A global descriptor of spatial pattern interaction in the galaxy distribution
Abstract
We present the function J as a morphological descriptor for point patterns formed by the distribution of galaxies in the Universe. This function was recently introduced in the field of spatial statistics, and is based on the nearest neighbor distribution and the void probability function. The J descriptor allows to distinguish clustered (i.e. correlated) from ``regular'' (i.e. anti-correlated) point distributions. We outline the theoretical foundations of the method, perform tests with a Matern cluster process as an idealised model of galaxy clustering, and apply the descriptor to galaxies and loose groups in the Perseus-Pisces Survey. A comparison with mock-samples extracted from a mixed dark matter simulation shows that the J descriptor can be profitably used to constrain (in this case reject) viable models of cosmic structure formation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9712098,
title = {A global descriptor of spatial pattern interaction in the galaxy distribution},
author = {Martin Kerscher and Maria Jesus Pons-Borderia and Jens Schmalzing and Roberto Trasarti-Battistoni and Thomas Buchert and Vicent J. Martinez and Riccardo Valdarnini},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9712098},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Significantly enhanced version, 14 pages, LaTeX using epsf, aaspp4, 7 eps-figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal