The Cross-correlation of MgII Absorption and Galaxies in BOSS

Abstract

We present a measurement of the cross-correlation of MgII absorption and massive galaxies, using the DR11 main galaxy sample of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III (CMASS galaxies), and the DR7 quasar spectra of SDSS-II. The cross-correlation is measured by stacking quasar absorption spectra shifted to the redshift of galaxies that are within a certain impact parameter bin of the quasar, after dividing by a quasar continuum model. This results in an average MgII equivalent width as a function of impact parameter from a galaxy, ranging from 50 kpc to more than 10 Mpc in proper units, which includes all MgII absorbers. We show that special care needs to be taken to use an unbiased quasar continuum estimator, to avoid systematic errors in the measurement of the mean stacked MgII equivalent width. The measured cross-correlation follows the expected shape of the galaxy correlation function, although measurement errors are large. We use the cross-correlation amplitude to derive the bias factor of MgII absorbers, finding bMgII = 2.33 \pm? 0.19, where the error accounts only for the statistical uncertainty in measuring the mean equivalent width. This bias factor is larger than that obtained in previous studies and may be affected by modeling uncertainties that we discuss, but if correct it suggests that MgII absorbers at redshift z \simeq 0:5 are spatially distributed on large scales similarly to the CMASS galaxies in BOSS. Keywords: galaxies: haloes, galaxies: formation, quasars: absorption lines, large-scale structure of universe

Accepted for publication to MNRAS. Accepted 2014 December 12. Received 2014 November 29; in original form 2014 February 6

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