Multiscale morphology of the galaxy distribution

Author(s): Saar, Enn; Martinez, Vicent J.; Starck, Jean-Luc; et al.

Source: MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY  Volume: 374   Issue: 3   Pages: 1030-1044   DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11237.x   Published: JAN 21 2007

Many statistical methods have been proposed in the last years for analysing the spatial distribution of galaxies. Very few of them, however, can handle properly the border effects of complex observational sample volumes. In this paper, we first show how to calculate the Minkowski Functionals (MFs) taking into account these border effects. We then present a multiscale extension of the MF which gives us more information about how the galaxies are spatially distributed. A range of examples using Gaussian random fields illustrate the results. Finally, we have applied the Multiscale Minkowski Functionals (MMFs) to the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey data. The MMF clearly indicates an evolution of morphology with scale. We also compare the 2dF real catalogue with mock catalogues and found that Lambda cold dark matter simulations roughly fit the data, except at the finest scale.