Estimating f_NL and g_NL from Massive High-Redshift Galaxy Clusters

Abstract

There are observations of 15 high-redshift massive galaxy clusters, which have an extremely small probability with a purely Gaussian initial curvature perturbation. Here we revisit the estimation of the contribution of non-Gaussianities to the cluster mass function and point out serious problems that have resulted in the application of the mass function out of the range of its validity. We remedy the situation and show that the values of f_NL previously claimed to completely reconcile (i.e. at ~100% confidence) the existence of the clusters with LambdaCDM are unphysically small. However, for WMAP cosmology and at 95% confidence, we arrive at the limit f_NL>411, which is similar to previous estimates. We also explore the possibility of a large g_NL as the reason for the observed excess of the massive galaxy clusters. This scenario, g_NL>2*10^6, appears to be in more agreement with CMB and LSS limits for the non-Gaussianity parameters and could also provide an explanation for the overabundance of large voids in the early universe.

Matches version published back in April. Mainly typos corrected, otherwise basically the same as v1. We apologise for the delay

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• The Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey. I: Survey Overview and a Catalog of >2000 Galaxy Clusters at z~1
• The integrated Sachs-Wolfe imprints of cosmic superstructures: a problem for ΛCDM
• Cosmology from the Thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Power Spectrum: Primordial non-Gaussianity and Massive Neutrinos
• The Non-Gaussian Halo Mass Function with fNL, gNL and tauNL
• N-body simulations with generic non-Gaussian initial conditions II: Halo bias
• Statistics of extreme objects in the Juropa Hubble Volume simulation
• Large and strong scale dependent bispectrum in single field inflation from a sharp feature in the mass
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• Feeding your Inflaton: Non-Gaussian Signatures of Interaction Structure
• Primordial Non-Gaussianity and Extreme-Value Statistics of Galaxy Clusters
• Quantifying the rareness of extreme galaxy clusters
• Exact Extreme Value Statistics and the Halo Mass Function
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• A Consistent Approach to Falsifying Lambda-CDM with Rare Galaxy Clusters
• A critical analysis of high-redshift, massive galaxy clusters: I
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• Vector dark energy and high-z massive clusters
• The Extreme Tail of the Non-Gaussian Mass Function
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• Phase transitions during Cyclic-Inflation and Non-gaussianity
• A Fast and Simple Algorithm for Detecting Large Scale Structures