arXiv subjects

Chi-Ting Chiang

Publications and source records attributed to Chi-Ting Chiang.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

The Quijote simulations

The Quijote simulations are a set of 44,100 full N-body simulations spanning more than 7,000 cosmological models in the $\{Ω_{\rm m}, Ω_{\rm b}, h, n_s, σ_8, M_ν, w \}$ hyperplane. At a single redshift the simulations contain more than 8.5 trillions of particles over a combined volume of 44,100 $(h^{-1}{\rm Gpc})^3$; each simulation follow the evolution of $256^3$, $512^3$ or $1024^3$ particles in a box of $1~h^{-1}{\rm Gpc}$ length. Billions of dark matter halos and cosmic voids have been identified in the simulations, whose runs required more than 35 million core hours. The Quijote simulations have been designed for two main purposes: 1) to quantify the information content on cosmological observables, and 2) to provide enough data to train machine learning algorithms. In this paper we describe the simulations and show a few of their applications. We also release the Petabyte of data generated, comprising hundreds of thousands of simulation snapshots at multiple redshifts, halo and void catalogs, together with millions of summary statistics such as power spectra, bispectra, correlation functions, marked power spectra, and estimated probability density functions.

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arXiv2020

A-priori Validation of Subgrid-scale Models for Astrophysical Turbulence

We perform a-priori validation tests of subgrid-scale (SGS) models for the turbulent transport of momentum, energy and passive scalars. To this end, we conduct two sets of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations with a Lagrangian code: an isothermal turbulent box with rms Mach number of 0.3, 2 and 8, and the classical wind tunnel where a cold cloud traveling through a hot medium gradually dissolves due to fluid instabilities. Two SGS models are examined: the eddy diffusivity (ED) model wildly adopted in astrophysical simulations and the "gradient model" due to Clark et al. (1979). We find that both models predict the magnitude of the SGS terms equally well (correlation coefficient > 0.8). However, the gradient model provides excellent predictions on the orientation and shape of the SGS terms while the ED model predicts poorly on both, indicating that isotropic diffusion is a poor approximation of the instantaneous turbulent transport. The best-fit coefficient of the gradient model is in the range of [0.16, 0.21] for the momentum transport, and the turbulent Schmidt number and Prandtl number are both close to unity, in the range of [0.92, 1.15].

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arXiv2019

Predicting CMB dust foreground using galactic 21 cm data

Understanding large-angular-scale galactic foregrounds is crucial for future CMB experiments aiming to detect $B$-mode polarization from primordial gravitational waves. Traditionally, the dust component has been separated using its different frequency dependence. However, using non-CMB observations has potential to increase fidelity and decrease the reconstruction noise. In this exploratory paper we investigate the capability of galactic 21 cm observations to predict the dust foreground in intensity. We train a neural network to predict the dust foreground as measured by the Planck Satellite from the full velocity data-cube of galactic 21 cm emission as measured by the HI4PI survey. We demonstrate that information in the velocity structure clearly improves the predictive power over both a simple integrated emission model and a simple linear model. The improvement is significant at arc-minute scales but more modest at degree scales. This proof of principle on temperature data indicates that it might also be possible to improve foreground polarization templates from the same input data.

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arXiv2019

First detection of scale-dependent linear halo bias in $N$-body simulations with massive neutrinos

Using $N$-body simulations with massive neutrino density perturbations, we detect the scale-dependent linear halo bias with high significance. This is the first time that this effect is detected in simulations containing neutrino density perturbations on all scales, confirming the same finding from separate universe simulations. The scale dependence is the result of the additional scale in the system, i.e. the massive neutrino free-streaming length, and it persists even if the bias is defined with respect to the cold dark matter plus baryon (instead of total matter) power spectrum. The separate universe approach provides a good model for the scale-dependent linear bias, and the effect is approximately $0.25f_ν$ and $0.43f_ν$ for halos with bias of 1.7 and 3.5, respectively. While the size of the effect is small, it is ${\it not}$ insignificant in terms of $f_ν$ and should therefore be included to accurately constrain neutrino mass from clustering statistics of biased tracers. More importantly, this feature is a distinct signature of free-streaming particles and cannot be mimicked by other components of the standard cosmological model.

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arXiv2018

Inferences of $H_0$ in presence of a non-standard recombination

Measurements of the Hubble parameter from the distance ladder are in tension with indirect measurements based on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data and the inverse distance ladder measurements at 3-4 $σ$ level. We consider phenomenological modification to the timing and width of the recombination process and show that they can significantly affect this tension. This possibility is appealing, because such modification affects both the distance to the last scattering surface and the calibration of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) ruler. Moreover, because only a very small fraction of the most energetic photons keep the early universe in the plasma state, it is possible that such modification could occur without affecting the energy density budget of the universe or being incompatible with the very tight limits on the departure from the black-body spectrum of CMB. In particular, we find that under this simplified model, with a conservative subset of Planck data alone, $H_0=73.44_{-6.77}^{+5.50}~{\rm km\ s}^{-1}\ {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ and in combination with BAO data $H_0=68.86_{-1.35}^{+1.31}~{\rm km\ s}^{-1}\ {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, decreasing the tension to $\sim 2σ$ level. However, when combined with Planck lensing reconstruction and high-$\ell$ polarization data, the tension climbs back to $\sim 2.7σ$, despite the uncertainty on non-ladder $H_0$ measurement more than doubling.

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arXiv2018

Power spectrum in the presence of large-scale overdensity and tidal fields: breaking azimuthal symmetry

We consider the power spectrum of a biased tracer observed in a finite volume in the presence of a large-scale overdensity and tidal fields. Expanding both the observed power spectrum and the source fields (linear power spectrum, scalar overdensity and tidal field tensor) in spherical harmonics, we explicitly confirm that each $(\ell,m)$ source generates just the corresponding $(\ell,m)$ modes of power spectrum in real space. In redshift space, each $(\ell,m)$ source additionally couples only to $(\ell+2n,m)$ modes of tracer power spectra. This generalizes the Kaiser formula for monopole, quadrupole and hexadecapole of the power spectrum to all $(\ell,m)$ modes generated to the second order in perturbation theory. This formalism can find applications in constraining the super-sample covariance and in the local power spectrum based bispectrum estimators. As an example application, we forecast the ability to measure these modes a survey with BOSS-like galaxy number densities.

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arXiv2018

Probing Decoupling in Dark Sectors with the Cosmic Microwave Background

The acoustic peaks in the angular power spectrum of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies play an important role as a probe of the nature of new relativistic particles contributing to the radiation density in the early universe, parametrized by $ΔN_{eff}$. The amplitude and phase of the acoustic oscillations provide information about whether the extra species are free-streaming particles, like neutrinos, or tightly-coupled, like the photons, during eras probed by the CMB. On the other hand, some extensions of the Standard Model produce new relativistic particles that decouple from their own non-gravitational interactions after neutrinos, but prior to photons. We study the signature of new relativistic species that decouple during this intermediate epoch. We argue that the decoupling species will cause a scale-dependent change in the amplitude and phase shift of the acoustic oscillations, different from the usual constant shifts on small scales. For intermediate decoupling times, the phase and amplitude shifts depend not only on $ΔN_{eff}$ but the redshift $z_{dec,X}$ at which the new species decoupled. For $ΔN_{eff} >0.334$, a Stage IV CMB experiment could determine $N_{eff}$ at the percent level and $z_{dec,X}$ at the $\sim 10\%$ level. For smaller values, $ΔN_{eff}\sim 0.1$, constraints on $z_{dec,X}$ weaken but remain $\sim 20-50\%$ for $z_{dec,X} \sim \mathcal{O}(10^3-10^4)$. As an application, we study the contributions to $ΔN_{eff}$ and determine the $z_{dec,X}$ values for simple implementations of the so-called $N$naturalness model.

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arXiv2018

Scale-dependent bias and bispectrum in neutrino separate universe simulations

Cosmic background neutrinos have a large velocity dispersion, which causes the evolution of long-wavelength density perturbations to depend on scale. This scale-dependent growth leads to the well-known suppression in the linear theory matter power spectrum that is used to probe neutrino mass. In this paper, we study the impact of long-wavelength density perturbations on small-scale structure formation. By performing separate universe simulations where the long-wavelength mode is absorbed into the local expansion, we measure the responses of the cold dark matter (CDM) power spectrum and halo mass function, which correspond to the squeezed-limit bispectrum and halo bias. We find that the scale-dependent evolution of the long-wavelength modes causes these quantities to depend on scale and provide simple expressions to model them in terms of scale and the amount of massive neutrinos. Importantly, this scale-dependent bias reduces the suppression in the linear halo power spectrum due to massive neutrinos by 13 and 26% for objects of bias $\bar{b}=2$ and $\bar{b} \gg1$, respectively. We demonstrate with high statistical significance that the scale-dependent halo bias ${\it cannot}$ be modeled by the CDM and neutrino density transfer functions at the time when the halos are identified. This reinforces the importance of the temporal nonlocality of structure formation, especially when the growth is scale dependent.

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arXiv2017

The Lyman-$α$ power spectrum - CMB lensing convergence cross-correlation

We investigate the three-point correlation between the Lyman-$α$ forest and the CMB weak lensing ($δ_F δ_F κ$) expressed as the cross-correlation between the CMB weak lensing field and local variations in the forest power spectrum. In addition to the standard gravitational bispectrum term, we note the existence of a non-standard systematic term coming from mis-estimation of the mean flux over the finite length of Lyman-$α$ skewers. We numerically calculate the angular cross-power spectrum and discuss its features. We integrate it into zero-lag correlation function and compare our predictions with recent results by Doux et al.. We find that our predictions are statistically consistent with the measurement, and including the systematic term improves the agreement with the measurement. We comment on the implication of the response of the Lyman-$α$ forest power spectrum to the long-wavelength density perturbations.

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arXiv2017

Generating Log-normal Mock Catalog of Galaxies in Redshift Space

We present a public code to generate a mock galaxy catalog in redshift space assuming a log-normal probability density function (PDF) of galaxy and matter density fields. We draw galaxies by Poisson-sampling the log-normal field, and calculate the velocity field from the linearised continuity equation of matter fields, assuming zero vorticity. This procedure yields a PDF of the pairwise velocity fields that is qualitatively similar to that of N-body simulations. We check fidelity of the catalog, showing that the measured two-point correlation function and power spectrum in real space agree with the input precisely. We find that a linear bias relation in the power spectrum does not guarantee a linear bias relation in the density contrasts, leading to a cross-correlation coefficient of matter and galaxies deviating from unity on small scales. We also find that linearising the Jacobian of the real-to-redshift space mapping provides a poor model for the two-point statistics in redshift space. That is, non-linear redshift-space distortion is dominated by non-linearity in the Jacobian. The power spectrum in redshift space shows a damping on small scales that is qualitatively similar to that of the well-known Fingers-of-God (FoG) effect due to random velocities, except that the log-normal mock does not include random velocities. This damping is a consequence of non-linearity in the Jacobian, and thus attributing the damping of the power spectrum solely to FoG, as commonly done in the literature, is misleading.

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arXiv2017

Response approach to the squeezed-limit bispectrum: application to the correlation of quasar and Lyman-$α$ forest power spectrum

The squeezed-limit bispectrum, which is generated by nonlinear gravitational evolution as well as inflationary physics, measures the correlation of three wavenumbers, in the configuration where one wavenumber is much smaller than the other two. Since the squeezed-limit bispectrum encodes the impact of a large-scale fluctuation on the small-scale power spectrum, it can be understood as how the small-scale power spectrum "responds" to the large-scale fluctuation. Viewed in this way, the squeezed-limit bispectrum can be calculated using the response approach even in the cases which do not submit to perturbative treatment. To illustrate this point, we apply this approach to the cross-correlation between the large-scale quasar density field and small-scale Lyman-$α$ forest flux power spectrum. In particular, using separate universe simulations which implement changes in the large-scale density, velocity gradient, and primordial power spectrum amplitude, we measure how the Lyman-$α$ forest flux power spectrum responds to the local, long-wavelength quasar overdensity, and equivalently their squeezed-limit bispectrum. We perform a Fisher forecast for the ability of future experiments to constrain local non-Gaussianity using the bispectrum of quasars and the Lyman-$α$ forest. Combining with quasar and Lyman-$α$ forest power spectra to constrain the biases, we find that for DESI the expected $1-σ$ constraint is ${\rm err}[f_{\rm NL}]\sim60$. Ability for DESI to measure $f_{\rm NL}$ through this channel is limited primarily by the aliasing and instrumental noise of the Lyman-$α$ forest flux power spectrum. The combination of response approach and separate universe simulations provides a novel technique to explore the constraints from the squeezed-limit bispectrum between different observables.

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arXiv2017

The halo squeezed-limit bispectrum with primordial non-Gaussianity: a power spectrum response approach

Modeling the nonlinearity of the halo bispectrum remains a major challenge in modern cosmology, in particular for ongoing and upcoming large-scale structure observations that are performed to study the inflationary physics. The "power spectrum response" offers a solution for bispectrum in the so-called squeezed limit, in which one wavenumber is much smaller than the other two. As a first step, we demonstrate that the halo squeezed-limit bispectrum computed from the second-order standard perturbation theory agrees precisely with the responses of linear halo power spectrum to large-scale density and potential fluctuations. Since the halo power spectrum responses to arbitrarily small scales can straightforwardly be obtained by separate universe simulations, the response approach provides a novel and powerful technique for modeling the nonlinear halo squeezed-limit bispectrum.

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arXiv2016

Quintessential Scale Dependence from Separate Universe Simulations

By absorbing fluctuations into a local background, separate universe simulations provide a powerful technique to characterize the response of small-scale observables to the long-wavelength density fluctuations, for example those of the power spectrum and halo mass function which lead to the squeezed-limit $n$-point function and halo bias, respectively. Using quintessence dark energy as the paradigmatic example, we extend these simulation techniques to cases where non-gravitational forces in other sectors establish a Jeans scale across which the growth of density fluctuations becomes scale dependent. By characterizing the separate universes with matching background expansion histories, we show that the power spectrum and mass function responses depend on whether the long-wavelength mode is above or below the Jeans scale. Correspondingly, the squeezed bispectrum and halo bias also become scale dependent. Models of bias that are effectively local in the density field at a single epoch, initial or observed, cannot describe this effect which highlights the importance of temporal nonlocality in structure formation. Validated by these quintessence tests, our techniques are applicable to a wide range of models where the complex dynamics of additional fields affect the clustering of matter in the linear regime and it would otherwise be difficult to simulate their impact in the nonlinear regime.

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arXiv2016

Separating the Universe into the Real and Fake

The separate universe technique provides a means of establishing consistency relations between short wavelength observables and the long wavelength matter density fluctuations within which they evolve by absorbing the latter into the cosmological background. We extend it to cases where non-gravitational forces introduce a Jeans scale in other species like dynamical dark energy or massive neutrinos. The technique matches the synchronous gauge matter density fluctuations to the local expansion using the acceleration equation and accounts for the temporal nonlocality and scale dependence of the long wavelength response of small scale matter observables, e.g. the nonlinear power spectrum, halo abundance and the implied halo bias, and $N$-point correlation functions. Above the Jeans scale, the local Friedmann equation relates the expansion to real energy densities and a curvature that is constant in comoving coordinates. Below the Jeans scale, the curvature evolves and acts like a fake density component. In all cases, the matter evolution on small scales is correctly modeled as we illustrate using scalar field dark energy with adiabatic or isocurvature initial conditions across the Jeans scale set by its finite sound speed.

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arXiv2015

Position-dependent power spectrum: a new observable in the large-scale structure

We present a new observable, position-dependent power spectrum, to measure the large-scale structure bispectrum in the squeezed configuration, where one wavenumber is much smaller than the other two. The squeezed-limit bispectrum measures how the small-scale power spectrum is modulated by a long-wavelength overdensity, which is due to gravitational evolution and possibly inflationary physics. We divide a survey into small subvolumes, compute the local power spectrum and the mean overdensity in each subvolume, and measure the correlation between them. The correlation measures the integral of the bispectrum, which is dominated by squeezed configurations if the scale of the local power spectrum is much smaller than the subvolume size. We use the separate universe approach to model how the small-scale power spectrum is affected by a long-wavelength overdensity gravitationally. This models the nonlinearity of the bispectrum better than the perturbation theory approach. Not only the new observable is easy to interpret, but it sidesteps the complexity of the full bispectrum estimation as both power spectrum and mean overdensity are easier to estimate than the full bispectrum. We report on the first measurement of the position-dependent correlation function from the SDSS-III BOSS DR10 CMASS sample. We detect the bispectrum of the CMASS sample, and constrain their nonlinear bias combining with anisotropic clustering and weak lensing. We finally study the response of the small-scale power spectrum to 1-3 long-wavelength overdensities. We compare the separate universe approach to separate universe simulations to unprecedented accuracy. We test the standard perturbation theory (SPT) hypothesis that the nonlinear n-point function is fully predicted by the linear power spectrum at the same time. We find discrepancies on small scales, which suggest that SPT fails even if it is calculated to all orders.

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arXiv2015

Position-dependent correlation function from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 10 CMASS Sample

We report on the first measurement of the three-point function with the position-dependent correlation function from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 10 CMASS sample. This new observable measures the correlation between two-point functions of galaxy pairs within different subvolumes, $\hatξ({\rm r},{\rm r}_L)$, where ${\rm r}_L$ is the location of a subvolume, and the corresponding mean overdensities, $\barδ({\rm r}_L)$. This correlation, which we call the "integrated three-point function", $iζ(r)=\langle\hatξ({\rm r},{\rm r}_L)\barδ({\rm r}_L)\rangle$, measures a three-point function of two short- and one long-wavelength modes, and is generated by nonlinear gravitational evolution and possibly also by the physics of inflation. The $iζ(r)$ measured from the BOSS data lies within the scatter of those from the mock galaxy catalogs in redshift space, yielding a ten-percent-level determination of the amplitude of $iζ(r)$. The tree-level perturbation theory in redshift space predicts how this amplitude depends on the linear and quadratic nonlinear galaxy bias parameters ($b_1$ and $b_2$), as well as on the amplitude and linear growth rate of matter fluctuations ($σ_8$ and $f$). Combining $iζ(r)$ with the constraints on $b_1σ_8$ and $fσ_8$ from the global two-point correlation function and that on $σ_8$ from the weak lensing signal of BOSS galaxies, we measure $b_2=0.41\pm0.41$ (68% C.L.) assuming standard perturbation theory at the tree level and the local bias model.

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arXiv2015

Surveying Galaxy Proto-clusters in Emission: A Large-scale Structure at z=2.44 and the Outlook for HETDEX

Galaxy proto-clusters at z >~ 2 provide a direct probe of the rapid mass assembly and galaxy growth of present day massive clusters. Because of the need of precise galaxy redshifts for density mapping and the prevalence of star formation before quenching, nearly all the proto-clusters known to date were confirmed by spectroscopy of galaxies with strong emission lines. Therefore, large emission-line galaxy surveys provide an efficient way to identify proto-clusters directly. Here we report the discovery of a large-scale structure at z = 2.44 in the HETDEX Pilot Survey. On a scale of a few tens of Mpc comoving, this structure shows a complex overdensity of Lya emitters (LAE), which coincides with broad-band selected galaxies in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA photometric and zCOSMOS spectroscopic catalogs, as well as overdensities of intergalactic gas revealed in the Lya absorption maps of Lee et al. (2014). We construct mock LAE catalogs to predict the cosmic evolution of this structure. We find that such an overdensity should have already broken away from the Hubble flow, and part of the structure will collapse to form a galaxy cluster with 10^14.5 +- 0.4 M_sun by z = 0. The structure contains a higher median stellar mass of broad-band selected galaxies, a boost of extended Lya nebulae, and a marginal excess of active galactic nuclei relative to the field, supporting a scenario of accelerated galaxy evolution in cluster progenitors. Based on the correlation between galaxy overdensity and the z = 0 descendant halo mass calibrated in the simulation, we predict that several hundred 1.9 < z < 3.5 proto-clusters with z = 0 mass of > 10^14.5 M_sun will be discovered in the 8.5 Gpc^3 of space surveyed by the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment.

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arXiv2015

The angle-averaged squeezed limit of nonlinear matter N-point functions

We show that in a certain, angle-averaged squeezed limit, the $N$-point function of matter is related to the response of the matter power spectrum to a long-wavelength density perturbation, $P^{-1}d^nP(k|δ_L)/dδ_L^n|_{δ_L=0}$, with $n=N-2$. By performing N-body simulations with a homogeneous overdensity superimposed on a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Lemaître-Walker (FRLW) universe using the \emph{separate universe} approach, we obtain measurements of the nonlinear matter power spectrum response up to $n=3$, which is equivalent to measuring the fully nonlinear matter $3-$ to $5-$point function in this squeezed limit. The sub-percent to few percent accuracy of those measurements is unprecedented. We then test the hypothesis that nonlinear $N$-point functions at a given time are a function of the linear power spectrum at that time, which is predicted by standard perturbation theory (SPT) and its variants that are based on the ideal pressureless fluid equations. Specifically, we compare the responses computed from the separate universe simulations and simulations with a rescaled initial (linear) power spectrum amplitude. We find discrepancies of 10\% at $k\simeq 0.2 - 0.5 \,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ for $5-$ to $3-$point functions at $z=0$. The discrepancy occurs at higher wavenumbers at $z=2$. Thus, SPT and its variants, carried out to arbitrarily high order, are guaranteed to fail to describe matter $N$-point functions ($N>2$) around that scale.

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