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We measure the clustering of non-quasar X-ray AGN at z=0.7-1.4 in the AEGIS field. Using the cross-correlation of 113 Chandra-selected AGN, with a median log L_X=42.8 erg s^-1, with ~5,000 DEEP2 galaxies, we find that the X-ray AGN are fit by a power law with a clustering scale length of r_0=5.95 +/-0.90 h^-1 Mpc and slope gamma=1.66 +/-0.22. X-ray AGN have a similar clustering amplitude as red, quiescent and `green' transition galaxies at z~1 and are significantly more clustered than blue, star-forming galaxies. The X-ray AGN clustering strength is primarily determined by the host galaxy color; AGN in red host galaxies are significantly more clustered than AGN in blue host galaxies, with a relative bias that is similar to that of red to blue DEEP2 galaxies. We detect no dependence of clustering on optical brightness, X-ray luminosity, or hardness ratio within the ranges probed here. We find evidence for galaxies hosting X-ray AGN to be more clustered than a sample of galaxies with matching joint optical color and magnitude distributions. This implies that galaxies hosting X-ray AGN are more likely to reside in groups and more massive dark matter halos than galaxies of the same color and luminosity without an X-ray AGN. In comparison to optically-selected quasars in the DEEP2 fields, we find that X-ray AGN at z~1 are more clustered than optically-selected quasars (with a 2.6-sigma significance) and therefore likely reside in more massive dark matter halos. Our results are consistent with galaxies undergoing a quasar phase while in the blue cloud before settling on the red sequence with a lower-luminosity X-ray AGN, if they are similar objects at different evolutionary stages., Comment: 18 pages, accepted to ApJ, minor changes made to match accepted version, Figure 1 added

We present a simple model of how quasars occupy dark matter halos from z=0 to z=5 using the observed mBH-sigma relation and quasar luminosity functions. This provides a way for observers to statistically infer host halo masses for quasar observations using luminosity and redshift alone. Our model is deliberately simple and sidesteps any need to explicitly describe the physics. In spite of its simplicity, the model reproduces many key observations and has predictive power: 1) model quasars have the correct luminosity function (by construction) and spatial clustering (by consequence); 2) we predict high redshift quasars of a given luminosity live in less massive dark matter halos than the same luminosity quasars at low redshifts; 3) we predict a factor of ~5 more 10^8.5Msun black holes at z~2 than is currently observed; 4) we predict a factor of ~20 evolution in the amplitude of the mBH-Mhalo relation between z=5 and the present day; 5) we expect luminosity dependent quasar lifetimes of between tQ~10^(7-8)yr, but which may become as short as 10^(5-6)yr for quasars brighter than L*; 6) while little luminosity dependent clustering evolution is expected at z<1, increasingly strong evolution is predicted for L>L* quasars at higher redshifts. These last two results arise from the narrowing distribution of halo masses that quasars occupy as the Universe ages. We also deconstruct both "downsizing" and "upsizing" trends predicted by the model at different redshifts and space densities. Importantly, this work illustrates how current observations cannot distinguish between more complicated physically motivated quasar models and our simple phenomenological approach. It highlights the opportunities such methodologies provide., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. NOTE: the millennium simulation mock quasar catalogues generated for this paper are available for public download at http://web.me.com/darrencroton/Homepage/Quasar.html (16 mocks covering z=5 to z=0)

We present a test of different error estimators for 2-point clustering statistics, appropriate for present and future large galaxy redshift surveys. Using an ensemble of very large dark matter LambdaCDM N-body simulations, we compare internal error estimators (jackknife and bootstrap) to external ones (Monte-Carlo realizations). For 3-dimensional clustering statistics, we find that none of the internal error methods investigated are able to reproduce neither accurately nor robustly the errors of external estimators on 1 to 25 Mpc/h scales. The standard bootstrap overestimates the variance of xi(s) by ~40% on all scales probed, but recovers, in a robust fashion, the principal eigenvectors of the underlying covariance matrix. The jackknife returns the correct variance on large scales, but significantly overestimates it on smaller scales. This scale dependence in the jackknife affects the recovered eigenvectors, which tend to disagree on small scales with the external estimates. Our results have important implications for the use of galaxy clustering in placing constraints on cosmological parameters. For example, in a 2-parameter fit to the projected correlation function, we find that the standard bootstrap systematically overestimates the 95% confidence interval, while the jackknife method remains biased, but to a lesser extent. The scatter we find between realizations, for Gaussian statistics, implies that a 2-sigma confidence interval, as inferred from an internal estimator, could correspond in practice to anything from 1-sigma to 3-sigma. Finally, by an oversampling of sub-volumes, it is possible to obtain bootstrap variances and confidence intervals that agree with external error estimates, but it is not clear if this prescription will work for a general case., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We have traced the past 7 Gyr of red galaxy stellar mass growth within dark matter halos. We have determined the halo occupation distribution, which describes how galaxies reside within dark matter halos, using the observed luminosity function and clustering of 40,696 0.2

Void regions of the Universe offer a special environment for studying cosmology and galaxy formation, which may expose weaknesses in our understanding of these phenomena. Although galaxies in voids are observed to be predominately gas rich, star forming and blue, a sub-population of bright red void galaxies can also be found, whose star formation was shut down long ago. Are the same processes that quench star formation in denser regions of the Universe also at work in voids? We compare the luminosity function of void galaxies in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, to those from a galaxy formation model built on the Millennium Simulation. We show that a global star formation suppression mechanism in the form of low luminosity "radio mode" AGN heating is sufficient to reproduce the observed population of void early-types. Radio mode heating is environment independent other than its dependence on dark matter halo mass, where, above a critical mass threshold of approximately M_vir~10^12.5 M_sun, gas cooling onto the galaxy is suppressed and star formation subsequently fades. In the Millennium Simulation, the void halo mass function is shifted with respect to denser environments, but still maintains a high mass tail above this critical threshold. In such void halos, radio mode heating remains efficient and red galaxies are found; collectively these galaxies match the observed space density without any modification to the model. Consequently, galaxies living in vastly different large-scale environments but hosted by halos of similar mass are predicted to have similar properties, consistent with observations., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted MNRAS

We measure the dependence of the AGN fraction on local environment at z~1, using spectroscopic data taken from the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey, and Chandra X-ray data from the All-Wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS). To provide a clean sample of AGN we restrict our analysis to the red sequence population; this also reduces additional colour-environment correlations. We find evidence that high redshift LINERs in DEEP2 tend to favour higher density environments relative to the red population from which they are drawn. In contrast, Seyferts and X-ray selected AGN at z~1 show little (or no) environmental dependencies within the same underlying population. We compare these results with a sample of local AGN drawn from the SDSS. Contrary to the high redshift behaviour, we find that both LINERs and Seyferts in the SDSS show a slowly declining red sequence AGN fraction towards high density environments. Interestingly, at z~1 red sequence Seyferts and LINERs are approximately equally abundant. By z~0, however, the red Seyfert population has declined relative to the LINER population by over a factor of 7. We speculate on possible interpretations of our results., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Galaxy formation requires a process that continually heats gas and quenches star formation in order to reproduce the observed shape of the luminosity function of bright galaxies. To accomplish this, current models invoke heating from supernovae, and energy injection from active galactic nuclei. However, observations of radio-loud active galactic nuclei suggest that their feedback is likely to not be as efficient as required, signaling the need for additional heating processes. We propose the self-annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles that constitute dark matter as a steady source of heating. In this paper, we explore the circumstances under which this process may provide the required energy input. To do so, dark matter annihilations are incorporated into a galaxy formation model within the Millennium cosmological simulation. Energy input from self-annihilation can compensate for all the required gas cooling and reproduce the observed galaxy luminosity function only for what appear to be extreme values of the relevant key parameters. The key parameters are: the slope of the inner density profile of dark matter haloes and the outer spike radius. The inner density profile needs to be steepened to slopes of -1.5 or more and the outer spike radius needs to extend to a few tens of parsecs on galaxy scales and a kpc or so on cluster scales. If neutralinos or any thermal relic WIMP with s-wave annihilation constitute dark matter, their self-annihilation is inevitable and could provide enough power to modulate galaxy formation. Energy from self-annihilating WIMPs could be yet another piece of the feedback puzzle along with supernovae and active galactic nuclei., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, MNRAS, in press

We present measurements of the color and luminosity dependence of galaxy clustering at z~1 in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey. Using volume-limited subsamples in bins of both color and luminosity, we find that: 1) The clustering dependence is much stronger with color than with luminosity and is as strong with color at z~1 as is found locally. We find no dependence of the clustering amplitude on color for galaxies on the red sequence, but a significant dependence on color for galaxies within the blue cloud. 2) For galaxies in the range L/L*~0.7-2, a stronger large-scale luminosity dependence is seen for all galaxies than for red and blue galaxies separately. The small-scale clustering amplitude depends significantly on luminosity for blue galaxies, with brighter samples having a stronger rise on scales r_p<0.5 Mpc/h. 3) Redder galaxies exhibit stronger small-scale redshift-space distortions ("fingers of god"), and both red and blue populations show large-scale distortions in xi(r_p,pi) due to coherent infall. 4) While the clustering length, r_0, increases smoothly with galaxy color (in narrow bins), its power-law exponent, gamma, exhibits a sharp jump from the blue cloud to the red sequence. The intermediate color `green' galaxy population likely includes transitional galaxies moving from the blue cloud to the red sequence; on large scales green galaxies are as clustered as red galaxies but show infall kinematics and a small-scale correlation slope akin to the blue galaxy population. 5) We compare our results to a semi-analytic galaxy formation model applied to the Millenium Run simulation. Differences between the data and the model suggest that in the model star formation is shut down too efficiently in satellite galaxies., Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures, emulateapj format, accepted to ApJ, updated to match published version

We combine newly measured rotation velocities, velocity dispersions, and stellar masses to construct stellar mass Tully-Fisher relations (M*TFRs) for 544 galaxies with strong emission lines at 0.1

We present measurements of the higher-order clustering of red and blue galaxies as a function of scale and luminosity made from the two-degree field galaxy redshift survey (2dFGRS). We use a counts-in-cells analysis to estimate the volume averaged correlation functions, xi_p, as a function of scale up to order p=5, and also the reduced void probability function. Hierarchical amplitudes are constructed using the estimates of the correlation functions: S_p=(xi_p/xi_2)^(p-1). We find that: 1) Red galaxies display stronger clustering than blue galaxies at all orders measured. 2) Red galaxies show values of S_p that are strongly dependent on luminosity, whereas blue galaxies show no segregation in S_p within the errors; this is remarkable given the segregation in the variance. 3) The linear relative bias shows the opposite trend to the hierarchical amplitudes, with little segregation for the red sequence and some segregation for the blue. 4) Faint red galaxies deviate significantly from the "universal" negative binomial reduced void probabilities followed by all other galaxy populations. Our results show that the characteristic colour of a galaxy population reveals a unique signature in its spatial distribution. Such signatures will hopefully further elucidate the physics responsible for shaping the cosmological evolution of galaxies., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted by MNRAS

We trace the assembly history of red galaxies since z=1, by measuring their evolving space density with the B-band luminosity function. Our sample of 39599 red galaxies, selected from 6.96 square degrees of imaging from the NOAO Deep Wide-Field and Spitzer IRAC Shallow surveys, is an order of magnitude larger, in size and volume, than comparable samples in the literature. We measure a higher space density of z=0.9 red galaxies than some of the recent literature, in part because we account for the faint yet significant galaxy flux which falls outside of our photometric aperture. The B-band luminosity density of red galaxies, which effectively measures the evolution of ~L* galaxies, increases by only 36 percent from z=0 to z=1. If red galaxy stellar populations have faded by 1.24 B-band magnitudes since z=1, the stellar mass contained within the red galaxy population has roughly doubled over the past 8 Gyr. This is consistent with star-forming galaxies being transformed into ~L* red galaxies after a decline in their star formation rates. In contrast, the evolution of 4L* red galaxies differs only slightly from a model with negligible star formation and no galaxy mergers since z=1. If this model approximates the luminosity evolution of red galaxy stellar populations, then 80 percent of the stellar mass contained within today's 4L* red galaxies was already in place at z=0.7. While red galaxy mergers have been observed, such mergers do not produce rapid growth of 4L* red galaxy stellar masses between z=1 and the present day., Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ. 30 pages, 18 figures. (Several typos corrected and slight change to Figure 8.)

We explore the behavior of the blue galaxy fraction over the redshift range 0.75 <= z <= 1.3 in the DEEP2 Survey, both for field galaxies and for galaxies in groups. The primary aim is to determine the role that groups play in driving the evolution of galaxy colour at high z. The colour segregation observed between local group and field samples is already in place at z ~ 1: DEEP2 groups have a significantly lower blue fraction than the field. At fixed z, there is also a correlation between blue fraction and galaxy magnitude, such that brighter galaxies are more likely to be red, both in groups and in the field. In addition, there is a negative correlation between blue fraction and group richness. In terms of evolution, the blue fraction in groups and the field remains roughly constant from z=0.75 to z ~ 1, but beyond this redshift the blue fraction in groups rises rapidly with z, and the group and field blue fractions become indistinguishable at z ~ 1.3. Careful tests indicate that this effect does not arise from known systematic or selection effects. To further ensure the robustness of this result, we build on previous mock DEEP2 catalogues to develop mock catalogues that reproduce the colour-overdensity relation observed in DEEP2 and use these to test our methods. The convergence between the group and field blue fractions at z ~ 1.3 implies that DEEP2 galaxy groups only became efficient at quenching star formation at z ~ 2; this result is broadly consistent with other recent observations and with current models of galaxy evolution and hierarchical structure growth. (Abridged.), Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures. Updated to match version published in MNRAS

Using a sample of 19,464 galaxies drawn from the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey, we study the relationship between galaxy color and environment at 0.4 < z < 1.35. We find that the fraction of galaxies on the red sequence depends strongly on local environment out to z > 1, being larger in regions of greater galaxy density. At all epochs probed, we also find a small population of red, morphologically early-type galaxies residing in regions of low measured overdensity. The observed correlations between the red fraction and local overdensity are highly significant, with the trend at z > 1 detected at a greater than 5-\sigma level. Over the entire redshift regime studied, we find that the color-density relation evolves continuously, with red galaxies more strongly favoring overdense regions at low z relative to their red-sequence counterparts at high redshift. At z ~ 1.3, the red fraction only weakly correlates with overdensity, implying that any color dependence to the clustering of ~ L* galaxies at that epoch must be small. Our findings add weight to existing evidence that the build-up of galaxies on the red sequence has occurred preferentially in overdense environments (i.e., galaxy groups) at z < 1.5. The strength of the observed evolutionary trends at 0 < z < 1.35 suggests that the correlations observed locally, such as the morphology-density and color-density relations, are the result of environment-driven mechanisms (i.e., "nurture'') and do not appear to have been imprinted (by "nature'') upon the galaxy population during their epoch of formation., Comment: 19 pages including 10 figures, accepted to MNRAS

We measure the evolution in the virial mass-to-light ratio (M_{200}/L_B) and virial-to-stellar mass ratio (M_{200}/M_\ast) for isolated ~ L* galaxies between z~1 and z~0 by combining data from the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Utilizing the motions of satellite galaxies around isolated galaxies, we measure line-of-sight velocity dispersions and derive dark matter halo virial masses for these host galaxies. At both epochs the velocity dispersion of satellites correlates with host galaxy stellar mass, \sigma\propto M_\ast^{0.4+/-0.1}, while the relation between satellite velocity dispersion and host galaxy B-band luminosity may grow somewhat shallower from \sigma\propto L_B^{0.6+/-0.1} at z~1 to \sigma\propto L_B^{0.4+/-0.1} at z~0. The evolution in M_200/M_\ast from z~1 to z~0 displays a bimodality insofar as host galaxies with stellar mass below M_\ast ~10^{11} M_Sun/h maintain a constant ratio (the intrinsic increase is constrained to a factor of 1.1+/-0.7) while host galaxies above M_\ast ~10^{11} M_Sun/h experience a factor of 4+/-3 increase in their virial-to-stellar mass ratio. This result can be easily understood if galaxies below this stellar mass scale continue to form stars while star formation in galaxies above this scale is quenched and the dark matter halos of galaxies both above and below this scale grow in accordance with LCDM cosmological simulations. Host galaxies that are red in U-B color have larger satellite dispersions and hence reside on average in more massive halos than blue galaxies at both z~1 and z~0. The redshift and host galaxy stellar mass dependence of M_200/M_\ast agrees qualitatively with the Millennium Run semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. (ABRIDGED), Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, submitted to ApJ

Successfully reproducing the galaxy luminosity function and the bimodality in the galaxy distribution requires a mechanism that can truncate star formation in massive haloes. Current models of galaxy formation consider two such truncation mechanisms: strangulation, which acts on satellite galaxies, and AGN feedback, which predominantly affects central galaxies. The efficiencies of these processes set the blue fraction of galaxies as function of galaxy luminosity and halo mass. In this paper we use a galaxy group catalogue extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to determine these fractions. To demonstrate the potential power of this data as a benchmark for galaxy formation models, we compare the results to the semi-analytical model for galaxy formation of Croton et al. (2006). Although this model accurately fits the global statistics of the galaxy population, as well as the shape of the conditional luminosity function, there are significant discrepancies when the blue fraction of galaxies as a function of mass and luminosity is compared between the observations and the model. In particular, the model predicts (i) too many faint satellite galaxies in massive haloes, (ii) a blue fraction of satellites that is much too low, and (iii) a blue fraction of centrals that is too high and with an inverted luminosity dependence. In the same order, we argue that these discrepancies owe to (i) the neglect of tidal stripping in the semi-analytical model, (ii) the oversimplified treatment of strangulation, and (iii) improper modeling of dust extinction and/or AGN feedback. The data presented here will prove useful to test and calibrate future models of galaxy formation and in particular to discriminate between various models for AGN feedback and other star formation truncation mechanisms., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to MNRAS

The clustering of dark halos depends not only on their mass but also on their assembly history, a dependence we term `assembly bias'. Using a galaxy formation model grafted onto the Millennium Simulation of the LCDM cosmogony, we study how assembly bias affects galaxy clustering. We compare the original simulation to `shuffled' versions where the galaxy populations are randomly swapped among halos of similar mass, thus isolating the effects of correlations between assembly history and environment at fixed mass. Such correlations are ignored in the halo occupation distribution models often used populate dark matter simulations with galaxies, but they are significant in our more realistic simulation. Assembly bias enhances 2-point correlations by 10% for galaxies with M_bJ-5logh brighter than -17, but suppresses them by a similar amount for galaxies brighter than -20. When such samples are split by colour, assembly bias is 5% stronger for red galaxies and 5% weaker for blue ones. Halo central galaxies are differently affected by assembly bias than are galaxies of all types. It almost doubles the correlation amplitude for faint red central galaxies. Shuffling galaxies among halos of fixed formation redshift or concentration in addition to fixed mass produces biases which are not much smaller than when mass alone is fixed. Assembly bias must reflect a correlation of environment with aspects of halo assembly which are not encoded in either of these parameters. It induces effects which could compromise precision measurements of cosmological parameters from large galaxy surveys., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We study the mean environment of galaxies in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey as a function of rest-frame color, luminosity, and [OII] equivalent width. The local galaxy overdensity for >14,000 galaxies at 0.75 < z < 1.35 is estimated using the projected 3rd-nearest-neighbor surface density. Of the galaxy properties studied, mean environment is found to depend most strongly on galaxy color; all major features of the correlation between mean overdensity and rest-frame color observed in the local universe were already in place at z ~ 1. In contrast to local results, we find a substantial slope in the mean dependence of environment on luminosity for blue, star-forming galaxies at z ~ 1, with brighter blue galaxies being found on average in regions of greater overdensity. We discuss the roles of galaxy clusters and groups in establishing the observed correlations between environment and galaxy properties at high redshift, and we also explore the evidence for a ``downsizing of quenching'' from z ~ 1 to z ~ 0. Our results add weight to existing evidence that the mechanism(s) that result in star-formation quenching are efficient in group environments as well as clusters. This work is the first of its kind at high redshift and represents the first in a series of papers addressing the role of environment in galaxy formation at 0 < z < 1., Comment: 36 pages including 10 figures and revised text, accepted to MNRAS

In Figure 6 we inadvertently labeled the proxy circular velocity as the virial velocity of the dark matter halo instead of what is actually plotted, the maximum circular velocity of the dark matter halo. The maximum halo circular velocity is a much better estimate of the disk V_c than is V_vir. This confusion influenced the discussion of the Tully-Fisher relation in our paper. In fact, Figure 6 demonstrates that it is possible to simultaneously reproduce both the local Tully-Fisher relation and luminosity function using semi-analytic techniques applied to the standard LCDM cosmology, thus contradicting previous studies of this issue and our own discussion in Section 3.6., Comment: 1 page, accepted to MNRAS, erratum for MNRAS, 365, 11

We explore the growth of super-massive black holes and host galaxy bulges in the galaxy population using the Millennium Run LCDM simulation coupled with a model of galaxy formation. We find that, if galaxy mergers are the primary drivers for both bulge and black hole growth, then in the simplest picture one should expect the mBH-mbulge relation to evolve with redshift, with a larger black hole mass associated with a given bulge mass at earlier times relative to the present day. This result is independent of an evolving cold gas fraction in the galaxy population. The evolution arises from the disruption of galactic disks during mergers that make a larger fractional mass contribution to bulges at low redshift than at earlier epochs. There is no comparable growth mode for the black hole population. Thus, this effect produces evolution in the mBH-mbulge relation that is driven by bulge mass growth and not by black holes., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, minor revisions, replaced with accepted MNRAS version

We take advantage of the largest high-resolution simulation of cosmic structure growth ever carried out -- the Millennium Simulation of the concordance LambdaCDM cosmogony -- to study how the star formation histories, ages and metallicities of elliptical galaxies depend on environment and on stellar mass. We concentrate on a galaxy formation model which is tuned to fit the joint luminosity/colour/morphology distribution of low redshift galaxies. Massive ellipticals in this model have higher metal abundances, older luminosity-weighted ages, shorter star formation timescales, but lower assembly redshifts than less massive systems. Within clusters the typical masses, ages and metal abundances of ellipticals are predicted to decrease, on average, with increasing distance from the cluster centre. We also quantify the effective number of progenitors of ellipticals as a function of present stellar mass, finding typical numbers below 2 for M* < 10^{11} Msun, rising to about 5 for the most massive systems. These findings are consistent with recent observational results that suggest ``down-sizing'' or ``anti-hierarchical'' behaviour for the star formation history of the elliptical galaxy population, despite the fact that our model includes all the standard elements of hierarchical galaxy formation and is implemented on the standard, LambdaCDM cosmogony., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, minor revisions, MNRAS accepted

We simulate the growth of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes by implementing a suite of semi-analytic models on the output of the Millennium Run, a very large simulation of the concordance LCDM cosmogony. Our procedures follow the detailed assembly history of each object and are able to track the evolution of all galaxies more massive than the Small Magellanic Cloud throughout a volume comparable to that of large modern redshift surveys. In this first paper we supplement previous treatments of the growth and activity of central black holes with a new model for `radio' feedback from those AGN that lie at the centre of a quasistatic X-ray emitting atmosphere in a galaxy group or cluster. We show that for energetically and observationally plausible parameters such a model can simultaneously explain: (i) the low observed mass drop-out rate in cooling flows; (ii) the exponential cut-off at the bright end of the galaxy luminosity function; and (iii) the fact that the most massive galaxies tend to be bulge-dominated systems in clusters and to contain systematically older stars than lower mass galaxies. This success occurs because static hot atmospheres form only in the most massive structures, and radio feedback (in contrast, for example, to supernova or starburst feedback) can suppress further cooling and star formation without itself requiring star formation. We discuss possible physical models which might explain the accretion rate scalings required for our phenomenological `radio mode' model to be successful., Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, accepted MNRAS, Millennium Run semi-analytic galaxy catalogues are available for download at http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/agnpaper (~9 million galaxies brighter than -17.4 in r), mini Millennium Run catalogues also available for testing purposes

The cold dark matter model has become the leading theoretical paradigm for the formation of structure in the Universe. Together with the theory of cosmic inflation, this model makes a clear prediction for the initial conditions for structure formation and predicts that structures grow hierarchically through gravitational instability. Testing this model requires that the precise measurements delivered by galaxy surveys can be compared to robust and equally precise theoretical calculations. Here we present a novel framework for the quantitative physical interpretation of such surveys. This combines the largest simulation of the growth of dark matter structure ever carried out with new techniques for following the formation and evolution of the visible components. We show that baryon-induced features in the initial conditions of the Universe are reflected in distorted form in the low-redshift galaxy distribution, an effect that can be used to constrain the nature of dark energy with next generation surveys., Comment: Nature, in press, 42 pages, 11 Figures, Supplementary Information included, movie available http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/millennium

We use the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey to measure the dependence of the bJ-band galaxy luminosity function on large-scale environment, defined by density contrast in spheres of radius 8h-1Mpc, and on spectral type, determined from principal component analysis. We find that the galaxy populations at both extremes of density differ significantly from that at the mean density. The population in voids is dominated by late types and shows, relative to the mean, a deficit of galaxies that becomes increasingly pronounced at magnitudes brighter than M_bJ-5log10h <-18.5. In contrast, cluster regions have a relative excess of very bright early-type galaxies with M_bJ-5log10h < -21. Differences in the mid to faint-end population between environments are significant: at M_bJ-5log10h=-18 early and late-type cluster galaxies show comparable abundances, whereas in voids the late types dominate by almost an order of magnitude. We find that the luminosity functions measured in all density environments, from voids to clusters, can be approximated by Schechter functions with parameters that vary smoothly with local density, but in a fashion which differs strikingly for early and late-type galaxies. These observed variations, combined with our finding that the faint-end slope of the overall luminosity function depends at most weakly on density environment, may prove to be a significant challenge for models of galaxy formation., Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, accepted MNRAS

We present observations of galaxy environmental dependencies using data from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. From a combined analysis of the luminosity function, Butcher-Oemler effect and trends in H$\alpha$ line strengths we find support for a model where galaxy properties are mainly set by initial conditions at the time of their formation., Comment: Oral presentation at 'Multiwavelength Mapping of Galaxy Evolution' conference (Venice). 6 pages, 4 figures. Springer style file included