Mock catalogues of emission-line galaxies based on the local mass density in dark-matter only simulations

Abstract

ABSTRACT The high-precision measurement of spatial clustering of emission-line galaxies (ELGs) is a primary objective for upcoming cosmological spectroscopic surveys. The source of strong emission of ELGs is nebular emission from surrounding ionized gas irradiated by massive short-lived stars in star-forming galaxies. As a result, ELGs are more likely to reside in newly formed haloes and this leads to a non-linear relation between ELG number density and matter density fields. In order to estimate the covariance matrix of cosmological observables, it is essential to produce many independent realizations to simulate ELG distributions for large survey volumes. To this end, we present a novel and fast scheme to populate ELGs in dark-matter only N-body simulations based on local density field. This method enables fast production of mock ELG catalogues suitable for verifying analysis methods and quantifying observational systematics in upcoming spectroscopic surveys and can populate ELGs in moderately high-density regions even though the halo structure cannot be resolved due to low resolution. The power spectrum of simulated ELGs is consistent with results of hydrodynamical simulations up to fairly small scales ($\lesssim 1 h \, \mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$), and the simulated ELGs are more likely to be found in filamentary structures, which is consistent with results of semi-analytic and hydrodynamical simulations. Furthermore, we address the redshift-space power spectrum of simulated ELGs. The measured multipole moments of simulated ELGs clearly exhibit a weaker Finger-of-God effect than those of matter due to infalling motions towards halo centre, rather than random virial motions inside haloes.