Variance and Skewness in the FIRST survey

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  • 20 February 1998
Abstract
We investigate the large-scale clustering of radio sources in the FIRST 1.4-GHz survey by analysing the distribution function (Counts in Cells). We select a reliable sample from the the FIRST catalogue, paying particular attention to the problem of how to define single radio sources from the multiple components listed. We also consider the incompleteness of the catalogue. We estimate the angular two-point correlation function w(\theta), the variance \Psi_2, and skewness \Psi_3 of the distribution for the various sub-samples chosen on different criteria. Both w(\theta) and \Psi_2 show power-law behaviour with an amplitude corresponding a spatial correlation length of r_0~10 h^{-1} Mpc. We detect significant skewness in the distribution, the first such detection in radio surveys. This skewness is found to be related to the variance through \Psi_3=S_3(\Psi_2)^{\alpha}, with \alpha=1.9+/-0.1, consistent with the non-linear gravitational growth of perturbations from primordial Gaussian initial conditions. We show that the amplitude of variance and skewness are consistent with realistic models of galaxy clustering.

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