to study the dependence on the assembly history of the host halos of the non-Gaussian bias parameter bϕ for galaxies selected by colour magnitude and emission line luminosities. Galaxies selected by g–r colour shows a large assembly bias consistent with previous analyses: a larger value of the normalization amplitude σ8 implies a faster mass assembly and therefore older and redder galaxies. For galaxies selected by H α luminosity, we do not detect a significant assembly bias for the redshift and the halo masses considered here. This indicates that the non-Gaussian assembly bias should be less of a concern for future emission line galaxy surveys. We investigate, for the first time, the sensitivity of the non-Gaussian assembly bias to a change in the parameters of the galaxy formation model: these induce variations up to order unity in the measured Δbϕ, but the overall trends with colour or luminosity remain the same. Since these results may be sensitive to the specific galaxy formation model, it will be prudent to extend this analysis to other semi-analytic models in addition to halo mass and redshift.

Model independent variance cancellation in CMB lensing cross-correlations

Cross-correlations of CMB lensing reconstructions with other tracers of matter constrain primordial non-Gaussianity, neutrino masses and structure growth as a function of cosmic time. We formalize a method to improve the precision of these measurements by using a third tracer to remove structure from the lensing reconstructions. Crucially, our method enjoys the variance reduction benefits of a joint-modeling approach without the need to model the cosmological dependence of the ancillary tracer. We present a first demonstration of variance cancellation using data from Planck and the DESI Legacy Surveys, showing a 10%--20% reduction in both lensing power and cross-correlation variance using the cosmic infrared background (CIB) or DESI Legacy Survey luminous red galaxies (LRGs) as matter tracers.

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: magnification modelling and impact on cosmological constraints from galaxy clustering and galaxy–galaxy lensing

ABSTRACT We study the effect of magnification in the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 analysis of galaxy clustering and galaxy–galaxy lensing, using two different lens samples: a sample of luminous red galaxies, redMaGiC, and a sample with a redshift-dependent magnitude limit, MagLim. We account for the effect of magnification on both the flux and size selection of galaxies, accounting for systematic effects using the Balrog image simulations. We estimate the impact of magnification on the galaxy clustering and galaxy–galaxy lensing cosmology analysis, finding it to be a significant systematic for the MagLim sample. We show cosmological constraints from the galaxy clustering autocorrelation and galaxy–galaxy lensing signal with different magnifications priors, finding broad consistency in cosmological parameters in ΛCDM and wCDM. However, when magnification bias amplitude is allowed to be free, we find the two-point correlation functions prefer a different amplitude to the fiducial input derived from the image simulations. We validate the magnification analysis by comparing the cross-clustering between lens bins with the prediction from the baseline analysis, which uses only the autocorrelation of the lens bins, indicating that systematics other than magnification may be the cause of the discrepancy. We show that adding the cross-clustering between lens redshift bins to the fit significantly improves the constraints on lens magnification parameters and allows uninformative priors to be used on magnification coefficients, without any loss of constraining power or prior volume concerns.

Cosmological measurements from void-galaxy and galaxy-galaxy clustering in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

ABSTRACT We present the cosmological implications of measurements of void-galaxy and galaxy-galaxy clustering from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Main Galaxy Sample (MGS), Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), and extended BOSS (eBOSS) luminous red galaxy catalogues from SDSS Data Release 7, 12, and 16, covering the redshift range 0.07 &amp;lt; $z$ &amp;lt; 1.0. We fit a standard ΛCDM cosmological model as well as various extensions, including a constant dark energy equation of state not equal to −1, a time-varying dark energy equation of state, and these same models allowing for spatial curvature. Results on key parameters of these models are reported for void-galaxy and galaxy-galaxy clustering alone, both of these combined, and all these combined with measurements from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and supernovae (SN). For the combination of void-galaxy and galaxy-galaxy clustering, we find tight constraints of Ωm = 0.356 ± 0.024 for a base ΛCDM cosmology, $\Omega _\mathrm{m} = 0.391^{+0.028}_{-0.021}, w = -1.50^{+0.43}_{-0.28}$ additionally allowing the dark energy equation of state $w$ to vary, and $\Omega _\mathrm{m} = 0.331^{+0.067}_{-0.094}, w=-1.41^{+0.70}_{-0.31},\ \mathrm{and}\ \Omega _\mathrm{k} = 0.06^{+0.18}_{-0.13}$ further extending to non-flat models. The combined SDSS results from void-galaxy and galaxy-galaxy clustering in combination with CMB+SN provide a 30 per cent improvement in parameter Ωm over CMB+SN for ΛCDM, a 5 per cent improvement in parameter Ωm when $w$ is allowed to vary, and a 32 per cent and 68 per cent improvement in parameters Ωm and Ωk when allowing for spatial curvature.

Environments of red nuggets at z ∼ 0.7 from the VIPERS survey

ABSTRACT Red ultra-compact massive galaxies, called red nuggets were formed at high redshifts (z ∼ 2–3). Survivors of red nuggets, known as relics, observed at lower redshifts (z &amp;lt; 2) are believed to remain almost unchanged since their formation. For the first time, we verify the environmental properties of red nuggets at intermediate redshift (0.5 &amp;lt; z &amp;lt; 0.9) using 42 red, massive (log(Mstar/M⊙) ≥ 10.9), and ultra compact (Re &amp;lt; 1.5 kpc) from the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). We found that the increasing fraction of red galaxies, when moving to denser environments, is driven by the red massive normal-size galaxies. Red nuggets, similarly to red intermediate-mass (10.4 ≲ log (Mstar/M⊙) &amp;lt; 10.9) ultra-compact galaxies, are found in various types of environments, with consistent (within 1σ) fractions across all local densities. Analysis of red nugget stellar ages suggests that relics are preferably found in high-density regions while quiescent red nuggets are overabundant in low-density environments. We speculate that red nuggets have survived to lower redshifts via two channels: i) in low-density environments, where the fraction of red nuggets decreases as time passes due to (very) limited merger activity, ii) in high-density environments, where the number of red nuggets drops at higher redshift due to merger activity and is preserved at lower redshift as the high velocities of clusters prevent them from being cannibalized. Even more, the fraction of red nuggets in clusters may increase due to the addition of red massive normal-size galaxies deprived of their envelopes with cosmic time.

Separating the blue cloud and the red sequence using Otsu’s method for image segmentation

The observed colour bimodality allows a classification of the galaxies into two distinct classes: the ‘blue cloud’ and the ‘red sequence’. Such classification is often carried out using empirical cuts in colour and other galaxy properties that lack solid mathematical justifications. We propose a method for separating the galaxies in the ‘blue cloud’ and the ‘red sequence’ using Otsu’s thresholding technique for image segmentation. We show that this technique is insensitive to the choice of binning. It provides a robust and parameter-free method for the classification of the red and blue galaxies based on the minimization of the intra-class variance and maximization of the inter-class variance. We also apply an iterative triclass thresholding technique based on Otsu’s method to improve the classification. The galaxy colour is known to depend on the stellar mass and the luminosity of galaxies. We obtain the dividing lines between the two populations in the colour–stellar mass plane and the colour–absolute magnitude plane by employing these methods in a number of independent stellar mass bins and absolute magnitude bins.

Gas and stellar kinematic misalignment in MaNGA galaxies: What is the origin of counter-rotating gas?

Context. Kinematic misalignment between gas and stellar components is observed in a certain fraction of galaxies. It believed to be caused by the acquisition of gas from the external reservoir by, for example, major or minor mergers, accretion from cosmological filaments, or the circumgalactic medium. Aims. We aim to constrain the possible sources of the gas that forms the counter-rotating component. Methods. We derived the gas-phase oxygen abundances of 69 galaxies with a kinematic misalignment between gas and stellar components from the MaNGA DR17 survey and compared them with the metallicity expected according to the mass–metallicity relation. Results. We find that the oxygen abundance of the counter-rotating gas in our sample is higher than 8.2 dex, which rules out a significant role for the inflow of pristine gas. Meanwhile, there is a significant difference in the oxygen abundance of the counter-rotating gas between red and blue galaxies. In general, the oxygen abundance is lower than expected for the stellar mass in red galaxies but is compatible with or even higher than typical values for the stellar mass in blue galaxies. Conclusions. We show that the exchange of enriched gas between galaxies is the most plausible mechanism for explaining the metallicity of counter-rotating gas components in galaxies of all masses and colors. Meanwhile, minor mergers may play a significant role in the formation of counter-rotating gas components in red and quenched galaxies.

The shape of dark matter haloes: results from weak lensing in the ultraviolet near-infrared optical Northern survey (UNIONS)

ABSTRACT Cold dark matter haloes are expected to be triaxial and so appear elliptical in projection. We use weak gravitational lensing from the Canada–France Imaging Survey (CFIS) component of the Ultraviolet Near-Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS) to measure the ellipticity of the dark matter haloes around Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (DR7) and from the CMASS and LOWZ samples of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), assuming their major axes are aligned with the stellar light. We find that DR7 LRGs with masses M ∼ 2.7 × 1013 M⊙ h−1 have halo ellipticities e = 0.46 ± 0.10. Expressed as a fraction of the galaxy's ellipticity, we find fh = 2.2 ± 0.6. For BOSS LRGs, the detection is of marginal significance: e = 0.20 ± 0.10 and fh = 0.7 ± 0.7. These results are in agreement with other measurements of halo ellipticity from weak lensing and, taken together with previous results, suggest an increase in halo ellipticity of 0.10 ± 0.06 per decade in halo mass. This trend agrees with the predictions from hydrodynamical simulations, which find that at higher halo masses, not only do dark matter haloes become more elliptical, but that the misalignment between the major axis of the stellar light in the central galaxy and that of the dark matter decreases.

Measurement of parity-odd modes in the large-scale 4-point correlation function of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey twelfth data release CMASS and LOWZ galaxies

ABSTRACT A tetrahedron is the simplest shape that cannot be rotated into its mirror image in three-dimension (3D). The 4-point correlation function (4PCF), which quantifies excess clustering of quartets of galaxies over random, is the lowest order statistic sensitive to parity violation. Each galaxy defines one vertex of the tetrahedron. Parity-odd modes of the 4PCF probe an imbalance between tetrahedra and their mirror images. We measure these modes from the largest currently available spectroscopic samples, the 280 067 luminous red galaxies (LRGs) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) twelfth data release (DR12) LOWZ ($\bar{z} = 0.32$ ) and the 803 112 LRGs of BOSS DR12 CMASS ($\bar{z} = 0.57$ ). In LOWZ, we find 3.1σ evidence for a non-zero parity-odd 4PCF, and in CMASS we detect a parity-odd 4PCF at 7.1σ. Gravitational evolution alone does not produce this effect; parity-breaking in LSS, if cosmological in origin, must stem from the epoch of inflation. We have explored many sources of systematic error and found none that can produce a spurious parity-odd signal sufficient to explain our result. Underestimation of the noise could also lead to a spurious detection. Our reported significances presume that the mock catalogues used to calculate the covariance sufficiently capture the covariance of the true data. We have performed numerous tests to explore this issue. The odd-parity 4PCF opens a new avenue for probing new forces during the epoch of inflation with 3D large-scale structure; such exploration is timely given large upcoming spectroscopic samples such as Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and Euclid.

Early Results from GLASS-JWST. XX. Unveiling a Population of “Red Excess” Galaxies in Abell2744 and in the Coeval Field

We combine JWST/NIRCam imaging and MUSE data to characterize the properties of galaxies in different environmental conditions in the cluster Abell2744 (z = 0.3064) and in its immediate surroundings. We investigate how galaxy colors, morphology, and star-forming fractions depend on wavelength and on different parameterizations of environment. Our most striking result is the discovery of a “red excess” population in F200W−F444W colors in both the cluster regions and the field. These galaxies have normal F115W−F150W colors but are up to 0.8 mag redder than red sequence galaxies in F200W−F444W. They also have rather blue rest-frame B−V colors. Galaxies in the field and at the cluster virial radius are overall characterized by redder colors, but galaxies with the largest color deviations are found in the field and in the cluster core. Several results suggest that mechanisms taking place in these regions might be more effective in producing these colors. Looking at their morphology, many cluster galaxies show signatures consistent with ram pressure stripping, while field galaxies have features resembling interactions and mergers. Our hypothesis is that these galaxies are characterized by dust-enshrouded star formation: a JWST/NIRSpec spectrum for one of the galaxies is dominated by a strong PAH at 3.3 μm, suggestive of dust-obscured star formation. Larger spectroscopic samples are needed to understand whether the color excess is due exclusively to dust-obscured star formation, as well as the role of environment in triggering it.

Red riding on hood: exploring how galaxy colour depends on environment

ABSTRACT Galaxy populations are known to exhibit a strong colour bimodality, corresponding to blue star-forming and red quiescent subpopulations. The relative abundance of the two populations has been found to vary with stellar mass and environment. In this paper, we explore the effect of environment considering different types of measurements. We choose a sample of 49 911 galaxies with 0.05 &amp;lt; z &amp;lt; 0.18 from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. We study the dependence of the fraction of red galaxies on different measures of the local environment as well as the large-scale `geometric’ environment defined by density gradients in the surrounding cosmic web. We find that the red galaxy fraction varies with the environment at fixed stellar mass. The red fraction depends more strongly on local environmental measures than on large-scale geometric environment measures. By comparing the different environmental densities, we show that no density measurement fully explains the observed environmental red fraction variation, suggesting the different measures of environmental density contain different information. We test whether the local environmental measures, when combined together, can explain all the observed environmental red fraction variation. The geometric environment has a small residual effect, and this effect is larger for voids than any other type of geometric environment. This could provide a test of the physics applied to cosmological-scale galaxy evolution simulations as it combines large-scale effects with local environmental impact.

Intrinsic alignment as an RSD contaminant in the DESI survey

ABSTRACT We measure the tidal alignment of the major axes of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the Legacy Imaging Survey and use it to infer the artificial redshift-space distortion signature that will arise from an orientation-dependent, surface-brightness selection in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey. Using photometric redshifts to downweight the shape–density correlations due to weak lensing, we measure the intrinsic tidal alignment of LRGs. Separately, we estimate the net polarization of LRG orientations from DESI’s fibre-magnitude target selection to be of order 10−2 along the line of sight. Using these measurements and a linear tidal model, we forecast a 0.5 per cent fractional decrease on the quadrupole of the two-point correlation function for projected separations of 40–80 h−1 Mpc. We also use a halo catalogue from the Abacussummit cosmological simulation suite to reproduce this false quadrupole.

An Atlas of Color-selected Quiescent Galaxies at z > 3 in Public JWST Fields

We present the results of a systematic search for candidate quiescent galaxies in the distant universe in 11 JWST fields with publicly available observations collected during the first 3 months of operations and covering an effective sky area of ∼145 arcmin2. We homogeneously reduce the new JWST data and combine them with existing observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. We select a robust sample of ∼80 candidate quiescent and quenching galaxies at 3 < z < 5 using two methods: (1) based on their rest-frame UVJ colors, and (2) a novel quantitative approach based on Gaussian mixture modeling of the near-UV − U, U − V, and V − J rest-frame color space, which is more sensitive to recently quenched objects. We measure comoving number densities of massive (M ⋆ ≥ 1010.6 M ⊙) quiescent galaxies consistent with previous estimates relying on ground-based observations, after homogenizing the results in the literature with our mass and redshift intervals. However, we find significant field-to-field variations of the number densities up to a factor of 2–3, highlighting the effect of cosmic variance and suggesting the presence of overdensities of red quiescent galaxies at z > 3, as could be expected for highly clustered massive systems. Importantly, JWST enables the robust identification of quenching/quiescent galaxy candidates at lower masses and higher redshifts than before, challenging standard formation scenarios. All data products, including the literature compilation, are made publicly available.

DESI Survey Validation Spectra Reveal an Increasing Fraction of Recently Quenched Galaxies at z ∼ 1

We utilize ∼17,000 bright luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the novel Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Survey Validation spectroscopic sample, leveraging its deep (∼2.5 hr galaxy−1 exposure time) spectra to characterize the contribution of recently quenched galaxies to the massive galaxy population at 0.4 < z < 1.3. We use Prospector to infer nonparametric star formation histories and identify a significant population of recently quenched galaxies that have joined the quiescent population within the past ∼1 Gyr. The highest-redshift subset (277 at z > 1) of our sample of recently quenched galaxies represents the largest spectroscopic sample of post-starburst galaxies at that epoch. At 0.4 < z < 0.8, we measure the number density of quiescent LRGs, finding that recently quenched galaxies constitute a growing fraction of the massive galaxy population with increasing look-back time. Finally, we quantify the importance of this population among massive ( > 11.2) LRGs by measuring the fraction of stellar mass each galaxy formed in the gigayear before observation, f 1 Gyr. Although galaxies with f 1 Gyr > 0.1 are rare at z ∼ 0.4 (≲0.5% of the population), by z ∼ 0.8, they constitute ∼3% of massive galaxies. Relaxing this threshold, we find that galaxies with f 1 Gyr > 5% constitute ∼10% of the massive galaxy population at z ∼ 0.8. We also identify a small but significant sample of galaxies at z = 1.1–1.3 that formed with f 1 Gyr > 50%, implying that they may be analogs to high-redshift quiescent galaxies that formed on similar timescales. Future analysis of this unprecedented sample promises to illuminate the physical mechanisms that drive the quenching of massive galaxies after cosmic noon.

Detection of Cosmological 21 cm Emission with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment

We present a detection of 21 cm emission from large-scale structure (LSS) between redshift 0.78 and 1.43 made with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment. Radio observations acquired over 102 nights are used to construct maps that are foreground filtered and stacked on the angular and spectral locations of luminous red galaxies (LRGs), emission-line galaxies (ELGs), and quasars (QSOs) from the eBOSS clustering catalogs. We find decisive evidence for a detection when stacking on all three tracers of LSS, with the logarithm of the Bayes factor equal to 18.9 (LRG), 10.8 (ELG), and 56.3 (QSO). An alternative frequentist interpretation, based on the likelihood ratio test, yields a detection significance of 7.1σ (LRG), 5.7σ (ELG), and 11.1σ (QSO). These are the first 21 cm intensity mapping measurements made with an interferometer. We constrain the effective clustering amplitude of neutral hydrogen (H i), defined as , where ΩH i is the cosmic abundance of H i, b H i is the linear bias of H i, and 〈f μ 2〉 = 0.552 encodes the effect of redshift-space distortions at linear order. We find for LRGs (z = 0.84), for ELGs (z = 0.96), and for QSOs (z = 1.20), with constraints limited by modeling uncertainties at nonlinear scales. We are also sensitive to bias in the spectroscopic redshifts of each tracer, and we find a nonzero bias Δ v = − 66 ± 20 km s−1 for the QSOs. We split the QSO catalog into three redshift bins and have a decisive detection in each, with the upper bin at z = 1.30 producing the highest-redshift 21 cm intensity mapping measurement thus far.

Anisotropic correlation functions as tracers of central galaxy alignments in simulations

ABSTRACT Motivated by observational results, we use IllustrisTNG hydrodynamical numerical simulations to study the alignment of the central galaxies in groups with the surrounding structures. This approach allows us to analyse galaxy and group properties not available in observations. To perform this analysis, we use a modified version of the two-point cross-correlation function and a measure of the angle between the semimajor axes of the central galaxies and the larger structures. Overall, our results reproduce observational ones, as we find large-scale anisotropy, which is dominated by the red central galaxies. In addition, the latter is noticeably more aligned with their group than the blue ones. In contrast to the observations, we find a strong dependence of the anisotropy on the central galaxy with mass, probably associated with the inability of observational methods to determine them. This result allows us to link the alignment to the process of halo assembly and the well-known dependence of halo anisotropy on mass. When we include the dark matter distribution in our analysis, we conclude that the galaxy alignment found in simulations (and observations) can be explained by a combination of physical processes at different scales: the central galaxy aligns with the dark matter halo it inhabits, and this, in turn, aligns with the surrounding structures at large scales.

First Constraints on Growth Rate from Redshift-space Ellipticity Correlations of SDSS Galaxies at 0.16 < z < 0.70

We report the first constraints on the growth rate of the universe, f(z)σ 8(z), with intrinsic alignments (IAs) of galaxies. We measure the galaxy density-intrinsic ellipticity cross-correlation and intrinsic ellipticity autocorrelation functions over 0.16 < z < 0.7 from luminous red galaxies (LRGs) and LOWZ and CMASS galaxy samples in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and SDSS-III BOSS survey. We detect clear anisotropic signals of IA due to redshift-space distortions. By combining measured IA statistics with the conventional galaxy clustering statistics, we obtain tighter constraints on the growth rate. The improvement is particularly prominent for the LRG, which is the brightest galaxy sample and known to be strongly aligned with underlying dark matter distribution; using the measurements on scales above 10 h −1 Mpc, we obtain (68% confidence level) from the clustering-only analysis and with clustering and IA, meaning 19% improvement. The constraint is in good agreement with the prediction of general relativity, f σ 8 = 0.4937 at z = 0.34. For LOWZ and CMASS samples, the improvement of constraints on f σ 8 is found to be 10% and 3.5%, respectively. Our results indicate that the contribution from IA statistics for cosmological constraints can be further enhanced by carefully selecting galaxies for a shape sample.