Improving Fisher matrix forecasts for galaxy surveys: window function, bin cross-correlation, and bin redshift uncertainty
arXiv:1608.00458 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stx1209
Abstract
The Fisher matrix is a widely used tool to forecast the performance of future experiments and approximate the likelihood of large data sets. Most of the forecasts for cosmological parameters in galaxy clustering studies rely on the Fisher matrix approach for large-scale experiments like DES, Euclid, or SKA. Here we improve upon the standard method by taking into account three effects: the finite window function, the correlation between redshift bins, and the uncertainty on the bin redshift. The first two effects are negligible only in the limit of infinite surveys. The third effect, on the contrary, is negligible for infinitely small bins. Here we show how to take into account these effects and what the impact on forecasts of a Euclid-type experiment will be. The main result of this article is that the windowing and the bin cross-correlation induce a considerable change in the forecasted errors, of the order of 10-30% for most cosmological parameters, while the redshift bin uncertainty can be neglected for bins smaller than roughly.
Accepted for publication in MNRAS
References in corpus (7)
- Bayes in the sky: Bayesian inference and model selection in cosmology
- On the growth of linear perturbations
- Findings of the Joint Dark Energy Mission Figure of Merit Science Working Group
- Forecasts on the Dark Energy and Primordial Non-Gaussianity Observations with the Tianlai Cylinder Array
- Cosmological performance of SKA HI galaxy surveys
- The BigBOSS Experiment
- A new method for the Alcock-Paczynski test
Cited by in corpus (17)
- Constraining Primordial non-Gaussianity with Bispectrum and Power Spectum from Upcoming Optical and Radio Surveys
- Fisher for complements: Extracting cosmology and neutrino mass from the counts-in-cells PDF
- Probing primordial features with future galaxy surveys
- Beware of commonly used approximations I: errors in forecasts
- Optimised angular power spectra for spectroscopic galaxy surveys
- Investigating scalar-tensor-gravity with statistics of the cosmic large-scale structure
- Post-inflationary axion isocurvature perturbations facing CMB and large-scale structure
- Global properties of the growth index of matter inhomogeneities in the universe
- Global properties of the growth index: mathematical aspects and physical relevance
- Cosmological Fisher forecasts for next-generation spectroscopic surveys
- Angular Correlation Function Estimators Accounting for Contamination from Probabilistic Distance Measurements
- Unveiling the Universe with Emerging Cosmological Probes
- Two-point statistics without bins: A continuous-function generalization of the correlation function estimator for large-scale structure
- Primordial non-Gaussianity -- the effects of relativistic and wide-angle corrections to the power spectrum
- On the consistency of the expansion with the perturbations
- Pair Counting without Binning -- A New Approach to Correlation Functions in Clustering Statistics
- Linear and non-linear Modified Gravity forecasts with future surveys