arXiv subjects

William Ortolá Leonard

Publications and source records attributed to William Ortolá Leonard.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Testing the 4-Point Correlation Function as a Probe of Parity Violation with the Quijote-Odd Simulations

We investigate parity violation searches with the 4-Point Correlation Function (4PCF) using the Quijote and Quijote-Odd halo catalogs. Specifically, we explore the auto- and cross-correlation searching methodologies that have been previously used in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) searches. Although the Quijote-Odd simulations are initialized with a parity-violating primordial trispectrum, we find no statistically detectable parity-odd signal in the halo 4PCF. Instead, we find that the halo measurements are dominated by Poisson noise. We are able to distinguish this noise-dominated behavior from the response expected for a parity-odd signal. These results clarify how parity-sensitive 4PCF statistics respond to noise in a controlled simulation setting.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Analytical Template for the 4-Point Correlation Function Covariance Beyond the Gaussian Random Field ${\rm I}$: 1-Loop Corrections involving Second-Order Densities

Analytical templates for the covariance matrix of the 4-Point Correlation Function (4PCF) have been developed in the past assuming a Gaussian Random Field (GRF). In this work, we present the first non-Gaussian calculation of the 4PCF covariance, incorporating 1-loop corrections using the second-order density contrast. Furthermore, we introduce a non-trivial galaxy bias scheme at second order. To simplify the calculation, we decompose the covariance into five distinct structures, and then exploit the isotropic basis functions of Cahn & Slepian (2023). This approach reduces the complexity of the high-dimensional integrals naively involved, enabling the angular parts to be performed and leaving us with low-dimensional radial integrals. This analytical template will provide a more accurate characterization of the statistical errors on the 4PCF, improving both the parity-odd and parity-even analyses. This is the first paper in a two-part series.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Analytical Template for the 4-Point Correlation Function Covariance Beyond the Gaussian Random Field ${\rm II}$: 1-Loop Corrections with Third-Order Densities

Analytical templates for the 4-Point Correlation Function (4PCF) covariance matrix have been developed in the past assuming a Gaussian Random Field (GRF). In this work, we present the second part of the beyond GRF calculation of the 4PCF covariance, incorporating 1-loop corrections stemming from the third-order density contrast. Furthermore, we introduce a non-trivial galaxy biasing scheme at third order. To simplify the calculation, we decompose the covariance into three distinct structures and leverage the isotropic basis of Cahn & Slepian (2023). This approach reduces the complexity of the high-dimensional integrals that would be naively involved, enabling the angular parts to be performed and leaving us with low-dimensional radial integrals. This analytical template could provide a more accurate characterization of the statistical errors on the 4PCF in future surveys, improving our ability to probe both its parity-even and parity-odd modes. This is the second and final paper in a two-part series.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

A Two-Dimensional Test of Cosmological Parity Violation with the 3-Point Correlation Function

Searches for parity violation (PV) in the Universe's large-scale structure have recently been carried out using parity-odd modes of the galaxy 4-Point Correlation Function (4PCF). Here, we introduce a new estimator for a 3-Point Correlation Function (3PCF) that is sensitive to PV. The construction exploits the handedness of triangles formed on 2D spherical shells, where mirror-image configurations cannot be related by proper rotations within the surface. By dotting the oriented area vector with an externally-defined normal vector to the shell, we obtain sensitivity to PV. We present a discrete estimator for this statistic and also show how to correct for the survey geometry. This parity-odd 3PCF provides a complementary test of PV in galaxy surveys and a potential cross-check of PV 4PCF measurements.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

A Finely-Binned Measurement of the Connected Even-Parity Galaxy 4-Point Correlation Function of DESI Year 1 Luminous Red Galaxies

We present the connected even-parity galaxy 4-Point Correlation Function (4PCF) of DESI Year 1 (Y1) Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). This is one of the first measurements of the connected 4PCF on data, and shows a clear detection at $\sim$12 to 17$σ$ in the full-sky analysis. We test the robustness of the signal by varying three factors: hemisphere (north vs. south), redshift range (either the full range $0.4 < z < 1.1$ or the higher-number-density interval $0.4 < z < 0.8$), and sample completeness (the full sample vs. only the most complete regions within the number density-motivated cut). Finally, we cross-correlate different patches that are spatially well-separated, and thus should have largely independent noise. This approach, at leading order, is able to remove mismatch between the covariance matrix of the data and that of the mocks; however, in certain cases at the cost of sensitivity. We find $\sim$15$σ$ evidence for an even-parity 4PCF in this approach. Overall, the studies of the 4PCF presented here probe sensitively any mismatch between mock catalogs and data, and also open up the prospect of fitting a model, constraining cosmological parameters and galaxy biases, and searching for Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) features.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

First Detection of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) Feature in the 3-Point Correlation Function of DESI DR1 Luminous Red Galaxies

We present the first detection of the 3-Point Correlation Function (3PCF) Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) signal from the DESI Data Release 1 (DR1) sample of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs), which contains over 2.1 million galaxies. Our analysis is based on a tree-level redshift-space bispectrum template, which is then transformed to position space using the Fast Fourier Transform on Logarithmic scales (FFTLog) algorithm. We detect the BAO feature with a significance of approximately $8.1σ$ using the EZmock covariance matrix and $8.5σ$ using the analytical covariance matrix, for the full LRG redshift range ($0.4<z<1.1$), denoted as the $z_{\rm full}$ sample. We use the Abacus altMTL mocks, the most precise DESI DR1 mock catalogs currently available, to validate our model. We find that our model fits the mocks well, with a small offset of $0.6\%$ in the recovered BAO scale, which we treat as a systematic error due to modeling. We measure the angle-averaged distance, $D_{\rm V}(z = 0.68)/r_{\rm d} = 15.88 \pm 0.27$ ($1.72\%$ precision) when using the covariance matrix estimated from EZmocks and $D_{\rm V}(z = 0.68)/r_{\rm d} = 15.72 \pm 0.18$ ($1.12\%$ precision) when using the analytical Gaussian covariance matrix. Our results show excellent agreement with the DESI DR1 2PCF BAO measurements as well. We also explore several other ways to estimate the error and find between $1.7$--$2.2\%$ precision on the BAO scale from the EZmock covariance matrix and between $1.1$--$1.5\%$ precision from the analytical covariance matrix. This work represents the first detection of the BAO feature in the DESI 3PCF, establishing its ability to probe the expansion history of the Universe with future DESI 3PCF measurements.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

A Model for the Redshift-Space Galaxy 4-Point Correlation Function

The field of cosmology is entering an epoch of unparalleled wealth of observational data thanks to galaxy surveys such as DESI, Euclid, and Roman. Therefore, it is essential to have a firm theoretical basis that allows the effective analysis of the data. With this purpose, we compute the nonlinear, gravitationally-induced connected galaxy 4-point correlation function (4PCF) at the tree level in Standard Perturbation Theory (SPT), including redshift-space distortions (RSD). We begin from the trispectrum and take its inverse Fourier transform into configuration space, exploiting the isotropic basis functions of Cahn & Slepian (2023). We ultimately reduce the configuration-space expression to low-dimensional radial integrals of the power spectrum. This model will enable the use of the BAO feature in the connected 4PCF to sharpen our constraints on the expansion history of the Universe. It will also offer an additional avenue for determining the galaxy bias parameters, and thus tighten our cosmological constraints by breaking degeneracies. Survey geometry can be corrected in the 4PCF, and many systematics are localized, which is an advantage over data analysis with the trispectrum.

astro-ph.CO↗