LasDamas Mock Galaxy Catalogs for SDSS

The statistical strength of galaxy redshift surveys, such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), have ushered us into the era of precision measurements of galaxy clustering. We are now fitting physical models to measured clustering statistics. Galaxy clustering is thus in a position to directly constrain cosmological and galaxy formation theories. This paradigm shift from qualitative to quantitative demands that we understand the statistical and systematic errors in our measurements. Moreover, we must quantify the theoretical uncertainties in our models, which are no longer clearly sub-dominant to observational errors.

We address this emerging need with the LasDamas project (LArge Suite of DArk MAtter Simulations) by producing an unprecedented number of independent and realistic mock galaxy catalogs. To date, we have run over 100 independent N-body realizations using a fixed cosmology and initialized using 2nd order Lagrangian perturbation theory. We populate overdensities of dark matter using the halo occupation distribution framework, designed to match both small and large scale clustering of the observed SDSS data. A series of mock galaxy catalogs matching the geometry of the final SDSS release (DR7) are created over a wide luminosity range to correspond to Main and LRG volume-limited samples. We include important observational effects, such as redshift distortions and fiber collisions. These galaxy mocks are publicly available.