Probing Parity Violation with Weak Lensing Trispectrum

Abstract

We establish the weak gravitational lensing convergence trispectrum as an independent probe of cosmological parity violation in the late-time Large-Scale Structure (LSS). To map three-dimensional primordial symmetries into two-dimensional observables, we derive a generalized, compact projection formalism for the reduced angular trispectrum applicable to two classes of factorizable primordial curvature trispectra considered in this work. Applying this framework, we compute the parity-odd signal and forecast the expected Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) using two phenomenological parity-violating trispectrum templates. These two templates encode the initial conditions for the late-time weak lensing observables. One template peaks at the squeezed limit, and the other template peaks at the collapsed limit. Our analysis evaluates idealized Dirac-delta source redshift distributions alongside actual tomographic profiles from the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3) and forecasted profiles for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time Year 10 (LSST Y10). We map the geometric sensitivity of these templates, providing physical intuition into how the resulting SNR is strongly modulated by the specific source galaxy redshift distributions and the underlying geometry of the configurations. Furthermore, we rigorously test the validity of the Limber approximation for higher-order angular statistics, demonstrating the necessity of exact line-of-sight numerical integration to capture the parity-violating signal accurately. By demonstrating the theoretical detectability of parity-breaking signatures through weak lensing, this work serves as a proof of principle, showing how upcoming weak lensing surveys can be leveraged to probe the fundamental symmetries of the early universe.