First Constraints on Growth Rate from Redshift-Space Ellipticity Correlations of SDSS Galaxies at $0.16 < z < 0.70$

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We report the first constraints on the growth rate of the universe, $f(z)\sigma_8(z)$, with intrinsic alignments (IAs) of galaxies.

• We measure the galaxy density-intrinsic ellipticity cross-correlation and intrinsic ellipticity autocorrelation functions over $0.16 < z < 0.7$ from luminous red galaxies (LRGs) and LOWZ and CMASS galaxy samples in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and SDSS-III BOSS survey.
• We detect clear anisotropic signals of IA due to redshift-space distortions.
• By combining measured IA statistics with the conventional galaxy clustering statistics, we obtain tighter constraints on the growth rate.