http://arxiv.org/abs/1711.02677

Galaxies are biased tracers of the matter density on cosmological scales. For future tests of galaxy models, we refine and assess a method to measure galaxy biasing as function of physical scale $k$ with weak gravitational lensing. This method enables us to reconstruct the galaxy bias factor $b(k)$ as well as the galaxy-matter correlation $r(k)$ on physical scales between $0.01\,h\,{\rm Mpc^{-1}}\lesssim k\lesssim10\,h\,{\rm Mpc^{-1}}$ for redshift-binned lens galaxies below redshift $z\lesssim0.6$. In the refinement, we account for an intrinsic alignment of source ellipticities, and we correct for the lensing magnification of the angular number density of the lens galaxies to improve the accuracy of the reconstructed $r(k)$. For simulated data, the reconstructions achieve an accuracy of $3-7\%$ (68\% confidence level) over the above $k$-range for a survey area and a typical depth of contemporary ground-based surveys. Realistically the accuracy is, however, probably reduced to about $10-15\%$, mainly by systematic errors in the assumed intrinsic source alignments, the fiducial cosmology, and the redshift distributions of lens and source galaxies (in that order). Furthermore, our reconstruction technique employs physical templates for $b(k)$ and $r(k)$ that elucidate the impact of central galaxies and the halo-occupation statistics of satellite galaxies on the scale-dependence of galaxy bias, which we discuss in the paper. In a first demonstration, we apply this method to previous measurements in the Garching-Bonn-Deep Survey and give a physical interpretation of the lens population.

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P. Simon and S. Hilbert
Thu, 9 Nov 17
48/54

Comments: 30 pages, 16 figures; submitted to A&A; comments are welcome