The Angular Clustering of Distant Galaxy Clusters

Abstract

We discuss the angular clustering of galaxy clusters at z > 1 selected within 50 sq. deg from the Spitzer Wide-Infrared Extragalactic survey. We employ a simple color selection to identify high redshift galaxies with no dependence on galaxy rest-frame optical color using Spitzer IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 micron photometry. The majority (>90%) of galaxies with z > 1.3 are identified with [3.6] - [4.5] > -0.1 AB mag. We identify candidate galaxy clusters at z > 1 by selecting overdensities of >26-28 objects with [3.6] - [4.5] > -0.1 mag within radii of 1.4 arcminutes, which corresponds to r < 0.5 Mpc/h at z=1.5. These candidate galaxy clusters show strong angular clustering, with an angular correlation function represented by w(theta) = (3.1 +/- 0.5) theta^(-1.1 +/- 0.1) with theta in units of arcminutes over scales of 2-100 arcminutes. Assuming the redshift distribution of these galaxy clusters follows a fiducial model, these galaxy clusters have a spatial-clustering scale length r_0 = 22.4 +/- 3.6 Mpc/h, and a comoving number density n = 1.2 +/- 0.1 x 10^-6 (Mpc/h)^-3. The correlation scale length and number density of these objects are comparable to those of rich galaxy clusters at low redshift. The number density of these high-redshift clusters correspond to dark-matter halos larger than 3-5 x 10^13 h^-1 solar masses at z=1.5. Assuming the dark halos hosting these high-redshift clusters grow following Lambda-CDM models, these clusters will reside in halos larger than 1-2 x 10^14 h^-1 solar masses at z=0.2, comparable to rich galaxy clusters.