arXiv subjects

Gong-Bo Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to Gong-Bo Zhao.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

MGCAMB with massive neutrinos and dynamical dark energy

We present a major upgrade of MGCAMB, a patch for the Einstein-Boltzmann solver CAMB used for phenomenological tests of general relativity against cosmological datasets. This new version is compatible with the latest CosmoMC code and includes a consistent implementation of massive neutrinos and dynamical dark energy. The code has been restructured to make it easier to modify to fit the custom needs of specific users. To illustrate the capabilities of the code, we present joint constraints on the modified growth, massive neutrinos and the dark energy equation of state from the latest cosmological observations, including the recent galaxy counts and weak lensing measurements from the Dark Energy Survey, and find a good consistency with the ΛCDM model.

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arXiv2018

The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: a tomographic measurement of structure growth and expansion rate from anisotropic galaxy clustering in Fourier space

We perform a tomographic structure growth and expansion rate analysis using the monopole, quadrupole and hexadecapole of the redshift-space galaxy power spectrum derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 12 combined sample, which covers the redshift range of $0.20<z<0.75$. By allowing for overlap between neighbouring redshift slices in order to extract information on the light-cone, we successfully obtain joint BAO and RSD constraints with a precision of $2-3\%$ for $D_A$, $3-10\%$ for $H$ and $9-12\%$ for $fσ_8$ with a redshift resolution of $Δz\sim0.04$. Our measurement is consistent with that presented in arXiv:1709.05173, where the analysis is performed in configuration space. We apply our measurement to constrain the $f(R)$ gravity model, and find that the 95\% CL upper limit of ${\rm log_{10}}B_0$ can be reduced by 11\% by our tomographic BAO and RSD measurement.

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arXiv2018

Cosmological tests of gravity with latest observations

We perform observational tests of modified gravity on cosmological scales following model-dependent and model-independent approaches using the latest astronomical observations, including measurements of the local Hubble constant, cosmic microwave background, the baryonic acoustic oscillations and redshift space distortions derived from galaxy surveys including the SDSS BOSS and eBOSS, as well as the weak lensing observations performed by the CFHTLenS team. Using all data combined, we find a deviation from the prediction of general relativity in both the effective Newton's constant, $μ(a,k)$, and in the gravitational slip, $η(a,k)$. The deviation is at a $3.1σ$ level in the joint $\{μ(a,k),η(a,k)\}$ space using a two-parameter phenomenological model for $μ$ and $η$, and it reaches a $3.7σ$ level if a general parametrisation is used. This signal, which may be subject to unknown observational systematics, or a sign of new physics, is worth further investigating with forthcoming observations.

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arXiv2018

Evolution of dark energy reconstructed from the latest observations

We reconstruct evolution of the dark energy (DE) density using a nonparametric Bayesian approach from a combination of latest observational data. We caution against parameterizing DE in terms of its equation of state as it can be singular in modified gravity models, and using it introduces a bias preventing negative effective DE densities. We find a $3.7σ$ preference for an evolving effective DE density with interesting features. For example, it oscillates around the $Λ$CDM prediction at $z\lesssim0.7$, and could be negative at $z\gtrsim2.3$; dark energy can be pressure-less at multiple redshifts, and a short period of cosmic deceleration is allowed at $0.1 \lesssim z\lesssim 0.2$. We perform the reconstruction for several choices of the prior, as well as a evidence-weighted reconstruction. We find that some of the dynamical features, such as the oscillatory behaviour of the DE density, are supported by the Bayesian evidence, which is a first detection of a dynamical DE with a positive Bayesian evidence. The evidence-weighted reconstruction prefers a dynamical DE at a $(2.5\pm0.06)σ$ significance level.

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arXiv2018

Constraining the dark matter-vacuum energy interaction using the EDGES 21-cm absorption signal

The recent measurement of the global 21-cm absorption signal reported by the Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionization Signature (EDGES) Collaboration is in tension with the prediction of the $Λ$CDM model at a $3.8\,σ$ significance level. In this work, we report that this tension can be released by introducing an interaction between dark matter and vacuum energy. We perform a model parameter estimation using a combined dataset including EDGES and other recent cosmological observations, and find that the EDGES measurement can marginally improve the constraint on parameters that quantify the interacting vacuum, and that the combined dataset favours the $Λ$CDM at 68\% CL. This proof-of-the-concept study demonstrates the potential power of future 21-cm experiments to constrain the interacting dark energy models.

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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

The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: a tomographic analysis of structure growth and expansion rate from anisotropic galaxy clustering

We perform a tomographic analysis of structure growth and expansion rate from the anisotropic galaxy clustering of the combined sample of Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 12, which covers the redshift range of $0.2<z<0.75$. In order to extract the redshift information of anisotropic galaxy clustering, we analyse this data set in nine overlapping redshift slices in configuration space and perform the joint constraints on the parameters $(D_V, F_{\mathrm{AP}}, fσ_8)$ using the correlation function multipoles. The analysis pipeline is validated using the MultiDark-Patchy mock catalogues. We obtain a measurement precision of $1.5\%-2.9\%$ for $D_V$, $5.2\%-9\%$ for $F_{\mathrm{AP}}$ and $13.3\%-24\%$ for $f σ_8$, depending on the effective redshift of the slices. We report a joint measurement of $(D_V, F_{\mathrm{AP}}, fσ_8)$ with the full covariance matrix in nine redshift slices. We use our joint BAO and RSD measurement combined with external datasets to constrain the gravitational growth index $γ$, and find $γ=0.656 \pm 0.057$, which is consistent with the $Λ$CDM prediction within 95\% CL.

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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

Probing Primordial Gravitational Waves: Ali CMB Polarization Telescope

In this paper, we will give a general introduction to the project of Ali CMB Polarization Telescope (AliCPT), which is a Sino-US joint project led by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) and has involved many different institutes in China. It is the first ground-based Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization experiment in China and an integral part of China's Gravitational Waves Program. The main scientific goal of AliCPT project is to probe the primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) originated from the very early Universe. The AliCPT project includes two stages. The first stage referred to as AliCPT-1, is to build a telescope in the Ali region of Tibet with an altitude of 5,250 meters. Once completed, it will be the worldwide highest ground-based CMB observatory and open a new window for probing PGWs in northern hemisphere. AliCPT-1 telescope is designed to have about 7,000 TES detectors at 90GHz and 150GHz. The second stage is to have a more sensitive telescope (AliCPT-2) with the number of detectors more than 20,000. Our simulations show that AliCPT will improve the current constraint on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ by one order of magnitude with 3 years' observation. Besides the PGWs, the AliCPT will also enable a precise measurement on the CMB rotation angle and provide a precise test on the CPT symmetry. We show 3 years' observation will improve the current limit by two order of magnitude.

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arXiv2018

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: Anisotropic Baryon Acoustic Oscillations measurements in Fourier-space with optimal redshift weights

We present a measurement of the anisotropic and isotropic Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 14 quasar sample with optimal redshift weights. Applying the redshift weights improves the constraint on the BAO dilation parameter $α(z_{\rm eff})$ by 17\%. We reconstruct the evolution history of the BAO distance indicators in the redshift range of $0.8<z<2.2$. This paper is part of a set that analyses the eBOSS DR14 quasar sample.

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arXiv2018

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: measuring the evolution of the growth rate using redshift space distortions between redshift 0.8 and 2.2

We measure the growth rate and its evolution using the anisotropic clustering of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 14 (DR14) quasar sample, which includes $148\,659$ quasars covering the wide redshift range of $0.8 < z < 2.2$ and a sky area of $2112.90$ $\rm deg^2$. To optimise measurements we deploy a redshift-dependent weighting scheme, which allows us to avoid binning, and perform the data analysis consistently including the redshift evolution across the sample. We perform the analysis in Fourier space, and use the redshift evolving power spectrum multipoles to measure the redshift space distortion parameter $fσ_8$ and parameters controlling the anisotropic projection of the cosmological perturbations. We measure $f σ_8(z=1.52)=0.43 \pm 0.05 $ and $dfσ_8/dz (z=1.52)= - 0.16 \pm 0.08$, consistent with the expectation for a $Λ$CDM cosmology as constrained by the Planck experiment.

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arXiv2018

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: measurement of the growth rate of structure from the anisotropic correlation function between redshift 0.8 and 2.2

We present the clustering measurements of quasars in configuration space based on the Data Release 14 (DR14) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. This dataset includes 148,659 quasars spread over the redshift range $0.8\leq z \leq 2.2$ and spanning 2112.9 square degrees. We use the Convolution Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (CLPT) approach with a Gaussian Streaming (GS) model for the redshift space distortions of the correlation function and demonstrate its applicability for dark matter halos hosting eBOSS quasar tracers. At the effective redshift $z_{\rm eff} = 1.52$, we measure the linear growth rate of structure $fσ_{8}(z_{\rm eff})= 0.426 \pm 0.077$, the expansion rate $H(z_{\rm eff})= 159^{+12}_{-13}(r_{s}^{\rm fid}/r_s){\rm km.s}^{-1}.{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, and the angular diameter distance $D_{A}(z_{\rm eff})=1850^{+90}_{-115}\,(r_s/r_{s}^{\rm fid}){\rm Mpc}$, where $r_{s}$ is the sound horizon at the end of the baryon drag epoch and $r_{s}^{\rm fid}$ is its value in the fiducial cosmology. The quoted errors include both systematic and statistical contributions. The results on the evolution of distances are consistent with the predictions of flat $Λ$-Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$-CDM) cosmology with Planck parameters, and the measurement of $fσ_{8}$ extends the validity of General Relativity (GR) to higher redshifts($z>1$) This paper is released with companion papers using the same sample. The results on the cosmological parameters of the studies are found to be in very good agreement, providing clear evidence of the complementarity and of the robustness of the first full-shape clustering measurements with the eBOSS DR14 quasar sample.

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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

The SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations at redshift of 0.72 with the DR14 Luminous Red Galaxy Sample

The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 14 sample includes 80,118 Luminous Red Galaxies. By combining these galaxies with the high-redshift tail of the BOSS galaxy sample, we form a sample of LRGs at an effective redshift $z=0.72$, covering an effective volume of 0.9~Gpc$^3$. We introduce new techniques to account for spurious fluctuations caused by targeting and by redshift failures which were validated on a set of mock catalogs. This analysis is sufficient to provide a $2.6$\% measurement of spherically averaged BAO, $D_V(z=0.72) = 2353^{+63}_{-61} (r_d/r_{d,\rm{fid}}) h^{-1}$Mpc, at 2.8$σ$ of significance. Together with the recent quasar-based BAO measurement at $z=1.5$, and forthcoming Emission Line Galaxy-based measurements, this measurement demonstrates that eBOSS is fulfilling its remit of extending the range of redshifts covered by such measurements, laying the ground work for forthcoming surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Survey and Euclid.

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arXiv2017

The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS): testing a new approach to measure the evolution of the structure growth

The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is one of the first of a new generation of galaxy redshift surveys that will cover a large range in redshift with sufficient resolution to measure the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) signal. For surveys covering a large redshift range we can no longer ignore cosmological evolution, meaning that either the redshift shells analysed have to be significantly narrower than the survey, or we have to allow for the averaging over evolving quantities. Both of these have the potential to remove signal: analysing small volumes increases the size of the Fourier window function, reducing the large-scale information, while averaging over evolving quantities can, if not performed carefully, remove differential information. It will be important to measure cosmological evolution from these surveys to explore and discriminate between models. We apply a method to optimally extract this differential information to mock catalogues designed to mimic the eBOSS quasar sample. By applying a set of weights to extract redshift space distortion measurements as a function of redshift, we demonstrate an analysis that does not invoke the problems discussed above. We show that our estimator gives unbiased constraints.

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arXiv2017

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: First measurement of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations between redshift 0.8 and 2.2

We present measurements of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale in redshift-space using the clustering of quasars. We consider a sample of 147,000 quasars from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) distributed over 2044 square degrees with redshifts $0.8 < z < 2.2$ and measure their spherically-averaged clustering in both configuration and Fourier space. Our observational dataset and the 1400 simulated realizations of the dataset allow us to detect a preference for BAO that is greater than 2.8$σ$. We determine the spherically averaged BAO distance to $z = 1.52$ to 3.8 per cent precision: $D_V(z=1.52)=3843\pm147 \left(r_{\rm d}/r_{\rm d, fid}\right)\ $Mpc. This is the first time the location of the BAO feature has been measured between redshifts 1 and 2. Our result is fully consistent with the prediction obtained by extrapolating the Planck flat $Λ$CDM best-fit cosmology. All of our results are consistent with basic large-scale structure (LSS) theory, confirming quasars to be a reliable tracer of LSS, and provide a starting point for numerous cosmological tests to be performed with eBOSS quasar samples. We combine our result with previous, independent, BAO distance measurements to construct an updated BAO distance-ladder. Using these BAO data alone and marginalizing over the length of the standard ruler, we find $Ω_Λ > 0$ at 6.6$σ$ significance when testing a $Λ$CDM model with free curvature.

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arXiv2017

A measurement of the Hubble constant using galaxy redshift surveys

We perform a measurement of the Hubble constant, $H_0$, using the latest baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) measurements from galaxy surveys of 6dFGS, SDSS DR7 Main Galaxy Sample, BOSS DR12 sample, and eBOSS DR14 quasar sample, in the framework of a flat $Λ$CDM model. Based on the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, we examine the consistency of $H_0$ values derived from various data sets. We find that our measurement is consistent with that derived from Planck and with the local measurement of $H_0$ using the Cepheids and type Ia supernovae. We perform forecasts on $H_0$ from future BAO measurements, and find that the uncertainty of $H_0$ determined by future BAO data alone, including complete eBOSS, DESI and Euclid-like, is comparable with that from local measurements.

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arXiv2017

COLA with scale-dependent growth: applications to screened modified gravity models

We present a general parallelized and easy-to-use code to perform numerical simulations of structure formation using the COLA (COmoving Lagrangian Acceleration) method for cosmological models that exhibit scale-dependent growth at the level of first and second order Lagrangian perturbation theory. For modified gravity theories we also include screening using a fast approximate method that covers all the main examples of screening mechanisms in the literature. We test the code by comparing it to full simulations of two popular modified gravity models, namely $f(R)$ gravity and nDGP, and find good agreement in the modified gravity boost-factors relative to $Λ$CDM even when using a fairly small number of COLA time steps.

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