arXiv subjects

Nelson A. Lima

Publications and source records attributed to Nelson A. Lima.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Testing Gravity on Cosmic Scales: A Case Study of Jordan-Brans-Dicke Theory

We provide an end-to-end exploration of a distinct modified gravitational theory in Jordan-Brans-Dicke (JBD) gravity, from an analytical and numerical description of the background expansion and linear perturbations, to the nonlinear regime captured with a hybrid suite of $N$-body simulations, to the parameter constraints from existing cosmological probes. The nonlinear corrections to the matter power spectrum due to baryons, massive neutrinos, and modified gravity are simultaneously modeled and propagated in the cosmological analysis for the first time. In the combined analysis of the Planck CMB temperature, polarization, and lensing reconstruction, Pantheon supernova distances, BOSS measurements of BAO distances, the Alcock-Paczynski effect, and the growth rate, along with the joint ($3\times2$pt) dataset of cosmic shear, galaxy-galaxy lensing, and overlapping redshift-space galaxy clustering from KiDS and 2dFLenS, we constrain the JBD coupling constant, $ω_{\rm BD}>1540$ (95% CL), the effective gravitational constant, $G_{\rm matter}/G=0.997\pm0.029$, the sum of neutrino masses, $\sum m_ν<0.12$ eV (95% CL), and the baryonic feedback amplitude, $B<2.8$ (95% CL), all in agreement with the standard model expectation. We show that the uncertainty in the gravitational theory alleviates the tension between KiDS$\times$2dFLenS and Planck to below $1σ$ and the tension in the Hubble constant between Planck and the direct measurement of Riess et al. (2019) down to ~$3σ$; however, we find no substantial model selection preference for JBD gravity relative to $Λ$CDM. We further show that the neutrino mass bound degrades by up to a factor of three as the $ω_{\rm BD}$ parameterization becomes more restrictive and that a positive shift in $G_{\rm matter}/G$ suppresses the CMB damping tail in a way that might complicate future inferences of small-scale physics. (Abridged)

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

The road ahead of Horndeski: cosmology of surviving scalar-tensor theories

In the context of the effective field theory of dark energy (EFT) we perform agnostic explorations of Horndeski gravity. We choose two parametrizations for the free EFT functions, namely a power law and a dark energy density-like behaviour on a non trivial Chevallier-Polarski-Linder background. We restrict our analysis to those EFT functions which do not modify the speed of propagation of gravitational waves. Among those, we prove that one specific function cannot be constrained by data, since its contribution to the observables is below the cosmic variance, although we show it has a relevant role in defining the viable parameter space. We place constraints on the parameters of these models combining measurements from present day cosmological datasets and we prove that the next generation galaxy surveys can improve such constraints by one order of magnitude. We then verify the validity of the quasi-static limit within the sound horizon of the dark field, by looking at the phenomenological functions $μ$ and $Σ$, associated respectively to clustering and lensing potentials. Furthermore, we notice up to $5\%$ deviations in $μ, Σ$ with respect to General Relativity at scales smaller than the Compton one. For the chosen parametrizations and in the quasi-static limit, future constraints on $μ$ and $Σ$ can reach the $1\%$ level and will allow us to discriminate between certain models at more than $3σ$, provided the present best-fit values remain.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

Gravitational wave speed: Implications for models without a mass scale

The recent report that the gravitational wave speed equals the light speed puts strong constraints on the anisotropic stress parameter of many modified gravity models, a quantity that is directly observable through large-scale structure. We show here that models without a mass scale completely escape these constraints. We discuss a few relevant cases in detail: Brans-Dicke theory, nonlocal models, and Galileon Lagrangian.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Dynamics of cosmological perturbations in modified Brans-Dicke cosmology with matter-scalar field interaction

In this work we focus on a novel completion of the well-known Brans-Dicke theory that introduces an interaction between the dark energy and dark matter sectors, known as complete Brans-Dicke (CBD) theory. We obtain viable cosmological accelerating solutions that fit Supernovae observations with great precision without any scalar potential $V(ϕ)$. We use these solutions to explore the impact of the CBD theory on the large scale structure by studying the dynamics of its linear perturbations. We observe a growing behavior of the lensing potential $Φ_{+}$ at late-times, while the growth rate is actually suppressed relatively to $Λ$CDM, which allows the CBD theory to provide a competitive fit to current RSD measurements of $fσ_{8}$. However, we also observe that the theory exhibits a pathological change of sign in the effective gravitational constant concerning the perturbations on sub-horizon scales that could pose a challenge to its validity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Constraints on decaying early modified gravity from cosmological observations

Most of the information on our cosmos stems from either late-time observations or the imprint of early-time inhomogeneities on the cosmic microwave background. We explore to what extent early modifications of gravity, which become significant after recombination but then decay towards the present, can be constrained by current cosmological observations. For the evolution of the gravitational modification, we adopt the decaying mode of a hybrid-metric Palatini $f(\mathcal{R})$ gravity model which is designed to reproduce the standard cosmological background expansion history and due to the decay of the modification is naturally compatible with Solar-System tests. We embed the model in the effective field theory description of Horndeski scalar-tensor gravity with an early-time decoupling of the gravitational modification. Since the quasistatic approximation for the perturbations in the model breaks down at high redshifts, where modifications remain relevant, we introduce a computationally efficient correction to describe the evolution of the scalar field fluctuation in this regime. We compare the decaying early-time modification against geometric probes and recent Planck measurements and find no evidence for such effects in the observations. Current data constrains the scalar field value at $|f_{\mathcal{R}}(z=z_{\rm on})| \lesssim 10^{-2}$ for modifications introduced at redshifts $z_{\rm on}\sim(500-1000)$ with present-day value $|f_{\mathcal{R}0}|\lesssim10^{-8}$. Finally, we comment on constraints that will be achievable with future 21~cm surveys and gravitational wave experiments.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Challenges to Self-Acceleration in Modified Gravity from Gravitational Waves and Large-Scale Structure

With the advent of gravitational-wave astronomy marked by the aLIGO GW150914 and GW151226 observations, a measurement of the cosmological speed of gravity will likely soon be realized. We show that a confirmation of equality to the speed of light as indicated by indirect Galactic observations will have important consequences for a very large class of alternative explanations of the late-time accelerated expansion of our Universe. It will break the dark degeneracy of self-accelerated Horndeski scalar-tensor theories in the large-scale structure that currently limits a rigorous discrimination between acceleration from modified gravity and from a cosmological constant or dark energy. Signatures of a self-acceleration must then manifest in the linear, unscreened cosmological structure. We describe the minimal modification required for self-acceleration with standard gravitational-wave speed and show that its maximum likelihood yields a 3-sigma poorer fit to cosmological observations compared to a cosmological constant. Hence, equality between the speeds challenges the concept of cosmic acceleration from a genuine scalar-tensor modification of gravity.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Reconstructing thawing quintessence with multiple datasets

In this work we model the quintessence potential in a Taylor series expansion, up to second order, around the present-day value of the scalar field. The field is evolved in a thawing regime assuming zero initial velocity. We use the latest data from the Planck satellite, baryonic acoustic oscillations observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and Supernovae luminosity distance information from Union2.1 to constrain our models parameters, and also include perturbation growth data from the WiggleZ, BOSS and the 6dF surveys. The supernova data provide the strongest individual constraint on the potential parameters. We show that the growth data performance is competitive with the other datasets in constraining the dark energy parameters we introduce. We also conclude that the combined constraints we obtain for our model parameters, when compared to previous works of nearly a decade ago, have shown only modest improvement, even with new growth of structure data added to previously-existent types of data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

On the phenomenology of extended Brans-Dicke Gravity

We introduce a designer approach for extended Brans-Dicke gravity that allows us to obtain the evolution of the scalar field by fixing the Hubble parameter to that of a $w$CDM model. We obtain analytical approximations for $ϕ$ as a function of the scale factor and use these to build expressions for the effective Newton's constant at the background and at the linear level and the slip between the perturbed Newtonian potentials. By doing so, we are able to explore their dependence on the fundamental parameters of the theory.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Constraints on hybrid metric-Palatini models from background evolution

In this work, we introduce two models of the hybrid metric-Palatini theory of gravitation. We explore their background evolution, showing explicitly that one recovers standard General Relativity with an effective Cosmological Constant at late times. This happens because the Palatini Ricci scalar evolves towards and asymptotically settles at the minimum of its effective potential during cosmological evolution. We then use a combination of cosmic microwave background, supernovae and baryonic accoustic oscillations background data to constrain the models' free parameters. For both models, we are able to constrain the maximum deviation from the gravitational constant $G$ one can have at early times to be around $1\%$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Constraining Recent Oscillations in Quintessence Models with Euclid

Euclid is a future space-based mission that will constrain dark energy with unprecedented accuracy. Its photometric component is optimized for Weak Lensing studies, while the spectroscopic component is designed for Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) analysis. We use the Fisher matrix formalism to make forecasts on two quintessence dark energy models with a dynamical equation of state that leads to late-time oscillations in the expansion rate of the Universe. We find that Weak Lensing will place much stronger constraints than the BAO, being able to discriminate between oscillating models by measuring the relevant parameters to $1σ$ precisions of 5 to $20\%$. The tight constraints suggest that Euclid data could identify even quite small late-time oscillations in the expansion rate of the Universe.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Dynamics of Linear Perturbations in the hybrid metric-Palatini gravity

In this work we focus on the evolution of the linear perturbations in the novel hybrid metric-Palatini theory achieved by adding a $f(\mathcal{R})$ function to the gravitational action. Working in the Jordan frame, we derive the full set of linearized evolution equations for the perturbed potentials and present them in the Newtonian and synchronous gauges. We also derive the Poisson equation, and perform the evolution of the lensing potential, $Φ_{+}$, for a model with a background evolution indistinguishable from $Λ$CDM. In order to do so, we introduce a designer approach that allows to retrieve a family of functions $f(\mathcal{R})$ for which the effective equation of state is exactly $w_{\textrm{eff}} = -1$. We conclude, for this particular model, that the main deviations from standard General Relativity and the Cosmological Constant model arise in the distant past, with an oscillatory signature in the ratio between the Newtonian potentials, $Φ$ and $Ψ$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Linear perturbations in viable f(R) theories

We describe the cosmological evolution predicted by three distinct $f(R)$ theories, with emphasis on the evolution of linear perturbations. The most promising observational tools for distinguishing $f(R)$ theories from $Λ$CDM are those intrinsically related to the growth of structure, such as weak lensing. At the linear level, the enhancement in the gravitational potential provided by the additional $f(R)$ `fifth force' can separate the theories, whereas at the background level they can be indistinguishable. Under the stringent constraints imposed on the models by Solar System tests and galaxy-formation criteria, we show that the relative difference between the models' linear evolution of the lensing potential will be extremely hard to detect even with future space-based experiments such as {\it Euclid}, with a maximum value of approximately 4% for small scales. We also show the evolution of the gravitational potentials under more relaxed local constraint conditions, where the relative difference between these models and $Λ$CDM could prove discriminating.

astro-ph.CO↗