GaBoDS: The Garching-Bonn Deep Survey: VII. Probing galaxy bias using weak gravitational lensing

Abstract

[ABRIDGED] The weak gravitational lensing effect is used to infer matter density fluctuations within the field-of-view of the Garching-Bonn Deep Survey (GaBoDS). This information is employed for a statistical comparison of the galaxy distribution to the total matter distribution. The result of this comparison is expressed by means of the linear bias factor, b, the ratio of density fluctuations, and the correlation factor $r$ between density fluctuations. The total galaxy sample is divided into three sub-samples using R-band magnitudes and the weak lensing analysis is applied separately for each sub-sample. Together with the photometric redshifts from the related COMBO-17 survey we estimate the typical mean redshifts of these samples with $\bar{z}=0.35,0.47,0.61$, respectively. For all three samples, a slight galaxy anti-bias, b~0.8+-0.1, on scales of a few Mpc/h is found; the bias factor shows evidence for a slight scale-dependence. The correlation between galaxy and (dark) matter distribution is high, r~0.6+-0.2, indicating a non-linear or/and stochastic biasing relation between matter and galaxies. Between the three samples no significant evolution with redshift is found.

22 pages, 11 figures, LaTeX, accepted by A&A; estimates for the uncertainties in the galaxy redshift distribution were added, new Section 4.4 on statistical errors in the galaxy bias calibration factors

References in corpus (2)

• Redshift and Shear Calibration: Impact on Cosmic Shear Studies and Survey Design
• Fast n-point correlation functions and three-point lensing application

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• Galaxy-galaxy(-galaxy) lensing as a sensitive probe of galaxy evolution
• CFHTLenS: Galaxy bias as function of scale, stellar mass, and colour. Conflicts with predictions by semi-analytic models