Nonlinear and Stochastic Morphological Segregation

Abstract

I perform a joint counts-in-cells analysis of galaxies of different spectral types using the Las Campanas Redshift Survey (LCRS). Using a maximum-likelihood technique to fit for the relationship between the density fields of early- and late-type galaxies, I find a relative linear bias of $b=0.76\pm 0.02$. This technique can probe the nonlinearity and stochasticity of the relationship as well. However, the degree to which nonlinear and stochastic fits improve upon the linear fit turns out to depend on the redshift range in question. In particular, there seems to be a systematic difference between the high- and low-redshift halves of the data (respectively, further than and closer than $cz\approx 36,000$ km/s); all of the signal of stochasticity and nonlinearity comes from the low-redshift portion. Analysis of mock catalogs shows that the peculiar geometry and variable flux limits of the LCRS do not cause this effect. I speculate that the central surface brightness selection criteria of the LCRS may be responsible.