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Ariel G. Sánchez

Publications and source records attributed to Ariel G. Sánchez.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2021

Testing one-loop galaxy bias: joint analysis of power spectrum and bispectrum

We present a joint likelihood analysis of the real-space power spectrum and bispectrum measured from a variety of halo and galaxy mock catalogs. A novel aspect of this work is the inclusion of nonlinear triangle configurations for the bispectrum, made possible by a complete next-to-leading order ("one-loop") description of galaxy bias, as is already common practice for the power spectrum. Based on the goodness-of-fit and the unbiasedness of the parameter posteriors, we accomplish a stringent validation of this model compared to the leading order ("tree-level") bispectrum. Using measurement uncertainties that correspond to an effective survey volume of $6\,(\mathrm{Gpc}/h)^3$, we determine that the one-loop corrections roughly double the applicable range of scales, from $\sim 0.17\,h/\mathrm{Mpc}$ (tree-level) to $\sim 0.3\,h/\mathrm{Mpc}$. This converts into a $1.5 - 2$x improvement on constraints of the linear bias parameter at fixed cosmology, and a $1.5 - 2.4$x shrinkage of uncertainties on the amplitude of fluctuations $A_s$, which clearly demonstrates the benefit of extracting information from nonlinear scales despite having to marginalize over a larger number of bias parameters. Besides, our precise measurements of galaxy bias parameters up to fourth order allow for thorough comparisons to coevolution relations, showing excellent agreement for all contributions generated by the nonlocal action of gravity. Using these relations in the likelihood analysis does not compromise the model validity and is crucial for obtaining the quoted improvements on $A_s$. We also analyzed the impact of higher-derivative and scale-dependent stochastic terms, finding that for a subset of our tracers the former can boost the performance of the tree-level model with constraints on $A_s$ that are only slightly degraded compared to the one-loop model.

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arXiv2021

Testing one-loop galaxy bias: Power spectrum

We test the regime of validity of one-loop galaxy bias for a wide variety of biased tracers. Our most stringent test asks the bias model to simultaneously match the galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-mass spectrum, using the measured nonlinear matter spectrum from the simulations to test one-loop effects from the bias expansion alone. In addition, we investigate the relevance of short-range nonlocality and halo exclusion through higher-derivative and scale-dependent noise terms, as well as the impact of using co-evolution relations to reduce the number of free fitting parameters. From comparing validity and merit of these assumptions we find that a four-parameter model (linear, quadratic, cubic nonlocal bias, and constant shot noise) with fixed quadratic tidal bias provides a robust modeling choice for the auto power spectrum of the less massive halos in our set of samples and their galaxy populations (up to $k_{\mathrm{max}} = 0.35\,h/\mathrm{Mpc}$ for a sample volume of $6\,(\mathrm{Gpc}/h)^3$). For the more biased tracers it is most beneficial to include scale-dependent noise. This is also the preferred option when considering combinations of the auto and cross power spectrum, which might be relevant in joint studies of galaxy clustering and weak lensing. We also test the use of perturbation theory to account for matter loops through gRPT, EFT and the hybrid approach RESPRESSO. While all these have similar performance, we find the latter to be the best in terms of validity and recovered mean posterior values, in accordance with it being based partially on simulations.

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arXiv2020

The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: BAO and RSD measurements from anisotropic clustering analysis of the Quasar Sample in configuration space between redshift 0.8 and 2.2

We measure the anisotropic clustering of the quasar sample from Data Release 16 (DR16) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). A sample of $343,708$ spectroscopically confirmed quasars between redshift $0.8<z<2.2$ are used as tracers of the underlying dark matter field. In comparison with DR14 sample, the final sample doubles the number of objects as well as the survey area. In this paper, we present the analysis in configuration space by measuring the two-point correlation function and decompose using the Legendre polynomials. For the full-shape analysis of the Legendre multipole moments, we measure the BAO distance and the growth rate of the cosmic structure. At an effective redshift of $z_{\rm eff}=1.48$, we measure the comoving angular diameter distance $D_{\rm M}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 30.66\pm0.88$, the Hubble distance $D_{\rm H}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 13.11\pm0.52$, and the growth rate $fσ_8(z_{\rm eff}) = 0.439\pm0.048$. The accuracy of these measurements is confirmed using an extensive set of mock simulations developed for the quasar sample. The uncertainties on the distance and growth rate measurements have been reduced substantially ($\sim 45\%$ and $\sim30\%$) with respect to the DR14 results. We also perform a BAO-only analysis to cross check the robustness of the methodology of the full-shape analysis. Combining our analysis with the Fourier space analysis, we arrive at $D^{\bf{c}}_{\rm M}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 30.22 \pm 0.79$, $D^{\bf{c}}_{\rm H}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 13.26 \pm 0.47$, and $fσ_8^{\bf{c}}(z_{\rm eff}) = 0.464 \pm 0.045$.

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arXiv2020

MEDUSA: Minkowski functionals estimated from Delaunay tessellations of the three-dimensional large-scale structure

Minkowski functionals (MFs) are a set of statistics that characterise the geometry and topology of the cosmic density field and contain complementary information to the standard two-point analyses. We present MEDUSA, an implementation of an accurate method for estimating the MFs of three-dimensional point distributions. These estimates are inferred from triangulated isodensity surfaces that are constructed from the Delaunay tessellation of the input point sample. Contrary to previous methods, MEDUSA can account for periodic boundary conditions, which is crucial for the analysis of N-body simulations. We validate our code against several test samples with known MFs, including Gaussian random fields with a $Λ$CDM power spectrum, and find excellent agreement with the theory predictions. We use MEDUSA to measure the MFs of synthetic galaxy catalogues constructed from N-body simulations. Our results show clearly non-Gaussian signatures that arise from the non-linear gravitational evolution of the density field. We find that, although redshift-space distortions significantly change our MFs estimates, their impact is considerably reduced if these measurements are expressed as a function of the volume-filling fraction. We also show that the effect of Alcock-Paczynski (AP) distortions on the MFs can be described by scaling them with different powers of the isotropic AP parameter $q$ defined in terms of the volume-averaged distance $D_{\rm V}(z)$. Thus the MFs estimates by MEDUSA are useful probes of non-linearities in the density field, and the expansion and growth of structure histories of the Universe.

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arXiv2020

KiDS-1000 Cosmology: Multi-probe weak gravitational lensing and spectroscopic galaxy clustering constraints

We present a joint cosmological analysis of weak gravitational lensing observations from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS-1000), with redshift-space galaxy clustering observations from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), and galaxy-galaxy lensing observations from the overlap between KiDS-1000, BOSS and the spectroscopic 2-degree Field Lensing Survey (2dFLenS). This combination of large-scale structure probes breaks the degeneracies between cosmological parameters for individual observables, resulting in a constraint on the structure growth parameter $S_8=σ_8 \sqrt{Ω_{\rm m}/0.3} = 0.766^{+0.020}_{-0.014}$, that has the same overall precision as that reported by the full-sky cosmic microwave background observations from Planck. The recovered $S_8$ amplitude is low, however, by $8.3 \pm 2.6$ % relative to Planck. This result builds from a series of KiDS-1000 analyses where we validate our methodology with variable depth mock galaxy surveys, our lensing calibration with image simulations and null-tests, and our optical-to-near-infrared redshift calibration with multi-band mock catalogues and a spectroscopic-photometric clustering analysis. The systematic uncertainties identified by these analyses are folded through as nuisance parameters in our cosmological analysis. Inspecting the offset between the marginalised posterior distributions, we find that the $S_8$-difference with Planck is driven by a tension in the matter fluctuation amplitude parameter, $σ_8$. We quantify the level of agreement between the CMB and our large-scale structure constraints using a series of different metrics, finding differences with a significance ranging between $\sim\! 3\,σ$, when considering the offset in $S_{8}$, and $\sim\! 2\,σ$, when considering the full multi-dimensional parameter space.

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arXiv2020

Redshift-space effects in voids and their impact on cosmological tests. Part I: the void size function

Voids are promising cosmological probes. Nevertheless, every cosmological test based on voids must necessarily employ methods to identify them in redshift space. Therefore, redshift-space distortions (RSD) and the Alcock-Paczynski effect (AP) have an impact on the void identification process itself generating distortion patterns in observations. Using a spherical void finder, we developed a statistical and theoretical framework to describe physically the connection between the identification in real and redshift space. We found that redshift-space voids above the shot noise level have a unique real-space counterpart spanning the same region of space, they are systematically bigger and their centres are preferentially shifted along the line of sight. The expansion effect is a by-product of RSD induced by tracer dynamics at scales around the void radius, whereas the off-centring effect constitutes a different class of RSD induced at larger scales by the global dynamics of the whole region containing the void. The volume of voids is also altered by the fiducial cosmology assumed to measure distances, this is the AP change of volume. These three systematics have an impact on cosmological statistics. In this work, we focus on the void size function. We developed a theoretical framework to model these effects and tested it with a numerical simulation, recovering the statistical properties of the abundance of voids in real space. This description depends strongly on cosmology. Hence, we lay the foundations for improvements in current models of the abundance of voids in order to obtain unbiased cosmological constraints from redshift surveys.

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arXiv2020

Toward a robust inference method for the galaxy bispectrum: likelihood function and model selection

The forthcoming generation of galaxy redshift surveys will sample the large-scale structure of the Universe over unprecedented volumes with high-density tracers. This advancement will make robust measurements of three-point clustering statistics possible. In preparation for this improvement, we investigate how several methodological choices can influence inferences based on the bispectrum about galaxy bias and shot noise. We first measure the real-space bispectrum of dark-matter haloes extracted from 298 N-body simulations covering a volume of approximately $1000 h^{-3} \mathrm{Gpc}^3$. We then fit a series of theoretical models based on tree-level perturbation theory to the numerical data. To achieve this, we estimate the covariance matrix of the measurement errors by using 10,000 mock catalogues generated with the Pinocchio code. We study how the model constraints are influenced by the binning strategy for the bispectrum configurations and by the form of the likelihood function. We also use Bayesian model-selection techniques to single out the optimal theoretical description of our data. We find that a three-parameter bias model combined with Poissonian shot noise is necessary to model the halo bispectrum up to scales of $k_\mathrm{max}\lesssim 0.08 h \mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, although fitting formulae that relate the bias parameters can be helpful to reduce the freedom of the model without compromising accuracy. Our data clearly disfavour local Eulerian and local Lagrangian bias models and do not require corrections to Poissonian shot noise. We anticipate that model-selection diagnostics will be particularly useful to extend the analysis to smaller scales as, in this case, the number of model parameters will grow significantly large.

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arXiv2019

One simulation to have them all: performance of the Bias Assignment Method against N-body simulations

In this paper we demonstrate that the information encoded in \emph{one} single (sufficiently large) $N$-body simulation can be used to reproduce arbitrary numbers of halo catalogues, using approximated realisations of dark matter density fields with different initial conditions. To this end we use as a reference one realisation (from an ensemble of $300$) of the Minerva $N$-body simulations and the recently published Bias Assignment Method to extract the local and non-local bias linking the halo to the dark matter distribution. We use an approximate (and fast) gravity solver to generate $300$ dark matter density fields from the down-sampled initial conditions of the reference simulation and sample each of these fields using the halo-bias and a kernel, both calibrated from the arbitrarily chosen realisation of the reference simulation. We show that the power spectrum, its variance and the three-point statistics are reproduced within $\sim 2\%$ (up to $k\sim1.0\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$), $\sim 5-10\%$ and $\sim 10\%$, respectively. Using a model for the real space power spectrum (with three free bias parameters), we show that the covariance matrices obtained from our procedure lead to parameter uncertainties that are compatible within $\sim 10\%$ with respect to those derived from the reference covariance matrix, and motivate approaches that can help to reduce these differences to $\sim 1\%$. Our method has the potential to learn from one simulation with moderate volumes and high-mass resolution and extrapolate the information of the bias and the kernel to larger volumes, making it ideal for the construction of mock catalogues for present and forthcoming observational campaigns such as Euclid or DESI.

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arXiv2019

Comparing approximate methods for mock catalogues and covariance matrices I: correlation function

This paper is the first in a set that analyses the covariance matrices of clustering statistics obtained from several approximate methods for gravitational structure formation. We focus here on the covariance matrices of anisotropic two-point correlation function measurements. Our comparison includes seven approximate methods, which can be divided into three categories: predictive methods that follow the evolution of the linear density field deterministically (ICE-COLA, Peak Patch, and Pinocchio), methods that require a calibration with N-body simulations (Patchy and Halogen), and simpler recipes based on assumptions regarding the shape of the probability distribution function (PDF) of density fluctuations (log-normal and Gaussian density fields). We analyse the impact of using covariance estimates obtained from these approximate methods on cosmological analyses of galaxy clustering measurements, using as a reference the covariances inferred from a set of full N-body simulations. We find that all approximate methods can accurately recover the mean parameter values inferred using the N-body covariances. The obtained parameter uncertainties typically agree with the corresponding N-body results within 5% for our lower mass threshold, and 10% for our higher mass threshold. Furthermore, we find that the constraints for some methods can differ by up to 20% depending on whether the halo samples used to define the covariance matrices are defined by matching the mass, number density, or clustering amplitude of the parent N-body samples. The results of our configuration-space analysis indicate that most approximate methods provide similar results, with no single method clearly outperforming the others.

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arXiv2019

Comparing approximate methods for mock catalogues and covariance matrices II: Power spectrum multipoles

We study the accuracy of several approximate methods for gravitational dynamics in terms of halo power spectrum multipoles and their estimated covariance matrix. We propagate the differences in covariances into parameter constrains related to growth rate of structure, Alcock-Paczynski distortions and biasing. We consider seven methods in three broad categories: algorithms that solve for halo density evolution deterministically using Lagrangian trajectories (ICE-COLA, Pinocchio and PeakPatch), methods that rely on halo assignment schemes onto dark-matter overdensities calibrated with a target N-body run (Halogen, Patchy) and two standard assumptions about the full density PDF (Gaussian and Lognormal). We benchmark their performance against a set of three hundred N-body simulations, running similar sets of approximate simulations with matched initial conditions, for each method. We find that most methods reproduce the monopole to within $5\%$, while residuals for the quadrupole are sometimes larger and scale dependent. The variance of the multipoles is typically reproduced within $10\%$. Overall, we find that covariances built from approximate simulations yield errors on model parameters within $10\%$ of those from the N-body based covariance.

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arXiv2018

Non-fiducial cosmological test from geometrical and dynamical distortions around voids

We present a new cosmological test using the distribution of galaxies around cosmic voids without assuming a fiducial cosmology. The test is based on a physical model for the void-galaxy cross-correlation function projected along and perpendicular to the line of sight. We treat correlations in terms of void-centric angular distances and redshift differences between void-galaxy pairs, hence it is not necessary to assume a fiducial cosmology. This model reproduces the coupled dynamical (Kaiser effect, RSD) and geometrical (Alcock-Paczynski effect, GD) distortions that affect the correlation measurements. It also takes into account the scale mixing due to the projection ranges in both directions. The model is general, so it can be applied to an arbitrary cylindrical binning scheme, not only in the case of the projected correlations. It primarily depends on two cosmological parameters: $Ω_m$, the matter fraction of the Universe today (sensitive to GD), and $β$, the ratio between the growth rate factor of density perturbations and the tracer bias (sensitive to RSD). In the context of the new generation of galaxy spectroscopic surveys, we calibrated the test using the Millennium XXL simulation for different redshifts. The method successfully recovers the cosmological parameters. We studied the effect of measuring with different projection ranges, finding robust results up to wide ranges. The resulting data covariance matrices are relatively small, which reduces the noise in the Gaussian likelihood analysis and will allow the usage of a smaller number of mock catalogues. The performance evaluated in this work indicates that the developed method is a promising test to be applied on real data.

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arXiv2018

Large-scale redshift space distortions in modified gravity theories

Measurements of redshift space distortions (RSD) provide a means to test models of gravity on large-scales. We use mock galaxy catalogues constructed from large N-body simulations of standard and modified gravity models to measure galaxy clustering in redshift space. We focus our attention on two of the most representative and popular families of modified gravity models: the Hu \& Sawicki $f(R)$ gravity and the normal branch of the DGP model. The galaxy catalogues are built using a halo occupation distribution (HOD) prescription with the HOD parameters in the modified gravity models tuned to match with the number density and the real-space clustering of {\sc boss-cmass} galaxies. We employ two approaches to model RSD: the first is based on linear perturbation theory and the second models non-linear effects on small-scales by assuming standard gravity and including biasing and RSD effects. We measure the monopole to real-space correlation function ratio, the quadrupole to monopole ratio, clustering wedges and multipoles of the correlation function and use these statistics to find the constraints on the distortion parameter, $β$. We find that the linear model fails to reproduce the N-body simulation results and the true value of $β$ on scales $s < 40\Mpch$, while the non-linear modelling of RSD recovers the value of $β$ on the scales of interest for all models. RSD on large scales ($s\gtrsim20$-$40\Mpch$) have been found to show significant deviations from the prediction of standard gravity in the DGP models. However, the potential to use RSD to constrain $f(R)$ models is less promising, due to the different screening mechanism in this model.

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arXiv2018

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: a tomographic measurement of cosmic structure growth and expansion rate based on optimal redshift weights

We develop a new method, which is based on the optimal redshift weighting scheme, to extract the maximal tomographic information of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and redshift space distortions (RSD) from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 14 quasar (DR14Q) survey. We validate our method using the EZ mocks, and apply our pipeline to the eBOSS DR14Q sample in the redshift range of $0.8<z<2.2$. We report a joint measurement of $fσ_8$ and two-dimensional BAO parameters $D_{\rm A}$ and $H$ at four effective redshifts of $z_{\rm eff}=0.98, 1.23, 1.52$ and $1.94$, and provide the full data covariance matrix. Using our measurement combined with BOSS DR12, MGS and 6dFGS BAO measurements, we find that the existence of dark energy is supported by observations at a $7.4σ$ significance level. Combining our measurement with BOSS DR12 and Planck observations, we constrain the gravitational growth index to be $γ=0.580\pm0.082$, which is fully consistent with the prediction of general relativity. This paper is part of a set that analyses the eBOSS DR14 quasar sample.

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arXiv2018

Comparing approximate methods for mock catalogues and covariance matrices III: Bispectrum

We compare the measurements of the bispectrum and the estimate of its covariance obtained from a set of different methods for the efficient generation of approximate dark matter halo catalogs to the same quantities obtained from full N-body simulations. To this purpose we employ a large set of three-hundred realisations of the same cosmology for each method, run with matching initial conditions in order to reduce the contribution of cosmic variance to the comparison. In addition, we compare how the error on cosmological parameters such as linear and nonlinear bias parameters depends on the approximate method used for the determination of the bispectrum variance. As general result, most methods provide errors within 10% of the errors estimated from N-body simulations. Exceptions are those methods requiring calibration of the clustering amplitude but restrict this to two-point statistics. Finally we test how our results are affected by being limited to a few hundreds measurements from N-body simulation, and therefore to the bispectrum variance, by comparing with a larger set of several thousands realisations performed with one approximate method.

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arXiv2018

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: anisotropic clustering analysis in configuration-space

We explore the cosmological implications of anisotropic clustering measurements of the quasar sample from Data Release 14 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) in configuration space. The $\sim 147,000$ quasar sample observed by eBOSS offers a direct tracer of the density field and bridges the gap of previous BAO measurements between redshift $0.8<z<2.2$. By analysing the two-point correlation function characterized by clustering wedges $ξ_{\rm w_i}(s)$ and multipoles $ξ_{\ell}(s)$, we measure the angular diameter distance, Hubble parameter and cosmic structure growth rate. We define a systematic error budget for our measurements based on the analysis of $N$-body simulations and mock catalogues. Based on the DR14 large scale structure quasar sample at the effective redshift $z_{\rm eff}=1.52$, we find the growth rate of cosmic structure $fσ_8(z_{\rm eff})=0.396\pm 0.079$, and the geometric parameters $D_{\rm V}(z)/r_{\rm d}=26.47\pm 1.23$, and $F_{\rm AP}(z)=2.53\pm 0.22$, where the uncertainties include both statistical and systematic errors. These values are in excellent agreement with the best-fitting standard ${\rm ΛCDM}$ model to the latest cosmic microwave background data from Planck.

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arXiv2018

The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: theoretical systematics and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the galaxy correlation function

We investigate the potential sources of theoretical systematics in the anisotropic Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) distance scale measurements from the clustering of galaxies in configuration space using the final Data Release (DR12) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). We perform a detailed study of the impact on BAO measurements from choices in the methodology such as fiducial cosmology, clustering estimators, random catalogues, fitting templates, and covariance matrices. The theoretical systematic uncertainties in BAO parameters are found to be 0.002 in the isotropic dilation $α$ and 0.003 in the quadrupolar dilation $ε$. The leading source of systematic uncertainty is related to the reconstruction techniques. Theoretical uncertainties are sub-dominant compared with the statistical uncertainties for BOSS survey, accounting $0.2σ_{stat}$ for $α$ and $0.25σ_{stat}$ for $ε$ ($σ_{α,stat} \sim$0.010 and $σ_{ε,stat}\sim$ 0.012 respectively). We also present BAO-only distance scale constraints from the anisotropic analysis of the correlation function. Our constraints on the angular diameter distance $D_A(z)$ and the Hubble parameter $H(z)$, including both statistical and theoretical systematic uncertainties, are 1.5\% and 2.8\% at $z_{\rm eff}=0.38$, 1.4\% and 2.4\% at $z_{\rm eff}=0.51$, and 1.7\% and 2.6\% at $z_{\rm eff}=0.61$. This paper is part of a set that analyzes the final galaxy clustering dataset from BOSS. The measurements and likelihoods presented here are cross-checked with other BAO analysis in \citet{Acacia16}. The systematic error budget concerning the methodology on post-reconstruction BAO analysis presented here is used in \citet{Acacia16} to produce the final cosmological constraints from BOSS.

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arXiv2018

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: structure growth rate measurement from the anisotropic quasar power spectrum in the redshift range $0.8<z<2.2$

We analyse the clustering of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 14 quasar sample (DR14Q). We measure the redshift space distortions using the power spectrum monopole, quadrupole and hexadecapole inferred from 148,659 quasars between redshifts 0.8 and 2.2 covering a total sky footprint of 2112.9 deg$^2$. We constrain the logarithmic growth of structure times the amplitude of dark matter density fluctuations, $fσ_8$, and the Alcock-Paczynski dilation scales which allow constraints to be placed on the angular diameter distance $D_A(z)$ and the Hubble $H(z)$ parameter. At the effective redshift of $z_{\rm eff}=1.52$, $fσ_8(z_{\rm eff})=0.420\pm0.076$, $H(z_{\rm eff})=[162\pm 12]\, (r_s^{\rm fid}/r_s)\,{\rm km\, s}^{-1}{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, and $D_A(z_{\rm eff})=[1.85\pm 0.11]\times10^3\,(r_s/r_s^{\rm fid})\,{\rm Mpc}$, where $r_s$ is the comoving sound horizon at the baryon drag epoch and the superscript `fid' stands for its fiducial value. The errors take into account the full error budget, including systematics and statistical contributions. These results are in full agreement with the current $Λ$-Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmological model inferred from Planck measurements. Finally, we compare our measurements with other eBOSS companion papers and find excellent agreement, demonstrating the consistency and complementarity of the different methods used for analysing the data.

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arXiv2017

Dynamical dark energy in light of the latest observations

A flat Friedman-Roberson-Walker universe dominated by a cosmological constant ($Λ$) and cold dark matter (CDM) has been the working model preferred by cosmologists since the discovery of cosmic acceleration. However, tensions of various degrees of significance are known to be present among existing datasets within the $Λ$CDM framework. In particular, the Lyman-$α$ forest measurement of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) prefers a smaller value of the matter density fraction $Ω_{\rm M}$ compared to the value preferred by cosmic microwave background (CMB). Also, the recently measured value of the Hubble constant, $H_0=73.24\pm1.74 \ {\rm km}\ {\rm s}^{-1} \ {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, is $3.4σ$ higher than $66.93\pm0.62 \ {\rm km}\ {\rm s}^{-1} \ {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ inferred from the Planck CMB data. In this work, we investigate if these tensions can be interpreted as evidence for a non-constant dynamical dark energy (DE). Using the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence to quantify the tension between datasets, we find that the tensions are relieved by an evolving DE, with the dynamical DE model preferred at a $3.5σ$ significance level based on the improvement in the fit alone. While, at present, the Bayesian evidence for the dynamical DE is insufficient to favour it over $Λ$CDM, we show that, if the current best fit DE happened to be the true model, it would be decisively detected by the upcoming DESI survey.

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