A Halo Model with Environment Dependence: Theoretical Considerations

TL;DR

This paper extends the standard halo model by incorporating environment-dependent halo properties and HOD prescriptions to better describe galaxy clustering, highlighting the significant impact on galaxy correlation functions.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for environment-dependent halo properties and HOD, improving the modeling of galaxy clustering beyond the standard halo model.

Findings

Halo concentration affects dark matter correlation at small scales.

Galaxy correlation function is highly sensitive to HOD details.

Environmental dependence significantly influences galaxy clustering predictions.

Abstract

We present a modification of the standard halo model with the goal of providing an improved description of galaxy clustering. Recent surveys, like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Anglo-Australian Two-degree survey (2dF), have shown that there seems to be a correlation between the clustering of galaxies and their properties such as metallicity and star formation rate, which are believed to be environment-dependent. This environmental dependence is not included in the standard halo model where the host halo mass is the only variable specifying galaxy properties. In our approach, the halo properties i.e., the concentration, and the Halo Occupation Distribution --HOD-- prescription, will not only depend on the halo mass (like in the standard halo model) but also on the halo environment. We examine how different environmental dependence of halo concentration and HOD prescription affect the correlation function. We see that at the level of dark matter, the concentration of haloes affects moderately the dark matter correlation function only at small scales. However the galaxy correlation function is extremely sensitive to the HOD details, even when only the HOD of a small fraction of haloes is modified.