The clustering of faint blue galaxies

Deep CCD images have revealed a population of faint blue galaxies which have a high surface density. In an Einstein-de Sitter universe, the observations require that these galaxies have a higher space density and are less strongly clustered than normal luminous galaxies observed at the present day. We use a series of N-body simulations to show that in a hierarchical theory of galaxy formation, such as the cold dark matter model, these observations can be explained if the faint blue galaxies are a transient population associated with dark haloes of low masses and circular speeds ($$M_\text H\lesssim10^{12}\enspace \text M_\odot,v_\text c\lesssim100 \enspace \text {km}\enspace \text s^{-1}$$).