arXiv subjects

Gong-Bo Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to Gong-Bo Zhao.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Signatures of the Primordial Universe from Its Emptiness: Measurement of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Minima of the Density Field

Sound waves from the primordial fluctuations of the Universe imprinted in the large-scale structure, called baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs), can be used as standard rulers to measure the scale of the Universe. These oscillations have already been detected in the distribution of galaxies. Here we propose to measure BAOs from the troughs (minima) of the density field. Based on two sets of accurate mock halo catalogues with and without BAOs in the seed initial conditions, we demonstrate that the BAO signal cannot be obtained from the clustering of classical disjoint voids, but is clearly detected from overlapping voids. The latter represent an estimate of all troughs of the density field. We compute them from the empty circumsphere centers constrained by tetrahedra of galaxies using Delaunay triangulation. Our theoretical models based on an unprecedented large set of detailed simulated void catalogues are remarkably well confirmed by observational data. We use the largest recently publicly available sample of luminous red galaxies from SDSS-III BOSS DR11 to unveil for the first time a >3$σ$ BAO detection from voids in observations. Since voids are nearly isotropically expanding regions, their centers represent the most quiet places in the Universe, keeping in mind the cosmos origin and providing a new promising window in the analysis of the cosmological large-scale structure from galaxy surveys.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Acausality in Nonlocal Gravity Theory

We investigate the nonlocal gravity theory by deriving nonlocal equations of motion using the traditional variation principle in a homogeneous background. We focus on a class of models with a linear nonlocal modification term in the action. It is found that the resulting equations of motion contain the advanced Green's function, implying that there is an acausality problem. As a consequence, a divergence arises in the solutions due to contributions from the future infinity unless the Universe will go back to the radiation dominated era or become the Minkowski spacetime in the future. We also discuss the relation between the original nonlocal equations and its biscalar-tensor representation and identify the auxiliary fields with the corresponding original nonlocal terms. Finally, we show that the acusality problem cannot be avoided by any function of nonlocal terms in the action.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Probing Theories of Gravity with Phase Space-Inferred Potentials of Galaxy Clusters

Modified theories of gravity provide us with a unique opportunity to generate innovative tests of gravity. In Chameleon f(R) gravity, the gravitational potential differs from the weak-field limit of general relativity (GR) in a mass dependent way. We develop a probe of gravity which compares high mass clusters, where Chameleon effects are weak, to low mass clusters, where the effects can be strong. We utilize the escape velocity edges in the radius/velocity phase space to infer the gravitational potential profiles on scales of 0.3-1 virial radii. We show that the escape edges of low mass clusters are enhanced compared to GR, where the magnitude of the difference depends on the background field value |fR0|. We validate our probe using N-body simulations and simulated light cone galaxy data. For a DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) Bright Galaxy Sample, including observational systematics, projection effects, and cosmic variance, our test can differentiate between GR and Chameleon f(R) gravity models, |fR0| = 4e-6 (2e-6) at > 5σ (> 2σ), more than an order of magnitude better than current cluster-scale constraints.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS): a cosmological forecast

We present a science forecast for the eBOSS survey, part of the SDSS-IV project, which is a spectroscopic survey using multiple tracers of large-scale structure, including luminous red galaxies (LRGs), emission line galaxies (ELGs) and quasars (both as a direct probe of structure and through the Ly-$α$ forest). Focusing on discrete tracers, we forecast the expected accuracy of the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO), the redshift-space distortion (RSD) measurements, the $f_{\rm NL}$ parameter quantifying the primordial non-Gaussianity, the dark energy and modified gravity parameters. We also use the line-of-sight clustering in the Ly-$α$ forest to constrain the total neutrino mass. We find that eBOSS LRGs ($0.6 0.6$), ELGs ($0.6<z<1.2$) and Clustering Quasars (CQs) ($0.6<z<2.2$) can achieve a precision of 1%, 2.2% and 1.6% precisions, respectively, for spherically averaged BAO distance measurements. Using the same samples, the constraint on $fσ_8$ is expected to be 2.5%, 3.3% and 2.8% respectively. For primordial non-Gaussianity, eBOSS alone can reach an accuracy of $σ(f_{\rm NL})\sim10-15$, depending on the external measurement of the galaxy bias and our ability to model large-scale systematic errors. eBOSS can at most improve the dark energy Figure of Merit (FoM) by a factor of $3$ for the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder (CPL) parametrisation, and can well constrain three eigenmodes for the general equation-of-state parameter (Abridged).

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Reconstruction of the dark matter-vacuum energy interaction

An interaction between the vacuum energy and dark matter is an intriguing possibility which may offer a way of solving the cosmological constant problem. Adopting a general prescription for momentum exchange between the two dark components, we reconstruct $α(a)$, the temporal evolution of the coupling strength between dark matter and vacuum energy, in a nonparametric Bayesian approach using combined observational data sets from the cosmic microwave background, supernovae and large scale structure. An evolving interaction between the vacuum energy and dark matter removes some of the tensions between different data sets. However, it is not preferred over $Λ$CDM in the Bayesian sense, as improvement in the fit is not sufficient to compensate for the increase in the volume of the parameter space.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Mass-concentration relation of clusters of galaxies from CFHTLenS

Based on weak lensing data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), in this paper we study the mass-concentration ($M$-$c$) relation for $\sim 200$ redMaPPer clusters in the fields. We extract the $M$-$c$ relation by measuring the density profiles of individual clusters instead of using stacked weak lensing signals. By performing Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that although the signal-to-noise ratio for each individual cluster is low, the unbiased $M$-$c$ relation can still be reliably derived from a large sample of clusters by carefully taking into account the impacts of shape noise, cluster center offset, dilution effect from member or foreground galaxies, and the projection effect. Our results show that within error bars the derived $M$-$c$ relation for redMaPPer clusters is in agreement with simulation predictions. There is a weak deviation in that the halo concentrations calibrated by Monte Carlo simulations are somewhat higher than that predicted from ${\it Planck}$ cosmology.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Searching for scalar gravitational interactions in current and future cosmological data

Modified gravity theories often contain a scalar field of gravitational strength which interacts with matter. We examine constraints on the range and the coupling strength of a scalar gravitational degree of freedom using a subset of current data that can be safely analyzed within the linear perturbation theory. Using a model-independent implementation of scalar-tensor theories in MGCAMB in terms of two functions of the scale factor describing the mass and the coupling of the scalar degree of freedom, we derive constraints on the $f(R)$, generalized chameleon, Symmetron and Dilaton models. Since most of the large scale structure data available today is from relatively low redshifts, only a limited range of observed scales is in the linear regime, leading to relatively weak constraints. We then perform a forecast for a future large scale structure survey, such as Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will map a significant volume at higher redshifts, and show that it will produce much stronger constraints on scalar interactions in specific models. We also perform a principal component analysis and find that future surveys should be able to provide tight constraints on several eigenmodes of the scalar mass evolution.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

f(R) gravity on non-linear scales: The post-Friedmann expansion and the vector potential

Many modified gravity theories are under consideration in cosmology as the source of the accelerated expansion of the universe and linear perturbation theory, valid on the largest scales, has been examined in many of these models. However, smaller non-linear scales offer a richer phenomenology with which to constrain modified gravity theories. Here, we consider the Hu-Sawicki form of $f(R)$ gravity and apply the post-Friedmann approach to derive the leading order equations for non-linear scales, i.e. the equations valid in the Newtonian-like regime. We reproduce the standard equations for the scalar field, gravitational slip and the modified Poisson equation in a coherent framework. In addition, we derive the equation for the leading order correction to the Newtonian regime, the vector potential. We measure this vector potential from $f(R)$ N-body simulations at redshift zero and one, for two values of the $f_{R_0}$ parameter. We find that the vector potential at redshift zero in $f(R)$ gravity can be close to 50\% larger than in GR on small scales for $|f_{R_0}|=1.289\times10^{-5}$, although this is less for larger scales, earlier times and smaller values of the $f_{R_0}$ parameter. Similarly to in GR, the small amplitude of this vector potential suggests that the Newtonian approximation is highly accurate for $f(R)$ gravity, and also that the non-linear cosmological behaviour of $f(R)$ gravity can be completely described by just the scalar potentials and the $f(R)$ field.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Cosmological implications of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements

We derive constraints on cosmological parameters and tests of dark energy models from the combination of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements with cosmic microwave background (CMB) and Type Ia supernova (SN) data. We take advantage of high-precision BAO measurements from galaxy clustering and the Ly-alpha forest (LyaF) in the BOSS survey of SDSS-III. BAO data alone yield a high confidence detection of dark energy, and in combination with the CMB angular acoustic scale they further imply a nearly flat universe. Combining BAO and SN data into an "inverse distance ladder" yields a 1.7% measurement of $H_0=67.3 \pm1.1$ km/s/Mpc. This measurement assumes standard pre-recombination physics but is insensitive to assumptions about dark energy or space curvature, so agreement with CMB-based estimates that assume a flat LCDM cosmology is an important corroboration of this minimal cosmological model. For open LCDM, our BAO+SN+CMB combination yields $Ω_m=0.301 \pm 0.008$ and curvature $Ω_k=-0.003 \pm 0.003$. When we allow more general forms of evolving dark energy, the BAO+SN+CMB parameter constraints remain consistent with flat LCDM. While the overall $χ^2$ of model fits is satisfactory, the LyaF BAO measurements are in moderate (2-2.5 sigma) tension with model predictions. Models with early dark energy that tracks the dominant energy component at high redshifts remain consistent with our constraints. Expansion history alone yields an upper limit of 0.56 eV on the summed mass of neutrino species, improving to 0.26 eV if we include Planck CMB lensing. Standard dark energy models constrained by our data predict a level of matter clustering that is high compared to most, but not all, observational estimates. (Abridged)

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Modified Gravity N-body Code Comparison Project

Self-consistent ${\it N}$-body simulations of modified gravity models are a key ingredient to obtain rigorous constraints on deviations from General Relativity using large-scale structure observations. This paper provides the first detailed comparison of the results of different ${\it N}$-body codes for the $f(R)$, DGP, and Symmetron models, starting from the same initial conditions. We find that the fractional deviation of the matter power spectrum from $Λ$CDM agrees to better than $1\%$ up to $k \sim 5-10~h/{\rm Mpc}$ between the different codes. These codes are thus able to meet the stringent accuracy requirements of upcoming observational surveys. All codes are also in good agreement in their results for the velocity divergence power spectrum, halo abundances and halo profiles. We also test the quasi-static limit, which is employed in most modified gravity ${\it N}$-body codes, for the Symmetron model for which the most significant non-static effects among the models considered are expected. We conclude that this limit is a very good approximation for all of the observables considered here.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Consistent Modified Gravity Analysis of Anisotropic Galaxy Clustering Using BOSS DR11

We analyse the clustering of cosmic large scale structure using a consistent modified gravity perturbation theory, accounting for anisotropic effects along and transverse to the line of sight. The growth factor has a particular scale dependence in f(R) gravity and we fit for the shape parameter f_{R0} simultaneously with the distance and the large scale (general relativity) limit of the growth function. Using more than 690,000 galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopy Survey Data Release 11, we find no evidence for extra scale dependence, with the 95\% confidence upper limit |f_{R0}| <8 \times 10^{-4}. Future clustering data, such as from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, can use this consistent methodology to impose tighter constraints.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

An efficient probe of the cosmological CPT violation

We develop an efficient method based on the linear regression algorithm to probe the cosmological CPT violation using the CMB polarisation data. We validate this method using simulated CMB data and apply it to recent CMB observations. We find that a combined data sample of BICEP1 and BOOMERanG 2003 favours a nonzero isotropic rotation angle at $2.3σ$ confidence level, ie, $Δα=-3.3 \pm1.4$ deg (68% CL) with systematics included.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

The XMM Cluster Survey: Testing chameleon gravity using the profiles of clusters

The chameleon gravity model postulates the existence of a scalar field that couples with matter to mediate a fifth force. If it exists, this fifth force would influence the hot X-ray emitting gas filling the potential wells of galaxy clusters. However, it would not influence the clusters' weak lensing signal. Therefore, by comparing X-ray and weak lensing profiles, one can place upper limits on the strength of a fifth force. This technique has been attempted before using a single, nearby cluster (Coma, $z=0.02$). Here we apply the technique to the stacked profiles of 58 clusters at higher redshifts ($0.1<z<1.2$), including 12 new to the literature, using X-ray data from the XMM Cluster Survey (XCS) and weak lensing data from the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). Using a multi-parameter MCMC analysis, we constrain the two chameleon gravity parameters ($β$ and $ϕ_{\infty}$). Our fits are consistent with general relativity, not requiring a fifth force. In the special case of $f(R)$ gravity (where $β= \sqrt{1/6}$), we set an upper limit on the background field amplitude today of $|f_{\rm{R0}}| < 6 \times 10^{-5}$ (95% CL). This is one of the strongest constraints to date on $|f_{\rm{R0}}|$ on cosmological scales. We hope to improve this constraint in future by extending the study to hundreds of clusters using data from the Dark Energy Survey.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Model-independent constraints on dark energy and modified gravity with the SKA

Employing a nonparametric approach of the principal component analysis (PCA), we forecast the future constraint on the equation of state $w(z)$ of dark energy, and on the effective Newton constant $μ(k,z)$, which parameterise the effect of modified gravity, using the planned SKA HI galaxy survey. Combining with the simulated data of Planck and Dark Energy Survey (DES), we find that SKA Phase 1 (SKA1) and SKA Phase 2 (SKA2) can well constrain $3$ and $5$ eigenmodes of $w(z)$ respectively. The errors of the best measured modes can be reduced to 0.04 and 0.023 for SKA1 and SKA2 respectively, making it possible to probe dark energy dynamics. On the other hand, SKA1 and SKA2 can constrain $7$ and $20$ eigenmodes of $μ(k,z)$ respectively within 10\% sensitivity level. Furthermore, 2 and 7 modes can be constrained within sub percent level using SKA1 and SKA2 respectively. This is a significant improvement compared to the combined datasets without SKA.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Synergy between the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and the Square Kilometre Array

We provide an overview of the science benefits of combining information from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). We first summarise the capabilities and timeline of the LSST and overview its science goals. We then discuss the science questions in common between the two projects, and how they can be best addressed by combining the data from both telescopes. We describe how weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering studies with LSST and SKA can provide improved constraints on the causes of the cosmological acceleration. We summarise the benefits to galaxy evolution studies of combining deep optical multi-band imaging with radio observations. Finally, we discuss the excellent match between one of the most unique features of the LSST, its temporal cadence in the optical waveband, and the time resolution of the SKA.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Cosmology from HI galaxy surveys with the SKA

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) has the potential to produce galaxy redshift surveys which will be competitive with other state of the art cosmological experiments in the next decade. In this chapter we summarise what capabilities the first and the second phases of the SKA will be able to achieve in its current state of design. We summarise the different cosmological experiments which are outlined in further detail in other chapters of this Science Book. The SKA will be able to produce competitive Baryonic Oscillation (BAOs) measurements in both its phases. The first phase of the SKA will provide similar measurements as optical and IR experiments with completely different systematic effects whereas the second phase being transformational in terms of its statistical power. The SKA will produce very accurate Redshift Space Distortions (RSD) measurements, being superior to other experiments at lower redshifts, due to the large number of galaxies. Cross correlations of the galaxy redshift data from the SKA with radio continuum surveys and optical surveys will provide extremely good calibration of photometric redshifts as well as extremely good bounds on modifications of gravity. Basing on a Principle Component Analysis (PCA) approach, we find that the SKA will be able to provide competitive constraints on dark energy and modified gravity models. Due to the large area covered the SKA it will be a transformational experiment in measuring physics from the largest scales such as non-Gaussian signals from $\textrm{f}_{\textrm{nl}}$. Finally, the SKA might produce the first real time measurement of the redshift drift. The SKA will be a transformational machine for cosmology as it grows from an early Phase 1 to its full power.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Dark energy imprints on the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich signal

We investigate the imprint of dark energy on the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) angular power spectrum on scales of $\ell=1000$ to $10000$, and find that the kSZ signal is sensitive to the dark energy parameter. For example, varying the constant $w$ by 20\% around $w=-1$ results in a $\gtrsim10\%$ change on the kSZ spectrum; changing the dark energy dynamics parametrized by $w_a$ by $\pm0.5$, a 30\% change on the kSZ spectrum is expected. We discuss the observational aspects and develop a fitting formula for the kSZ power spectrum. Finally, we discuss how the precise modeling of the post-reionization signal would help the constraints on patchy reionization signal, which is crucial for measuring the duration of reionization.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Post-$Planck$ constraints on interacting vacuum energy

We present improved constraints on an interacting vacuum model using updated astronomical observations including the first data release from Planck. We consider a model with one dimensionless parameter, $α$, describing the interaction between dark matter and vacuum energy (with fixed equation of state $w=-1$). The background dynamics correspond to a generalised Chaplygin gas cosmology, but the perturbations have a zero sound speed. The tension between the value of the Hubble constant, $H_0$, determined by Planck data plus WMAP polarisation (Planck+WP) and that determined by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) can be alleviated by energy transfer from dark matter to vacuum ($α>0$). A positive $α$ increases the allowed values of $H_0$ due to parameter degeneracy within the model using only CMB data. Combining with additional datasets of including supernova type Ia (SN Ia) and baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), we can significantly tighten the bounds on $α$. Redshift-space distortions (RSD), which constrain the linear growth of structure, provide the tightest constraints on vacuum interaction when combined with Planck+WP, and prefer energy transfer from vacuum to dark matter ($α<0$) which suppresses the growth of structure. Using the combined datasets of Planck+WP+Union2.1+BAO+RSD, we obtain the constraint on $α$ to be $-0.083<α<-0.006$ (95% C.L.), allowing low $H_0$ consistent with the measurement from 6dF Galaxy survey. This interacting vacuum model can alleviate the tension between RSD and Planck+WP in the $Λ$CDM model for $α<0$, or between HST measurements of $H_0$ and Planck+WP for $α>0$, but not both at the same time.

astro-ph.CO↗