Galaxy statistics calculation in Saslaw's book

In summary, the conversation discusses the calculation of the two-point correlation function in the book "The Distribution of the Galaxies" by William C. Saslaw. The author is able to reproduce equation 14.11, but struggles with calculating the integral without repeating the pairing of galaxies. The expert suggests that the missing step is summing over all possible pairs of galaxies, not just integrating over them.
  • #1
shahbaznihal
53
2
I am trying to follow a calculation from the book of William C. Saslaw, The Distribution of the Galaxies: Gravitational Clustering in Cosmology. The calculation is shown on the pages following page 122 in chapter 14 where the author talks about the Correlation function.

I am able to reproduce 14.11, which talks about the volume integral of the two-point correlation function. I understand that integrating ##\xi (r)## over the whole volume, not making a distinction on pairs of galaxies being counted twice, gives you a zero answer. I see it by solving the integral, $$\int \xi(r)d\vec{r_1}d\vec{r_2}$$ But later in the following paragraph (picture posted below),

I am unable to get the result when you do not repeat the pairing of galaxy i.e. one of the N galaxies is paired with the remaining N-1 galaxy following the same calculation that gave me the result of 14.11 (where I simply performed the integral of ##\vec{r_1}## and ##\vec{r_2}## over the entire given volume V). I am summarizing this calculation below,
$$\int \xi(r)d\vec{r_1}d\vec{r_2} = \frac{1}{\bar{n}^2}\int{<n(\vec{r_1})n(\vec{r_1}+\vec{r_2})>d\vec{r_1}d\vec{r_2}} - \int d\vec{r_1}d\vec{r_2}$$
Then you can integrate the first term under the brackets (I hope!) and to get $$\int{n(\vec{r_1}+\vec{r_2})}d\vec{r_2}$$
Since, the integral of over ##\vec{r_2}## would just give you N (the total number of galaxies) in respect of ##\vec{r_1}##, the same from the integral of ##\vec{r_1}## it would give ##N^2##. This together with the integral in the second term (which just gives you ##V^2##) gives you a total of 0. And as I understand, this is simply because I include infinitesimal volume ##d\vec{r}## twice when integrating. However, I am unable to do the calculation in the other case.
I would really appreciate some input from people who have done this or a similar exercise (I think it's a pretty standard calculation in galaxy statistics but I am stuck with it).
 

Attachments

  • yzno4.png
    yzno4.png
    39.4 KB · Views: 177
Space news on Phys.org
  • #2

Thank you for your post and for sharing your progress in following the calculation from the book by William C. Saslaw. It is great that you were able to reproduce the result in equation 14.11, but I understand that you are having trouble with the calculation in the following paragraph.

From what I understand, you are trying to calculate the integral of the two-point correlation function without repeating the pairing of galaxies. I believe your approach is correct, but you may be missing one important step in the calculation.

In the first term under the brackets, you have correctly integrated over ##\vec{r_1}## and ##\vec{r_2}##. However, in order to get the correct result, you also need to integrate over all possible pairs of galaxies. This means that you need to sum over all possible combinations of ##\vec{r_1}## and ##\vec{r_2}##, not just integrate over them.

I hope this helps clarify the calculation for you. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask. Good luck with your research!
 
Back
Top