arXiv subjects

D. F. Mota

Publications and source records attributed to D. F. Mota.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Euclid preparation. Review of forecast constraints on dark energy and modified gravity

The Euclid mission has been designed to provide, as one of its main deliverables, information on the nature of the gravitational interaction, which determines the expansion of the Universe and the formation of structures. Thus, Euclid has the potential to test deviations from general relativity that will allow us to shed light on long-lasting problems in the standard cosmological model, $Λ$CDM. Euclid will mainly do this by using two complementary probes: weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering. In this paper we review pre-launch Euclid analyses for dark energy and modified gravity. These include forecast constraints with future Euclid data on cosmological parameters for different cosmological models, such as a time-varying dark energy component, phenomenological modifications of the perturbation sector and specific modified gravity models, with further extensions that include neutrino physics and the coupling to the electromagnetic sector through the fine-structure constant. We review the study of the impact of nonlinear clustering methods on beyond-$Λ$CDM constraints with Euclid. This is of fundamental importance to efficiently predict the large-scale clustering of matter and dark matter halos, given that we will have access to a wealth of information on scales beyond the linear regime. We inspect the extension of theoretical predictions for observable quantities in alternative cosmologies to $Λ$CDM at fully nonlinear scales by means of $N$-body simulations. We discuss the impact of relativistic corrections in extended cosmological models. Overall, this review highlights the significant potential of the Euclid mission to tightly constrain parameters of dark energy and modified gravity models, or perhaps to detect possible signatures of a $Λ$CDM failure.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Forecasting constraints on quintessential inflation from future generation of galaxy and CMB surveys

We investigate the constraining power of future CMB and galaxy surveys on models of quintessential inflation realized within the framework of $α$-attractors. We analyze how these future datasets will probe the parameter space of $α$-attractor quintessential inflation, specifically the inflationary potential parameters. Our results demonstrate that the synergy between CMB-S4, LiteBIRD, and Euclid can significantly tighten the bounds on the model parameters, achieving forecasted $1σ$ uncertainties of $α=2\pm 0.17$, $n_s=0.965\pm 0.0014$, $\ln(10^{10}A_s)=3.0447\pm 0.0029$ for the CMB+GC$_{sp}$ case. This level of sensitivity will enable us to discriminate between different realizations of quintessential inflation and test the attractor behavior characteristic of these models.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Euclid preparation LXIII. Simulations and nonlinearities beyond $Λ$CDM. 2. Results from non-standard simulations

The Euclid mission will measure cosmological parameters with unprecedented precision. To distinguish between cosmological models, it is essential to generate realistic mock observables from cosmological simulations that were run in both the standard $Λ$-cold-dark-matter ($Λ$CDM) paradigm and in many non-standard models beyond $Λ$CDM. We present the scientific results from a suite of cosmological N-body simulations using non-standard models including dynamical dark energy, k-essence, interacting dark energy, modified gravity, massive neutrinos, and primordial non-Gaussianities. We investigate how these models affect the large-scale-structure formation and evolution in addition to providing synthetic observables that can be used to test and constrain these models with Euclid data. We developed a custom pipeline based on the Rockstar halo finder and the nbodykit large-scale structure toolkit to analyse the particle output of non-standard simulations and generate mock observables such as halo and void catalogues, mass density fields, and power spectra in a consistent way. We compare these observables with those from the standard $Λ$CDM model and quantify the deviations. We find that non-standard cosmological models can leave significant imprints on the synthetic observables that we have generated. Our results demonstrate that non-standard cosmological N-body simulations provide valuable insights into the physics of dark energy and dark matter, which is essential to maximising the scientific return of Euclid.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Euclid preparation. Simulations and nonlinearities beyond $Λ$CDM. 1. Numerical methods and validation

To constrain models beyond $Λ$CDM, the development of the Euclid analysis pipeline requires simulations that capture the nonlinear phenomenology of such models. We present an overview of numerical methods and $N$-body simulation codes developed to study the nonlinear regime of structure formation in alternative dark energy and modified gravity theories. We review a variety of numerical techniques and approximations employed in cosmological $N$-body simulations to model the complex phenomenology of scenarios beyond $Λ$CDM. This includes discussions on solving nonlinear field equations, accounting for fifth forces, and implementing screening mechanisms. Furthermore, we conduct a code comparison exercise to assess the reliability and convergence of different simulation codes across a range of models. Our analysis demonstrates a high degree of agreement among the outputs of different simulation codes, providing confidence in current numerical methods for modelling cosmic structure formation beyond $Λ$CDM. We highlight recent advances made in simulating the nonlinear scales of structure formation, which are essential for leveraging the full scientific potential of the forthcoming observational data from the Euclid mission.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Euclid: Modelling massive neutrinos in cosmology -- a code comparison

The measurement of the absolute neutrino mass scale from cosmological large-scale clustering data is one of the key science goals of the Euclid mission. Such a measurement relies on precise modelling of the impact of neutrinos on structure formation, which can be studied with $N$-body simulations. Here we present the results from a major code comparison effort to establish the maturity and reliability of numerical methods for treating massive neutrinos. The comparison includes eleven full $N$-body implementations (not all of them independent), two $N$-body schemes with approximate time integration, and four additional codes that directly predict or emulate the matter power spectrum. Using a common set of initial data we quantify the relative agreement on the nonlinear power spectrum of cold dark matter and baryons and, for the $N$-body codes, also the relative agreement on the bispectrum, halo mass function, and halo bias. We find that the different numerical implementations produce fully consistent results. We can therefore be confident that we can model the impact of massive neutrinos at the sub-percent level in the most common summary statistics. We also provide a code validation pipeline for future reference.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Dark matter spike around Bumblebee black holes

The effects of dark matter spike in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole, located at the center of M87 (the Virgo A galaxy), are investigated within the framework of the so-called Bumblebee Gravity. Our primary aim is to determine whether the background of spontaneous Lorentz symmetry breaking has a significant effect on the horizon, ergo-region, and shadow of the Kerr Bumblebee black hole in the spike region. For this purpose, we first incorporate the dark matter distribution in a Lorentz-violating spherically symmetric space-time as a component of the energy-momentum tensors in the Einstein field equations. This leads to a space-time metric for a Schwarzschild Bumblebee black hole with a dark matter distribution in the spike region and beyond. Subsequently, this solution is generalized to a Kerr Bumblebee black hole through the use of the Newman-Janis-Azreg-Aïnou algorithm. Then, according to the available observational data for the dark matter spike density and radius, and the Schwarzschild radius of the supermassive black hole in Virgo A galaxy, we examine the shapes of shadow and demonstrate the influence of the spin parameter $a$, the Lorentz-violating parameter $\ell$ and the corresponding dark matter halo parameters $ρ_{0}$ and $r_{0}$ on the deformation and size of the shadow.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Cosmological simulations of self-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate dark matter

Fully 3D cosmological simulations of scalar field dark matter with self-interactions, also known as Bose-Einstein condensate dark matter, are performed using a set of effective hydrodynamic equations. These are derived from the non-linear Schrödinger equation by performing a smoothing operation over scales larger than the de Broglie wavelength, but smaller than the self-interaction Jeans' length. The dynamics on the de Broglie scale become an effective thermal energy in the hydrodynamic approximation, which is assumed to be subdominant in the initial conditions, but become important as structures collapse and the fluid is shock-heated. The halos that form have Navarro-Frenk-White envelopes, while the centers become cored due to the fluid pressures (thermal + self-interaction). The core radii are mostly determined by the self-interaction Jeans' length, even though the effective thermal energy eventually dominates over the self-interaction energy everywhere, a result that is insensitive to the initial smallness of the thermal energy. Scaling relations for the simulated population of halos are compared with Milky Way dwarf spheroidals and nearby galaxies, assuming a Burkert halo profile, and are found to not match, also for core radii $R_c\approx 1\text{kpc}$, which has generally been the value expected to resolve the cusp-core issue. However, the simulations have a limited volume, and therefore a limited halo mass range, include no baryonic physics, and use fiducial cold dark matter initial conditions with a cut-off near the Jeans' length at $z=50$, all of which can affect the halo properties. [Abridged]

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Constraints on self-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate dark matter using large-scale observables

Constraints on the cosmic history of self-interacting Bose-Einstein condensed (SIBEC) dark matter (DM) are obtained using the cosmic microwave background (CMB), baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO), growth factor measurements, and type Ia supernovae (SNIa) distances. Four scenarios are considered, one with purely SIBEC-DM, and three in which SIBEC-DM is the final product of some transition from different initial states, which are either cold, warm, or has a constant equation of state. Using a fluid approximation for the self-interacting scalar field it is found that in the simplest scenario of purely SIBEC-DM the self-interaction necessary for solving the cusp-core problem, with core-radii of low-mass halos of order $R_c\gtrsim 1\text{kpc}$, is excluded at $2.4σ$, or $98.5\%$ confidence. Introducing a transition, however, relaxes this constraint, but the transitions are preferred to be after matter-radiation equality, and the initial phase to be cold.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Non-linear dynamics of the minimal theory of massive gravity

We investigate cosmological signatures of the minimal theory of massive gravity (MTMG). To this aim, we simulate the normal branch of the MTMG by employing the \textsc{Ramses} \mbox{$N$-body} code and extending it with an effective gravitational constant $G_{\rm eff}$. We implement an environment-dependent $G_{\rm eff}$ as a function of the graviton mass and the local energy density as predicted by MTMG. We find that halo density profiles are not a good probe for MTMG, because deviations from general relativity (GR) are quite small. Similarly, the matter power spectra show deviations only at the percentage level. However, we find a clear difference between MTMG and GR in that voids are denser in MTMG than in GR. As measuring void profiles is quite a complex task from an observational point of view, a better probe of MTMG would be the halo abundances. In this case, MTMG creates a larger amount of massive halos, while there is a suppression in the abundance of small halos.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Dynamical friction in Bose-Einstein condensed self-interacting dark matter at finite temperatures, and the Fornax dwarf spheroidal

The aim of the present work is to better understand the gravitational drag forces, i.e. dynamical friction, acting on massive objects moving through a self-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate, also known as a superfluid, at finite temperatures. This is relevant for light scalar models of dark matter with weak self-interactions that require nonzero temperatures, or that have been heated inside galaxies. We derived expressions for dynamical friction using linear perturbation theory, and compared these to numerical simulations in which nonlinear effects are included. After testing the linear result, it was applied to the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy, and two of its gravitationally bound globular clusters. Dwarf spheroidals are well-suited for indirectly probing properties of dark matter, and so by estimating the rate at which these globular clusters are expected to sink into their host halo due to dynamical friction, we inferred limits on the superfluid dark matter parameter space. The dynamical friction in a finite-temperature superfluid is found to behave very similarly to the zero-temperature limit, even when the thermal contributions are large. However, when a critical velocity for the superfluid flow is included, the friction force can transition from the zero-temperature value to the value in a conventional fluid. Increasing the mass of the perturbing object induces a similar transition to when lowering the critical velocity. When applied to two of Fornax's globular clusters, we find that the parameter space preferred in the literature for a zero-temperature superfluid yields decay times that are in agreement with observations. However, the present work suggests that increasing the temperature, which is expected to change the preferred parameter space, may lead to very small decay times, and therefore pose a problem for finite-temperature superfluid models of dark matter.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Collapse of spherical overdensities in superfluid models of dark matter

We intend to understand cosmological structure formation within the framework of superfluid models of dark matter with finite temperatures. Of particular interest is the evolution of small-scale structures where the pressure and superfluid properties of the dark matter fluid are prominent. We compare the growth of structures in these models with the standard cold dark matter paradigm and non-superfluid dark matter. The equations for superfluid hydrodynamics were computed numerically in an expanding $Λ$CDM background with spherical symmetry; the effect of various superfluid fractions, temperatures, interactions, and masses on the collapse of structures was taken into consideration. We derived the linear perturbation of the superfluid equations, giving further insights into the dynamics of the superfluid collapse. We found that while a conventional dark matter fluid with self-interactions and finite temperatures experiences a suppression in the growth of structures on smaller scales, as expected due to the presence of pressure terms, a superfluid can collapse much more efficiently than was naively expected due to its ability to suppress the growth of entropy perturbations and thus gradients in the thermal pressure. We also found that the cores of the dark matter halos initially become more superfluid during the collapse, but eventually reach a point where the superfluid fraction falls sharply. The formation of superfluid dark matter halos surrounded by a normal fluid dark matter background is therefore disfavored by the present work.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Euclid: impact of nonlinear prescriptions on cosmological parameter estimation from weak lensing cosmic shear

Upcoming surveys will map the growth of large-scale structure with unprecented precision, improving our understanding of the dark sector of the Universe. Unfortunately, much of the cosmological information is encoded by the small scales, where the clustering of dark matter and the effects of astrophysical feedback processes are not fully understood. This can bias the estimates of cosmological parameters, which we study here for a joint analysis of mock Euclid cosmic shear and Planck cosmic microwave background data. We use different implementations for the modelling of the signal on small scales and find that they result in significantly different predictions. Moreover, the different nonlinear corrections lead to biased parameter estimates, especially when the analysis is extended into the highly nonlinear regime, with both the Hubble constant, $H_0$, and the clustering amplitude, $σ_8$, affected the most. Improvements in the modelling of nonlinear scales will therefore be needed if we are to resolve the current tension with more and better data. For a given prescription for the nonlinear power spectrum, using different corrections for baryon physics does not significantly impact the precision of Euclid, but neglecting these correction does lead to large biases in the cosmological parameters. In order to extract precise and unbiased constraints on cosmological parameters from Euclid cosmic shear data, it is therefore essential to improve the accuracy of the recipes that account for nonlinear structure formation, as well as the modelling of the impact of astrophysical processes that redistribute the baryons.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

The slingshot effect as a probe of transverse motions of galaxies

There are currently no reliable methods to measure transverse velocities of galaxies. This is an important piece of information that could allow us to probe the physics of structure formation as well as testing the underlying theory of gravity. The slingshot effect, a special case of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, is expected to create dipole signals in the temperature fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB). This effect creates a hot spot behind and a cold spot in front of moving massive objects. The dipole signal created by the slingshot effect can be used to measure transverse velocities, but because the signal is expected to be weak, the effect has not been measured yet. The aim is to show that the slingshot effect can be measured by stacking the signals of galaxies falling into a collapsing cluster. We evaluate if the effect can probe modified gravity. We use data from a simulated galaxy catalogue (MDPL2) to mimic observations. We identify a massive galaxy cluster, and make maps of the slingshot effect around infalling galaxies. We add uncorrelated Gaussian noise to each map. The maps are rotated according to the direction to the cluster centre, such that the dipole signal will add up constructively when stacking. We compare each stack to a dipole stencil and we find the probability for a false positive in the absence of the slingshot signal. Each galaxy gives a signal of around $ΔT/T \approx 10^{-9}$, while the precision of CMB experiments of today are $ΔT/T \approx 4 \times 10^{-6}$. By stacking around 10 000 galaxies, the slingshot signal can be over the detectable threshold with experiments of today. However, future CMB experiments must be used to be certain of the strength of the observed signal.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Red Giant evolution in Modified Gravity

In this paper, we study the chameleon profile in inhomogeneous density distributions and find that the fifth force in thin shell near the surface is weaker from what expected in homogeneous density distributions. Also, we check the validity of quasi-static approximation for the chameleon scalar field in the astrophysical time scales. We have investigated the rolling down behaviour of the scalar field on its effective potential inside a one solar mass red giant star by using MESA code. We have found that the scalar field is fast enough to follow the minimum of the potential. This adiabatic behaviour reduces the fifth force and extends the screened regions to lower densities where the field has smaller mass and was expected to be unscreened. As a consequence, the star evolution is similar to what expected from standard general relativity. In addition, considering the stability of star, an approximate constraint on the coupling constant $β$ is found.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Cosmological constraints on parametrized interacting dark energy

We reconsider the dynamics of the Universe in the presence of interactions in the cosmological dark sector. A class of interacting models is introduced via a real function $f\left(r\right)$ of the ratio $r$ between the energy densities of the (pressureless) cold dark matter (CDM) and dark energy (DE). The subclass of models for which the ratio $r$ depends only on the scale factor is shown to be equivalent to unified models of the dark sector, i.e. models for which the CDM and DE components can be combined in order to form a unified dark fluid. For specific choices of the function $f\left(r\right)$ we recover several models already studied in the literature. We analyse various special cases of this type of interacting models using a suitably modified version of the CLASS code combined with MontePython in order to constrain the parameter space with the data from supernova of type SNe Ia (JLA), the Hubble constant $H_{0}$, cosmic chronometers (CC), baryon acoustic oscilations (BAO) and data from the Planck satellite (Planck TT). Our analysis shows that even if data from the late Universe ($H_{0}$, SNe Ia and CC) indicate an interaction in the dark sector, the data related to the early Universe (BAO and Planck TT) constrain this interaction substantially, in particular for cases in which the background dynamics is strongly affected.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Symmetron with a non-minimal kinetic term

We investigate the compatibility of the Symmetron with dark energy by introducing a non-minimal kinetic term associated with the Symmetron. In this new model, the effect of the friction term appearing in the equation of motion of the Symmetron field becomes more pronounced due to the non-minimal kinetic term appearing in the action and, under specific conditions after symmetry breaking, the universe experiences an accelerating phase which, in spite of the large effective mass of the scalar field, lasts as long as the Hubble time $H_{0}$.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Cosmic Tsunamis in Modified Gravity: Disruption of Screening Mechanisms from Scalar Waves

Extending general relativity by adding extra degrees of freedom is a popular approach for explaining the accelerated expansion of the Universe and to build high energy completions of the theory of gravity. The presence of such new degrees of freedom is, however, tightly constrained from several observations and experiments that aim to test general relativity in a wide range of scales. The viability of a given modified theory of gravity, therefore, strongly depends on the existence of a screening mechanism that suppresses the extra degrees of freedom. We perform simulations, and find that waves propagating in the new degrees of freedom can significantly impact the efficiency of some screening mechanisms, thereby threatening the viability of these modified gravity theories. Specifically, we show that the waves produced in the symmetron model can increase the amplitude of the fifth force and the parametrized post-Newtonian parameters by several orders of magnitude.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Does a generalized Chaplygin gas correctly describe the cosmological dark sector?

Yes, but only for a parameter value that makes it almost coincide with the standard model. We reconsider the cosmological dynamics of a generalized Chaplygin gas (gCg) which is split into a cold dark matter (CDM) part and a dark energy (DE) component with constant equation of state. This model, which implies a specific interaction between CDM and DE, has a $Λ$CDM limit and provides the basis for studying deviations from the latter. Including matter and radiation, we use the (modified) CLASS code \cite{class} to construct the CMB and matter power spectra in order to search for a gCg-based concordance model that is in agreement with the SNIa data from the JLA sample and with recent Planck data. The results reveal that the gCg parameter $α$ is restricted to $|α|\lesssim 0.05$, i.e., to values very close to the $Λ$CDM limit $α=0$. This excludes, in particular, models in which DE decays linearly with the Hubble rate.

astro-ph.CO↗