Mar Pérez Sar | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Towards precision cosmology with Voids x CMB correlations (I): Roman-Agora mock catalogs and pipeline validation

We construct and validate a set of multi-purpose mock galaxy catalogs designed to capture, to different degrees of accuracy, the main characteristics of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope survey. These catalogs provide a foundation for void statistics and various CMB cross-correlation analyses. Our approach differs from traditional halo occupation or abundance matching methods by directly translating a reference mock catalog -- containing basic properties of the host halos -- into a new simulation (in our case Agora). This technique, which we call analog matching, assigns a halo counterpart in the new simulation to each reference galaxy through a nearest-neighbor search in a multi-dimensional parameter space. This space can include halo mass, environmental measures and other galaxy-specific attributes. By varying the composition of this parameter vector, we can generate catalogs of differing complexity and test how galaxy-halo prescriptions influence LSS statistics and CMB-related observables. We find that analog matching based on halo mass alone, or halo mass and galaxy-type indicators, successfully reproduces the expected Roman emission-line galaxy statistics. We also show that reproducing two-dimensional galaxy clustering does not guarantee consistent void properties. Our results highlight the importance of matching void statistics for improved mock accuracy, and demonstrate that measuring voids provides independent and sensitive constraints on galaxy-halo connections beyond the matter power spectrum. An important by-product of our setup is that it is fully general and can be applied to any combination of simulation and reference catalog, provided that the desired parameter space for both is specified. The resulting Roman-Agora mock catalogs offer a versatile resource for LSS x CMB studies and a benchmark for assessing the impact of mock accuracy on cosmological observables.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Towards precision cosmology with Void x CMB correlations (II): Impact of mock catalogs on the Void x CMB lensing signal

Gravitational lensing by large-scale structure imprints secondary anisotropies on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) that can be exploited to probe cosmology. In particular, cosmic voids produce a characteristic lensing signature detectable through Void x CMB cross-correlations. This signal has been robustly measured in the past but its cosmological constraining power remains limited by the incomplete knowledge of how methodological choices affect its measurement and by its uncertain dependence on cosmological parameters. Using a set of validated Roman mock catalogs, we first quantify how mock construction impacts the measured signal and then forecast the capabilities of Roman, in combination with current and upcoming CMB surveys such as Planck, SO and CMB-S4-like experiments. We analyze the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) for different void definitions (2D and 3D), stacking approaches (rescaled versus non-rescaled profiles), CMB map filtering schemes and noise levels. In contrast to galaxy and void statistics, we find that the Void x CMB lensing signal is less sensitive to the choice of mock catalog, indicating that future tensions with data are unlikely to stem from mock inaccuracies alone. The highest S/N is achieved for 2D voids with rescaled profiles. We forecast S/N ~13$σ$ (8$σ$) for 2D (3D) Roman voids combined with Planck, increasing to 22$σ$ (13$σ$) for SO and 31$σ$ (18$σ$) for CMB-S4-like surveys. While the cosmological dependence of this observable remains to be quantified, Roman together with next-generation of LSS and CMB surveys opens a path toward the first direct cosmological constraints from Void x CMB lensing.

astro-ph.CO↗