Two-point correlation functions on the light cone: Testing theoretical predictions against N-body simulations

We examine the light-cone effect on the two-point correlation functions usi ng numerical simulations for the first time. Specifically, we generate seve ral sets of dark matter particle distributions on the light-cone up to z = 0.4 and z = 2 over the field-of-view of pi degree(2) from cosmological N-bo dy simulations. Then we apply the selection function to the dark matter dis tribution according to the galaxy and QSO luminosity functions. Finally we compute the two-point correlation functions on the light-cone both in real and in redshift spaces using the pair-count estimator and compare: with the theoretical predictions, We find that the previous theoretical modeling fo r nonlinear gravitational evolution, linear and nonlinear redshift-distorti on, and the light-cone effect including the selection function is in good a greement with our numerical results, and thus is an accurate and reliable d escription of the clustering in the universe on the light-cone.