The very wide-field $gzK$ galaxy survey -- I. Details of the clustering properties of star-forming galaxies at $z \sim 2$

TL;DR

This study analyzes the clustering properties of star-forming galaxies at redshift around 2 using a large wide-field survey, revealing details about their halo masses and small-scale excess in correlation functions.

Contribution

It provides the largest area BzK/gzK galaxy survey at z~2, with improved accuracy in clustering measurements and halo mass estimates based on differential analysis by luminosity.

Findings

Detected small-scale excess in angular correlation functions.

Fainter galaxies reside in halos of ~10^12 solar masses.

Brighter galaxies are associated with halos of ~10^13 solar masses.

Abstract

We present the results of clustering analysis on the $z \sim 2$ star-forming galaxies. By combining our data with data from publicly available archives, we collect $g$-, $\zb / z$-, and $K$-band imaging data over 5.2 deg$^{2}$, which represents the largest area BzK/gzK survey. We apply colour corrections to translate our filter-set to those used in the original BzK selection for the gzK selection. Because of the wide survey area, we obtain a sample of 41,112 star-forming gzK galaxies at $z \sim 2$ (sgzKs) down to $\KAB < 23.0$, and determine high-quality two-point angular correlation functions (ACFs). Our ACFs show an apparent excess from power-law behaviour at small angular scale $(\theta \la 0.01^{\circ})$, which corresponds the virial radius of a dark halo at $z \sim 2$ with a mass of $\sim 10^{13} \Msun$. We find that the correlation lengths are consistent with the previous estimates over all magnitude range; however, our results are evaluated with a smaller margin of error than that in previous studies. The large amount of data enables us to determine ACFs differentially depending on the luminosity of the subset of the data. The mean halo mass of faint sgzKs $(22.0 < K \leq 23.0)$ was found to be $\Mh = (1.32^{+0.09}_{-0.12}) \times 10^{12} h^{-1} \Msun$, whereas bright sgzKs ($18.0 \leq K \leq 21.0)$ were found to reside in dark haloes with a mass of $\Mh = (3.26^{+1.23}_{-1.02}) \times 10^{13} h^{-1} \Msun$.