Baryon acoustic oscillation methods for generic curvature: Application to the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

Abstract

We develop methods for investigating baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) features in cosmological models with non-trivial (but slowly varying) averaged spatial curvature: models that are not necessarily flat, close to flat, nor with constant spatial curvature. The class of models to which our methods apply include Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi models, modified gravity cosmologies, and inhomogeneous cosmologies with backreaction - in which we do not have a prediction of the shape of the spatial 2-point correlation function, but where we nevertheless expect to see a BAO feature in the present-day galaxy distribution, in form of an excess in the galaxy 2-point correlation function. We apply our methods to the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) dataset, investigating both the Lambda Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) and timescape cosmological models as case studies. The correlation functions measured in the two fiducial models contain a similarly-pronounced BAO feature. We use the relative tangential and radial BAO scales to measure the anisotropic Alcock-Paczyński distortion parameter, $\epsilon$, which is independent of the underlying BAO preferred scale. We find that $\epsilon$ is consistent with zero in both fiducial cosmologies, indicating that models with a different spatial curvature behaviour can account for the relative positions of the tangential and radial BAO scale. We validate our methods using $\Lambda$CDM mocks.

arXiv comment39 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (42)

• Detection of the Baryon Acoustic Peak in the Large-Scale Correlation Function of SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies
• The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: cosmological analysis of the DR12 galaxy sample
• The Eleventh and Twelfth Data Releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Final Data from SDSS-III
• Baryonic Features in the Matter Transfer Function
• SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Power-spectrum analysis of the final dataset and cosmological implications
• The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III
• The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Data Release 10 and 11 galaxy samples
• KiDS-450: Cosmological parameter constraints from tomographic weak gravitational lensing
• The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: mapping the distance-redshift relation with baryon acoustic oscillations
• Power Spectrum Analysis of Three-Dimensional Redshift Surveys
• Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Lyα forest of BOSS DR11 quasars
• Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Ly-α forest of BOSS quasars
• On average properties of inhomogeneous fluids in general relativity I: dust cosmologies
• Improving Cosmological Distance Measurements by Reconstruction of the Baryon Acoustic Peak
• The Primordial Lithium Problem
• The clustering of massive galaxies at z~0.5 from the first semester of BOSS data
• Baryon acoustic oscillations from the complete SDSS-III Ly$\alpha$-quasar cross-correlation function at $z=2.4$
• A comparison of estimators for the two-point correlation function
• The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: testing the cosmological model with baryon acoustic oscillations at z=0.6
• Backreaction in late-time cosmology
• Cosmic clocks, cosmic variance and cosmic averages
• Measuring D_A and H at z=0.35 from the SDSS DR7 LRGs using baryon acoustic oscillations
• Exact solution to the averaging problem in cosmology
• The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the correlation function of LOWZ and CMASS galaxies in Data Release 12
• Correlation Function in Deep Redshift Space as a Cosmological Probe
• `Eppur Si Muove': On The Motion of the Acoustic Peak in the Correlation Function
• Non-linear structure formation and the acoustic scale
• Light propagation in statistically homogeneous and isotropic dust universes
• Average observational quantities in the timescape cosmology
• Curvature vs Distances: testing the FLRW cosmology
• Tracing The Sound Horizon Scale With Photometric Redshift Surveys
• The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: theoretical systematics and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the galaxy correlation function
• Apparent cosmic acceleration from type Ia supernovae
• Average expansion rate and light propagation in a cosmological Tardis spacetime
• Differential cosmic expansion and the Hubble flow anisotropy
• Evidence for an environment-dependent shift in the baryon acoustic oscillation peak
• Timescape cosmology with radiation fluid
• Density-dependent clustering: I. Pulling back the curtains on motions of the BAO peak
• Precise Measurement of the Radial Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Scales in Galaxy Redshift Surveys
• Cosmic microwave background anisotropies in the timescape cosmology
• The environmental dependence of the baryon acoustic peak in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey CMASS sample

Cited by in corpus (13)

• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• Is the Observable Universe Consistent with the Cosmological Principle?
• Non-linear perturbation theory extension of the Boltzmann code CLASS
• H0 tension or T0 tension?
• Searching for signals of inhomogeneity using multiple probes of the cosmic expansion rate H(z)
• Supernovae evidence for foundational change to cosmological models
• Quantifying the accuracy of the Alcock-Paczynski scaling of baryon acoustic oscillation measurements
• Cosmological foundations revisited with Pantheon+
• Thermodynamics of Shearing Massless Scalar Field Spacetimes is Inconsistent With the Weyl Curvature Hypothesis
• Does spatial flatness forbid the turnaround epoch of collapsing structures?
• Baryon acoustic scale at $z_{\eff} = 0.166$ with the SDSS blue galaxies
• Holographic Principle and the Second Law in Stephani Cosmology Revisited
• Diagnostic Consistency Tests of the Concordance Cosmology