Statistical analysis of galaxy surveys – III. The non‐linear clustering of red and blue galaxies in the 2dFGRS

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, , as a function of scale up to the order of p = 5 , and also the reduced void probability function. Hierarchical amplitudes are constructed using the estimates of the correlation functions: . We find that (i) red galaxies display stronger clustering than blue galaxies at all orders measured; (ii) 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; (iii) 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; (iv) 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.