Testing Standard Cosmology with Large Scale Structure

Abstract

The galaxy power spectrum contains information on the growth of structure, the growth rate through redshift space distortions, and the cosmic expansion through baryon acoustic oscillation features. We study the ability of two proposed experiments, BigBOSS and JDEM-PS, to test the cosmological model and general relativity. We quantify the latter result in terms of the gravitational growth index γ, whose value in general relativity is γ\approx 0.55. Significant deviations from this value could indicate new physics beyond the standard model of cosmology. The results show that BigBOSS (JDEM-PS) would be capable of measuring γwith an uncertainty σ(γ) = 0.043 (0.054), which tightens to σ(γ) = 0.031 (0.038) if we include Stage III data priors, marginalizing over neutrino mass, time varying dark energy equation of state, and other parameters. For all dark energy parameters and related figures of merit the two experiments give comparable results. We also carry out some studies of the influence of redshift range, resolution, treatment of nonlinearities, and bias evolution to enable further improvement.

9 pages, 12 tables, 1 figure; v3 matches MNRAS accepted version

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• A test of the nature of cosmic acceleration using galaxy redshift distortions
• Testing cosmological structure formation using redshift-space distortions
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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Confronting General Relativity with Further Cosmological Data
• Modified gravity and massive neutrinos: constraints from the full shape analysis of BOSS galaxies and forecasts for Stage IV surveys
• Constraining neutrino properties with a Euclid-like galaxy cluster survey
• Structure in the 3D Galaxy Distribution: I. Methods and Example Results
• Redshift space power spectrum beyond Einstein-de Sitter kernels
• Nonlinearities in modified gravity cosmology I: signatures of modified gravity in the nonlinear matter power spectrum
• Constraining Cosmic Expansion and Gravity with Galaxy Redshift Surveys
• Model Independent Tests of Cosmic Gravity
• Weak Lensing Science, Surveys, and Systematics
• Cosmological Leverage from the Matter Power Spectrum in the Presence of Baryon and Nonlinear Effects