arXiv subjects

Pengjie Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Pengjie Zhang.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Measurement of Redshift Space Power Spectrum for BOSS galaxies and the Growth Rate at redshift 0.57

We present a measurement of two-dimensional (2D) redshift-space power spectrum for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 11 CMASS galaxies in the North Galactic Cap (NGC) based on the method developed by Jing & Borner (2001). In this method, we first measure the 2D redshift-space correlation function for the CMASS galaxies, and obtain the 2D power spectrum based on Fourier Transform of the correlation function. The method is tested with an N-body mock galaxy catalog, which demonstrates that the method can yield an accurate and unbiased measurement of the redshift-space power spectrum given the input 2D correlation function is correct. Compared with previous measurements in literature that are usually based on direct Fourier Transform in redshift space, our method has the advantages that the window function and shot-noise are fully corrected. In fact, our 2D power spectrum, by its construction, can accurately reproduce the 2D correlation function, and in the meanwhile can reproduce, for example, the 2D power spectrum of Beutler et al. (2014) accurately if ours is convolved with the window function they provided. Thus, our measurement can facilitate a direct comparison with the theoretical predictions. With this accurate measurement of the 2D power spectrum, we then develop a method to measure the structure growth rate, by separating the anisotropic redshift-space power spectrum from the isotropic real-space power spectrum. We have also carefully corrected for the nonlinearities in the mapping from real space to redshift space, according to the theoretical model of Zhang et al. (2013). Finally, we obtain f(zeff)sigma_8(zeff)=0.438\pm0.037 at the effective redshift zeff=0.57, where f(zeff) is the linear growth rate at redshift zeff. The result is useful for constraining cosmological parameters. The measurements of 2D power spectrum will be released soon.

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arXiv2015

Kriging Interpolating Cosmic Velocity Field

[abridged] Volume-weighted statistics of large scale peculiar velocity is preferred by peculiar velocity cosmology, since it is free of uncertainties of galaxy density bias entangled in mass-weighted statistics. However, measuring the volume-weighted velocity statistics from galaxy (halo/simulation particle) velocity data is challenging. For the first time, we apply the Kriging interpolation to obtain the volume-weighted velocity field. Kriging is a minimum variance estimator. It predicts the most likely velocity for each place based on the velocity at other places. We test the performance of Kriging quantified by the E-mode velocity power spectrum from simulations. Dependences on the variogram prior used in Kriging, the number $n_k$ of the nearby particles to interpolate and the density $n_P$ of the observed sample are investigated. First, we find that Kriging induces $1\%$ and $3\%$ systematics at $k\sim 0.1h{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ when $n_P\sim 6\times 10^{-2} ({\rm Mpc}/h)^{-3}$ and $n_P\sim 6\times 10^{-3} ({\rm Mpc}/h)^{-3}$, respectively. The deviation increases for decreasing $n_P$ and increasing $k$. When $n_P\lesssim 6\times 10^{-4} ({\rm Mpc}/h)^{-3}$, a smoothing effect dominates small scales, causing significant underestimation of the velocity power spectrum. Second, increasing $n_k$ helps to recover small scale power. However, for $n_P\lesssim 6\times 10^{-4} ({\rm Mpc}/h)^{-3}$ cases, the recovery is limited. Finally, Kriging is more sensitive to the variogram prior for lower sample density. The most straightforward application of Kriging on the cosmic velocity field does not show obvious advantages over the nearest-particle method (Zheng et al. 2013) and could not be directly applied to cosmology so far. However, whether potential improvements may be achieved by more delicate versions of Kriging is worth further investigation.

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arXiv2015

Testing the tensor-vector-scalar Theory with the latest cosmological observations

The tensor-vector-scalar (TeVeS) model is considered a viable theory of gravity. It produces the Milgrom's modified Newtonian dynamics in the nonrelativistic weak field limit and is free from ghosts. This model has been tested against various cosmological observations. Here we investigate whether new observations such as the galaxy velocity power spectrum measured by 6dF and the kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect power spectrum measured by ACT/SPT can put further constraints on the TeVeS model. Furthermore, we perform the test of TeVeS cosmology with a sterile neutrino by confronting to Planck data, and find that it is ruled out by cosmic microwave background measurements from the Planck mission.

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arXiv2015

Determination of the large scale volume weighted halo velocity bias in simulations

A profound assumption in peculiar velocity cosmology is $b_v=1$ at sufficiently large scales, where $b_v$ is the volume weighted halo(galaxy) velocity bias with respect to the matter velocity field. However, this fundamental assumption has not been robustly verified in numerical simulations. Furthermore, it is challenged by structure formation theory (BBKS, 1986, ApJ; Desjacques and Sheth, 2010, PRD), which predicts the existence of velocity bias (at least for proto-halos) due to the fact that halos reside in special regions (local density peaks). The major obstacle to measure the volume weighted velocity from N-body simulations is an unphysical sampling artifact. It is entangled in the measured velocity statistics and becomes significant for sparse populations. With recently improved understanding of the sampling artifact (Zhang, Zheng and Jing, 2015, PRD; Zheng, Zhang and Jing, 2015, PRD), for the first time we are able to {\it appropriately correct this sampling artifact and then robustly measure the volume weighted halo velocity bias}. (1) We verify $b_v=1$ within $2\%$ model uncertainty at $k\lesssim 0.1h/$Mpc and $z=0$-$2$ for halos of mass $\sim 10^{12}$-$10^{13} h^{-1} M_\odot$, and, therefore, consolidates a foundation of the peculiar velocity cosmology. (2) We also find statistically significant signs of $b_v\neq 1$ at $k\gtrsim 0.1h/$Mpc. Unfortunately, whether this is real or caused by residual sampling artifact requires further investigation. Nevertheless, cosmology based on $k\gtrsim 0.1h/$Mpc velocity data shall be careful this potential velocity bias.

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arXiv2015

Testing eternal inflation with the kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect

Perhaps the most controversial idea in modern cosmology is that our observable universe is contained within one bubble among many, all inhabiting the eternally inflating multiverse. One of the few way to test this idea is to look for evidence of the relic inhomogeneities left by the collisions between other bubbles and our own. Such relic inhomogeneities induces a coherent bulk flow over gigaparsec scales. Therefore, bubble collisions leave unique imprints in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) through the kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect, temperature anisotropies induced by the scattering of photons from coherently moving free electrons in the diffuse intergalactic medium. The kSZ signature produced by bubble collisions has a unique directional dependence and is tightly correlated with the galaxy distribution; it can therefore be distinguished from other contributions to the CMB anisotropies. An important advantage of the kSZ signature is that it peaks on arcminute angular scales, where the limiting factors in making a detection are instrumental noise and foreground subtraction. This is in contrast to the collision signature in the primary CMB, which peaks on angular scales much larger than one degree, and whose detection is therefore limited by cosmic variance. In this paper, we examine the prospects for probing the inhomogeneities left by bubble collisions using the kSZ effect. We provide a forecast for detection using cross-correlations between CMB and galaxy surveys, finding that the detectability using the kSZ effect can be competitive with constraints from CMB temperature and polarization data.

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arXiv2015

The source-lens clustering effect in the context of lensing tomography and its self-calibration

Cosmic shear can only be measured where there are galaxies. This source-lens clustering (SLC) effect has two sources, intrinsic source clustering and cosmic magnification (magnification/size bias). Lensing tomography can suppress the former. However, this reduction is limited by the existence of photo-z error and nonzero redshift bin width. Furthermore, SLC induced by cosmic magnification cannot be reduced by lensing tomography. Through N-body simulations, we quantify the impact of SLC on the lensing power spectrum in the context of lensing tomography. We consider both the standard estimator and the pixel-based estimator. We find that none of them can satisfactorily handle both sources of SLC. (1) For the standard estimator, SLC induced by both sources can bias the lensing power spectrum by O(1)-O(10)%. Intrinsic source clustering also increases statistical uncertainties in the measured lensing power spectrum. However, the standard estimator suppresses intrinsic source clustering in the cross-spectrum. (2) In contrast, the pixel-based estimator suppresses SLC through cosmic magnification. However, it fails to suppress SLC through intrinsic source clustering and the measured lensing power spectrum can be biased low by O(1)-O(10)%. In short, for typical photo-z errors (sigma_z/(1+z)=0.05) and photo-z bin sizes (Delta_z^P=0.2), SLC alters the lensing E-mode power spectrum by 1-10%, with ell~10^3$ and z_s~1 being of particular interest to weak lensing cosmology. Therefore the SLC is a severe systematic for cosmology in Stage-IV lensing surveys. We present useful scaling relations to self-calibrate the SLC effect.

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arXiv2015

Diagnosing multiplicative error by lensing magnification of type Ia supernovae

Weak lensing causes spatially coherent fluctuations in flux of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). This lensing magnification allows for weak lensing measurement independent of cosmic shear. It is free of shape measurement errors associated with cosmic shear and can therefore be used to diagnose and calibrate multiplicative error. Although this lensing magnification is difficult to measure accurately in auto correlation, its cross correlation with cosmic shear and galaxy distribution in overlapping area can be measured to significantly higher accuracy. Therefore these cross correlations can put useful constraint on multiplicative error, and the obtained constraint is free of cosmic variance in weak lensing field. We present two methods implementing this idea and estimate their performances. We find that, with $\sim 1$ million SNe Ia that can be achieved by the proposed D2k survey with the LSST telescope (Zhan et al. 2008), multiplicative error of $\sim 0.5\%$ for source galaxies at $z_s\sim 1$ can be detected and larger multiplicative error can be corrected to the level of $0.5\%$. It is therefore a promising approach to control the multiplicative to the sub-percent level required for stage IV projects. The combination of the two methods even has the potential to diagnose and calibrate galaxy intrinsic alignment, which is another major systematic error in cosmic shear cosmology.

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arXiv2015

Sampling Artifact in Volume Weighted Velocity Measurement.--- I. Theoretical Modelling

Cosmology based on large scale peculiar velocity preferes volume weighted velocity statistics. However, measuring the volume weighted velocity statistics from inhomogeneously distributed galaxies (simulation particles/halos) suffer from an inevitable and significant sampling artifact. We study this sampling artifact in the velocity power spectrum measured by the nearest-particle (NP) velocity assignment method(Zheng et al. 2013, PRD). We derive the analytical expression of leading and higher order terms. We find that the sampling artifact suppresses the $z=0$ E-mode velocity power spectrum by $\sim 10\%$ at $k=0.1h/$Mpc , for samples with number density $10^{-3}({\rm Mpc}/h)^{-3}$. This suppression becomes larger for larger $k$ and for sparser samples. We argue that, this source of systematic errors in peculiar velocity cosmology, albeit severe, can be self-calibrated in the framework of our theoretical modelling. We also work out the sampling artifact in the density-velocity cross power spectrum measurement. More robust evaluation of related statistics through simulations will be presented in a companion paper (Zheng, Zhang & Jing, 2015, PRD). We also argue that similar sampling artifact exists in other velocity assignment methods and hence must be carefully corrected to avoid systematic bias in peculiar velocity cosmology.

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arXiv2015

Sampling Artifact in Volume Weighted Velocity Measurement.--- II. Detection in simulations and comparison with theoretical modelling

Measuring the volume weighted velocity power spectrum suffers from a severe systematic error, due to imperfect sampling of the velocity field from inhomogeneous distribution of dark matter particles/halos in simulations or galaxies with velocity measurement. This "sampling artifact" depends on both the mean particle number density $\bar{n}_P$ and the intrinsic large scale structure (LSS) fluctuation in the particle distribution. (1) We report robust detection of this sampling artifact in N-body simulations. It causes $\sim 12$% underestimation of the velocity power spectrum at $k=0.1$h/Mpc for samples with $\bar{n}_P=6\times10^{-3}$ (Mpc/h)$^{-3}$. This systematic underestimation increases with decreasing $\bar{n}_P$ and increasing $k$. Its dependence on the intrinsic LSS fluctuations is also robustly detected. (2) All these findings are expected by our theoretical modelling in paper I \cite{Zhang14}. In particular, the leading order theoretical approximation agrees quantitatively well with simulation result for $\bar{n}_P\gtrsim6\times 10^{-4}$(Mpc/h)$^{-3}$. Furthermore, we provide an ansatz to take high order terms into account. It improves the model accuracy to $\lesssim1$% at $k\lesssim0.1$h/Mpc over 3 orders of magnitude in $\bar{n}_P$ and over typical LSS clustering from $z=0$ to $z=2$. (3) The sampling artifact is determined by the deflection ${\bf D}$ field, which is straightforwardly available in both simulations and data of galaxy velocity. Hence the sampling artifact in the velocity power spectrum measurement can be self-calibrated within our framework. By applying such self-calibration in simulations, it becomes promising to determine the {\it real} large scale velocity bias of $10^{13}M_\odot$ halos with $\sim 1$% accuracy, and that of lower mass halos by better accuracy. ...[abridged]

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arXiv2013

The effect of Dark Matter and Dark Energy interactions on the peculiar velocity field and the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect

The interaction between Dark Matter and Dark Energy has been proposed as a mechanism to alleviate the coincidence problem. We analyze the effect of the interaction on the evolution of the gravitational field and propose two new observables based on its effect on the matter peculiar velocity field. We find that for different model parameters the matter peculiar velocity could be factor 2 times larger or 5 times smaller than the amplitude of velocity perturbations in the concordance LCDM cosmological model at the same scales. We compare the effect on the peculiar velocities with those on the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect and we show that velocities can potentially provide constraints on the strength of the interaction stronger than those currently available. We show that the current upper limits on the amplitude of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich power spectrum provide constraints on the coupling within the dark sectors that are consistent with those obtained previously from the CMB and galaxy clusters. In particular, we show that current upper limits from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the South Pole Telescope favor Dark Energy decaying into Dark Matter, as required to solve the coincidence problem.

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arXiv2013

Weak lensing reconstruction through cosmic magnification. II. Improved power spectrum determination and map-making

The existence of galaxy intrinsic clustering severely hampers the weak lensing reconstruction from cosmic magnification. In paper I \citep{Yang2011}, we proposed a minimal variance estimator to overcome this problem. By utilizing the different dependences of cosmic magnification and galaxy intrinsic clustering on galaxy flux, we demonstrated that the otherwise overwhelming galaxy intrinsic clustering can be significantly suppressed such that lensing maps can be reconstructed with promising accuracy. This procedure relies heavily on the accuracy of determining the galaxy bias from the same data. Paper I adopts an iterative approach, which degrades toward high redshift. The current paper presents an alternative method, improving over paper I. We prove that the measured galaxy clustering between flux bins allows for simultaneous determination of the lensing power spectrum and the flux dependence of galaxy bias, at this redshift bin. Comparing to paper I, the new approach is not only more straightforward, but also more robust. It identifies an ambiguity in determining the galaxy bias and further discovers a mathematically robust way to suppress this ambiguity to non-negligible level ($\sim 0.1%$). The accurately determined galaxy bias can then be applied to the minimal variance estimator proposed in paper I to improve the lensing map-making. The gain at high redshift is significant. These maps can be used to measure other statistics, such as cluster finding and peak statistics. Furthermore, by including galaxy clustering measurement between different redshift bins, we can also determine the lensing cross power spectrum between these bins, up to a small and correctable multiplicative factor.

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arXiv2013

Peculiar Velocity Decomposition, Redshift Space Distortion and Velocity Reconstruction in Redshift Surveys - I. The Methodology

Massive spectroscopic surveys will measure the redshift space distortion (RSD) induced by galaxy peculiar velocity to unprecedented accuracy. We develop a new method to improve the RSD modeling and to carry out robust reconstruction of the 3D large scale peculiar velocity through galaxy redshift surveys, in light of RSD. (1) We propose a mathematically unique and physically motivated decomposition of peculiar velocity into three eigen-components of different origins, different scale dependences and different impacts on RSD. (2) This decomposition has the potential to simplify and improve the RSD modeling. We derive a new formula for the redshift space power spectrum. Under the velocity decomposition scheme, all high order Gaussian corrections and non-Gaussian correction of order $δ^3$ can be taken into account without introducing extra model uncertainties. We find that the leading order contribution $\propto (1+f\tilde{W}(k)u^2)^2$ differs from the Kaiser formula by a function $\tilde{W}(k)\leq 1$. We hence identify a significant systematic error causing underestimation of the structure growth parameter $f$ by as much as $O(10%)$ even at relatively large scale $k=0.1h/$Mpc. The velocity decomposition also reveals the three origins of the finger of God (FOG) effect. (3) The velocity decomposition clarifies issues in peculiar velocity reconstruction through 3D galaxy distribution. We discuss two possible ways to carry out the velocity reconstruction. Both use the otherwise troublesome RSD in velocity reconstruction as a valuable source of information. Both have the advantage to render the reconstruction of a stochastic 3D field into the reconstruction of a deterministic window function $W^s(k,u)$ of limited degrees of freedom...[abridged]

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arXiv2013

Nonlinearities in modified gravity cosmology. II. Impacts of modified gravity on the halo properties

The statistics of dark matter halos is an essential component of understanding the nonlinear evolution in modified gravity cosmology. Based on a series of modified gravity N-body simulations, we investigate the halo mass function, concentration and bias. We model the impact of modified gravity by a single parameter ζ, which determines the enhancement of particle acceleration with respect to GR, given the identical mass distribution (ζ=1 in GR). We select snapshot redshifts such that the linear matter power spectra of different gravity models are identical, in order to isolate the impact of gravity beyond modifying the linear growth rate. At the baseline redshift corresponding to z_S=1.2 in the standard ΛCDM, for a 10% deviation from GR(|ζ-1|=0.1), the measured halo mass function can differ by about 5-10%, the halo concentration by about 10-20%, while the halo bias differs significantly less. These results demonstrate that the halo mass function and/or the halo concentration are sensitive to the nature of gravity and may be used to make interesting constraints along this line.

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arXiv2012

Bulk flow of halos in ΛCDM simulation

Analysis of the Pangu N-body simulation validates that the bulk flow of halos follows a Maxwellian distribution which variance is consistent with the prediction of the linear theory of structure formation. We propose that the consistency between the observed bulk velocity and theories should be examined at the effective scale of the radius of a spherical top-hat window function yielding the same smoothed velocity variance in linear theory as the sample window function does. We compared some recently estimated bulk flows from observational samples with the prediction of the ΛCDM model we used; some results deviate from expectation at a level of ~ 3σbut the discrepancy is not as severe as previously claimed. We show that bulk flow is only weakly correlated with the dipole of the internal mass distribution, the alignment angle between the mass dipole and the bulk flow has a broad distribution peaked at ~ 30-50 deg., and also that the bulk flow shows little dependence on the mass of the halos used in the estimation. In a simulation of box size 1Gpc/h, for a cell of radius 100 Mpc/h the maximal bulk velocity is >500 km/s, dipoles of the environmental mass outside the cell are not tightly aligned with the bulk flow, but are rather located randomly around it with separation angles ~ 20-40 deg. In the fastest cell there is a slightly smaller number of low-mass halos; however halos inside are clustered more strongly at scales > ~ 20 Mpc/h, which might be a significant feature since the correlation between bulk flow and halo clustering actually increases in significance beyond such scales.

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arXiv2012

Anomalous anisotropic cross-correlations between WMAP CMB maps and SDSS galaxy distribution and implications on the dark flow scenario

We search for the dark flow induced diffuse kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect through CMB-galaxy cross correlation. Such angular correlation is anisotropic, with a unique $cos(theta_DF)$ angular dependence and hence can be distinguished from other components. Here, $theta_DF$ is the angle between the opposite dark flow direction and the direction of the sky where the correlation is measured. We analyze the KIAS-VAGC galaxy catalog of SDSS-DR7 and the WMAP seven-year temperature maps, applying an unbiased optimal weighting scheme to eliminate any statistically isotropic components and to enhance the dark flow detection signal. Non-zero weighted cross correlations are detected at 3.5 sigma for the redshift bin z<0.1 and at 3 sigma for the bin 0.1 6000 km/s). We report this work as the first attempt to search for dark flow through weighted CMB-galaxy cross correlation and to draw the attention on the sources of the detected anomalous CMB-galaxy cross correlation.

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arXiv2012

Gaussianizing the non-Gaussian lensing convergence field II: the applicability to noisy data

In paper I (Yu et al. [1]), we show through N-body simulation that a local monotonic Gaussian transformation can significantly reduce non-Gaussianity in a noise-free lensing convergence field. This makes the Gaussianization a promising theoretical tool to understand high-order lensing statistics. Here we present a study of its applicability in lensing data analysis, in particular when shape measurement noise is presented in lensing convergence maps. (i) We find that shape measurement noise significantly degrades the Gaussianization performance and the degradation increases for shallower surveys. (ii) The Wiener filter is efficient in reducing the impact of shape measurement noise. The Gaussianization of the Wiener-filtered lensing maps is able to suppress skewness, kurtosis, and the 5th- and 6th-order cumulants by a factor of 10 or more. It also works efficiently to reduce the bispectrum to zero.

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arXiv2012

Weak lensing reconstruction through cosmic magnification I: a minimal variance map reconstruction

We present a concept study on weak lensing map reconstruction through the cosmic magnification effect in galaxy number density distribution. We propose a minimal variance linear estimator to minimize both the dominant systematical and statistical errors in the map reconstruction. It utilizes the distinctively different flux dependences to separate the cosmic magnification signal from the overwhelming galaxy intrinsic clustering noise. It also minimizes the shot noise error by an optimal weighting scheme on the galaxy number density in each flux bin. Our method is in principle applicable to all galaxy surveys with reasonable redshift information. We demonstrate its applicability against the planned Square Kilometer Array survey, under simplified conditions. Weak lensing maps reconstructed through our method are complementary to that from cosmic shear and CMB and 21cm lensing. They are useful for cross checking over systematical errors in weak lensing reconstruction and for improving cosmological constraints.

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arXiv2012

Observational Consequences of Dark Energy Decay

We consider the generic scenario of dark energy which arises through the latent heat of a hidden sector first order cosmological phase transition. This field could account for the extra radiation degree of freedom suggested by the CMB. We present the bubble nucleation solution for the viscous limit. The decay rate of the field is constrained by published KSZ data, and may be an explanation of current excess ISW correlations. Cross correlation of current and future surveys can further constrain or test the parameter space. The decay model is plausibly in the observable range, and avoids anthropic problems. This class of models is not well constrained by the popular dark energy figure of merit.

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