Field-level inference of galaxy intrinsic alignment from the SDSS-III BOSS survey

Abstract

As a large-scale overdensity collapses, it affects the orientation and shape of galaxies that form, by exerting tidal shear along their axes. Therefore, the shapes of elliptical galaxies align with the tidal field of cosmic structures. This intrinsic alignment provides insights into galaxy formation and the primordial universe, complements late-time cosmological probes and constitutes a significant systematic effect for weak gravitational lensing observations. In the present study, we provide constraints on the linear alignment model using a fully Bayesian field-level approach, using galaxy shape measurements from the SDSS-III BOSS LOWZ sample and three-dimensional tidal fields constrained with the LOWZ and CMASS galaxy samples of the SDSS-III BOSS survey. We find 4$\sigma$ evidence of intrinsic alignment, with an amplitude of $A_I=2.9\pm 0.7$ at 20$h^{-1}\mathrm{Mpc}$.

26 pages, 8 figures, accepted by JCAP

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• Field-Based Physical Inference From Peculiar Velocity Tracers
• Accurate field-level weak lensing inference for precision cosmology
• Accuracy requirements on intrinsic alignments for Stage-IV cosmic shear
• UNIONS: a direct measurement of intrinsic alignment with BOSS/eBOSS spectroscopy
• Field-level multiprobe analysis of the CMB, integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, and the galaxy density maps
• A rising tide: Intrinsic alignments since the turn of the millennium
• A Pair of Early- and Late-Forming Galaxy Cluster Samples: a Novel Way of Studying Halo Assembly Bias Assisted by a Constrained Simulation
• Squeezing Full-Shape Dynamical Dark Energy Constraints with Galaxy Alignments
• Learning the Universe: Learning to Optimize Cosmic Initial Conditions with Non-Differentiable Structure Formation Models
• Improving cosmological constraints via galaxy intrinsic alignment in full-shape analysis