The Influence of Galaxy Formation Physics on Weak Lensing Tests of General Relativity

Abstract

Forthcoming projects such as the DES, a JDEM, and LSST, aim to measure weak lensing shear correlations with unprecedented accuracy. Weak lensing observables are sensitive to both the distance-redshift relation and the growth of structure in the Universe. If the cause of accelerated cosmic expansion is dark energy within general relativity (GR), both cosmic distances and structure growth are governed by the properties of dark energy. Consequently, one may use lensing to check for this consistency and test GR. After reviewing the phenomenology of such tests, we address one major challenge to such a program. The evolution of the baryonic component of the Universe is highly uncertain and can influence lensing observables, manifesting as modified structure growth for a fixed cosmic distance scale. Using two proposed methods, we show that one could be led to reject the null hypothesis of GR when it is the true theory if this uncertainty in baryonic processes is neglected. Recent simulations suggest that we can correct for baryonic effects using a parametrized model in which the halo mass-concentration relation is modified. The correction renders biases small compared to statistical uncertainties. We study the ability of future weak lensing surveys to constrain the internal structures of halos and test the null hypothesis of GR simultaneously. Compared to nulling information from small-scales to mitigate sensitivity to baryonic physics, this internal calibration program should provide limits on deviations from GR that are several times more constraining. Specifically, we find that limits on general relativity in the case of internal calibration are degraded by only ~30% or less compared to the case of perfect knowledge of nonlinear structure.

34 Pages, 8 Figures, Submitted for Publication in JCAP

References in corpus (21)

• Seven-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Three Year Results: Implications for Cosmology
• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• Models of f(R) Cosmic Acceleration that Evade Solar-System Tests
• Cosmological Constraints from the SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies
• Observational Constraints on the Nature of the Dark Energy: First Cosmological Results from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey
• A Parameterized Post-Friedmann Framework for Modified Gravity
• Report of the Dark Energy Task Force
• Constraining f(R) Gravity as a Scalar Tensor Theory
• Effects of Baryons and Dissipation on the Matter Power Spectrum
• The Halo Mass Function: High-Redshift Evolution and Universality
• Non-linear evolution of f(R) cosmologies II: power spectrum
• The X-Ray Concentration-Virial Mass Relation
• The Cosmic Code Comparison Project
• Is Modified Gravity Required by Observations? An Empirical Consistency Test of Dark Energy Models
• Self Calibration of Tomographic Weak Lensing for the Physics of Baryons to Constrain Dark Energy
• Cosmic variance of weak lensing surveys in the non-Gaussian regime
• Distance, Growth Factor, and Dark Energy Constraints from Photometric Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and Weak Lensing Measurements
• Cosmic tomographies: baryon acoustic oscillations and weak lensing
• Modified gravity, Dark Energy and MOND
• Effects of halo substructure on the power spectrum and bispectrum

Cited by in corpus (23)

• Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite
• Cosmology and fundamental physics with the Euclid satellite
• Dark energy two decades after: Observables, probes, consistency tests
• The Intrinsic Alignment of Galaxies and its Impact on Weak Gravitational Lensing in an Era of Precision Cosmology
• Growth of Cosmic Structure: Probing Dark Energy Beyond Expansion
• Accounting for baryonic effects in cosmic shear tomography: Determining a minimal set of nuisance parameters using PCA
• Cosmic Shear Results from the Deep Lens Survey - II: Full Cosmological Parameter Constraints from Tomography
• The Novel Probes Project -- Tests of Gravity on Astrophysical Scales
• Weak lensing, dark matter and dark energy
• General Requirements on Matter Power Spectrum Predictions for Cosmology with Weak Lensing Tomography
• Accounting for Baryons in Cosmological Constraints from Cosmic Shear
• The effect of baryons on the variance and the skewness of the mass distribution in the universe at small scales
• Effects of Unstable Dark Matter on Large-Scale Structure and Constraints from Future Surveys
• Weak lensing predictions for modified gravities at non-linear scales
• A Future Test of Gravitation Using Galaxy Cluster Velocities
• Non-linear weak lensing forecasts
• Inference from the small scales of cosmic shear with current and future Dark Energy Survey data
• Will Multiple Probes of Dark Energy find Modified Gravity?
• Weak Gravitational Lensing as a Method to Constrain Unstable Dark Matter
• Galaxy Peculiar Velocities From Large-Scale Supernova Surveys as a Dark Energy Probe
• Cosmic Shear E/B-mode Estimation with Binned Correlation Function Data
• High accuracy power spectra including baryonic physics in dynamical Dark Energy models
• Influence of baryons on spatial distribution of matter: higher order correlation functions