arXiv subjects

Mischa Knabenhans

Publications and source records attributed to Mischa Knabenhans.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Parameter inference with non-linear galaxy clustering: accounting for theoretical uncertainties

We implement EuclidEmulator (version 1), an emulator for the non-linear correction of the matter power spectrum, into the MCMC forecasting code MontePython. We compare the performance of Halofit, HMCode, and EuclidEmulator1, both at the level of power spectrum prediction and at the level of posterior probability distributions of the cosmological parameters, for different cosmological models and different galaxy power spectrum wave number cut-offs. We confirm that the choice of the power spectrum predictor has a non-negligible effect on the computed sensitivities when doing cosmological parameter forecasting, even for a conservative wave number cut-off of $0.2\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$. We find that EuclidEmulator1 is on average up to $17\%$ more sensitive to the cosmological parameters than the other two codes, with the most significant improvements being for the Hubble parameter of up to $42\%$ and the equation of state of dark energy of up to $26\%$, depending on the case. In addition, we point out that the choice of the power spectrum predictor contributes to the risk of computing a significantly biased mean cosmology when doing parameter estimations. For the four tested scenarios we find biases, averaged over the cosmological parameters, of between 0.5 and 2$σ$ (from below $1σ$ up to $6σ$ for individual parameters). This paper provides a proof of concept that this risk can be mitigated by taking a well-tailored theoretical uncertainty into account as this allows to reduce the bias by a factor of 2 to 5, depending on the case under consideration, while keeping posterior credibility contours small: the standard deviations are amplified by a factor of $\leq1.4$ in all cases.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Baryonic effects for weak lensing. Part I. Power spectrum and covariance matrix

Baryonic feedback effects lead to a suppression of the weak lensing angular power spectrum on small scales. The poorly constrained shape and amplitude of this suppression is an important source of uncertainties for upcoming cosmological weak lensing surveys such as Euclid or LSST. In this first paper in a series of two, we use simulations to build a Euclid-like tomographic mock data-set for the cosmic shear power spectrum and the corresponding covariance matrix, which are both corrected for baryonic effects following the baryonification method of Schneider et al. (2019). In addition, we develop an emulator to obtain fast predictions of the baryonic power suppression, allowing us to perform a likelihood inference analysis for a standard $Λ$CDM cosmology with both cosmological and astrophysical parameters. Our main findings are the following: (i) ignoring baryonic effects leads to a greater than 5$σ$ bias on the cosmological parameters $Ω_m$ and $σ_8$; (ii) restricting the analysis to the largest scales, that are mostly unaffected by baryons, makes the bias disappear, but results in a blow-up of the $Ω_m$-$σ_8$ contour area by more than a factor of 10; (iii) ignoring baryonic effects on the covariance matrix does not significantly affect cosmological parameter estimates; (iv) while the baryonic suppression is mildly cosmology dependent, this effect does not noticeably modify the posterior contours. Overall, we conclude that including baryonic uncertainties in terms of nuisance parameters results in unbiased and surprisingly tight constraints on cosmology.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Baryonic effects for weak lensing. Part II. Combination with X-ray data and extended cosmologies

An accurate modelling of baryonic feedback effects is required to exploit the full potential of future weak-lensing surveys such as Euclid or LSST. In this second paper in a series of two, we combine Euclid-like mock data of the cosmic shear power spectrum with an eROSITA X-ray mock of the cluster gas fraction to run a combined likelihood analysis including both cosmological and baryonic parameters. Following the first paper of this series, the baryonic effects (based on the baryonic correction model of Schneider et al. 2019) are included in both the tomographic power spectrum and the covariance matrix. However, this time we assume the more realistic case of a $Λ$CDM cosmology with massive neutrinos, and we consider several extensions of the currently favoured cosmological model. For the standard $Λ$CDM case, we show that including X-ray data reduces the uncertainties on the sum of the neutrino mass by $\sim30$ percent, while there is only a mild improvement on other parameters such as $Ω_m$ and $σ_8$. As extensions of $Λ$CDM, we consider the cases of a dynamical dark energy model (wCDM), a $f(R)$ gravity model (fRCDM), and a mixed dark matter model ($Λ$MDM) with both a cold and a warm/hot dark matter component. We find that combining weak lensing with X-ray data only leads to a mild improvement of the constraints on the additional parameters of wCDM, while the improvement is more substantial for both fRCDM and $Λ$MDM. Ignoring baryonic effects in the analysis pipeline leads to significant false-detections of either phantom dark energy or a light subdominant dark matter component. Overall we conclude that for all cosmologies considered, a general parametrisation of baryonic effects is both necessary and sufficient to obtain tight constraints on cosmological parameters.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Machine learning applied to simulations of collisions between rotating, differentiated planets

In the late stages of terrestrial planet formation, pairwise collisions between planetary-sized bodies act as the fundamental agent of planet growth. These collisions can lead to either growth or disruption of the bodies involved and are largely responsible for shaping the final characteristics of the planets. Despite their critical role in planet formation, an accurate treatment of collisions has yet to be realized. While semi-analytic methods have been proposed, they remain limited to a narrow set of post-impact properties and have only achieved relatively low accuracies. However, the rise of machine learning and access to increased computing power have enabled novel data-driven approaches. In this work, we show that data-driven emulation techniques are capable of predicting the outcome of collisions with high accuracy and are generalizable to any quantifiable post-impact quantity. In particular, we focus on the dataset requirements, training pipeline, and regression performance for four distinct data-driven techniques from machine learning (ensemble methods and neural networks) and uncertainty quantification (Gaussian processes and polynomial chaos expansion). We compare these methods to existing analytic and semi-analytic methods. Such data-driven emulators are poised to replace the methods currently used in N-body simulations. This work is based on a new set of 10,700 SPH simulations of pairwise collisions between rotating, differentiated bodies at all possible mutual orientations.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2019

Dark energy perturbations in $N$-body simulations

We present $N$-body simulations which are fully compatible with general relativity, with dark energy consistently included at both the background and perturbation level. We test our approach for dark energy parameterised as both a fluid, and using the parameterised post-Friedmann (PPF) formalism. In most cases, dark energy is very smooth relative to dark matter so that its leading effect on structure formation is the change to the background expansion rate. This can be easily incorporated into Newtonian $N$-body simulations by changing the Friedmann equation. However, dark energy perturbations and relativistic corrections can lead to differences relative to Newtonian $N$-body simulations at the tens of percent level for scales $k < (10^{-3} \unicode{x2013} 10^{-2})\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, and given the accuracy of upcoming large scale structure surveys such effects must be included. In this paper we will study both effects in detail and highlight the conditions under which they are important. We also show that our $N$-body simulations exactly reproduce the results of the Boltzmann solver CLASS for all scales which remain linear.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Euclid preparation: II. The EuclidEmulator -- A tool to compute the cosmology dependence of the nonlinear matter power spectrum

We present a new power spectrum emulator named EuclidEmulator that estimates the nonlinear correction to the linear dark matter power spectrum. It is based on a spectral decomposition method called polynomial chaos expansion. All steps in the construction of the emulator have been tested and optimized: the large high-resolution N-body simulations carried out with PKDGRAV3 were validated using a simulation from the Euclid Flagship campaign and demonstrated to have converged up to wavenumbers $k\approx 5\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ for redshifts $z\leq 5$. The emulator is constructed using the uncertainty quantification software UQLab and it has been optimized first by creating mock emulators based on Takahashi's HALOFIT. We show that it is possible to successfully predict the performance of the final emulator in this way prior to performing any N-body simulations. We provide a C-code to calculate the nonlinear correction at a relative accuracy of $\sim0.3\%$ with respect to N-body simulations within 50 ms. The absolute accuracy of the final nonlinear power spectrum is comparable to one obtained with N-body simulations, i.e. $\sim 1\%$ for $k\lesssim 1\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ and $z\lesssim 3.5$. This enables efficient forward modeling in the nonlinear regime allowing for maximum likelihood estimation of cosmological parameters. EuclidEmulator has been compared to HALOFIT and CosmicEmu, an alternative emulator based on the Mira-Titan Universe, and shown to be more accurate than these other approaches. This work paves a new way for optimal construction of future emulators that also consider other cosmological observables, use higher resolution input simulations and investigate higher dimensional cosmological parameter spaces.

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