No Arabic abstract
A recently proposed technique allows one to constrain both the background and perturbation cosmological parameters through the distribution function of supernova Ia apparent magnitudes. Here we extend this technique to alternative cosmological scenarios, in which the growth of structure does not follow the $Lambda$CDM prescription. We apply the method first to the supernova data provided by the JLA catalog combined with all the current independent redshift distortion data and with low-redshift cluster data from Chandra and show that although the supernovae alone are not very constraining, they help in reducing the confidence regions. Then we apply our method to future data from LSST and from a survey that approximates the Euclid satellite mission. In this case we show that the combined data are nicely complementary and can constrain the normalization $sigma_8$ and the growth rate index $gamma$ to within $0.6%$ and $7%$, respectively. In particular, the LSST supernova catalog is forecast to give the constraint $gamma (sigma_8/0.83)^{6.7} = 0.55 pm 0.1$. We also report on constraints relative to a step-wise parametrization of the growth rate of structures. These results show that supernova lensing serves as a good cross-check on the measurement of perturbation parameters from more standard techniques.
Soon the number of type Ia supernova (SN) measurements should exceed 100,000. Understanding the effect of weak lensing by matter structures on the supernova brightness will then be more important than ever. Although SN lensing is usually seen as a source of systematic noise, we will show that it can be in fact turned into signal. More precisely, the non-Gaussianity introduced by lensing in the SN Hubble diagram dispersion depends rather sensitively on the amplitude sigma8 of the matter power spectrum. By exploiting this relation, we are able to predict constraints on sigma8 of 7% (3%) for a catalog of 100,000 (500,000) SNe of average magnitude error 0.12 without having to assume that such intrinsic dispersion is known a priori. The intrinsic dispersion has been assumed to be Gaussian; possible intrinsic non-Gaussianities in the dataset (due to the SN themselves and/or to other transients) could be potentially dealt with by means of additional nuisance parameters describing higher moments of the intrinsic dispersion distribution function. This method is independent of and complementary to the standard methods based on CMB, cosmic shear or cluster abundance observables.
We study how the cosmological constraints from growth data are improved by including the measurements of bias from Dark Energy Survey (DES). In particular, we utilize the biasing properties of the DES Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) and the growth data provided by the various galaxy surveys in order to constrain the growth index ($gamma$) of the linear matter perturbations. Considering a constant growth index we can put tight constraints, up to $sim 10%$ accuracy, on $gamma$. Specifically, using the priors of the Dark Energy Survey and implementing a joint likelihood procedure between theoretical expectations and data we find that the best fit value is in between $gamma=0.64pm 0.075$ and $0.65pm 0.063$. On the other hand utilizing the Planck priors we obtain $gamma=0.680pm 0.089$ and $0.690pm 0.071$. This shows a small but non-zero deviation from General Relativity ($gamma_{rm GR}approx 6/11$), nevertheless the confidence level is in the range $sim 1.3-2sigma$. Moreover, we find that the estimated mass of the dark-matter halo in which LRGs survive lies in the interval $sim 6.2 times 10^{12} h^{-1} M_{odot}$ and $1.2 times 10^{13} h^{-1} M_{odot}$, for the different bias models. Finally, allowing $gamma$ to evolve with redshift [Taylor expansion: $gamma(z)=gamma_{0}+gamma_{1}z/(1+z)$] we find that the $(gamma_{0},gamma_{1})$ parameter solution space accommodates the GR prediction at $sim 1.7-2.9sigma$ levels.
We derive for the first time the growth index of matter perturbations of the FLRW flat cosmological models in which the vacuum energy depends on redshift. A particularly well motivated model of this type is the so-called quantum field vacuum, in which apart from a leading constant term $Lambda_0$ there is also a $H^{2}$-dependence in the functional form of vacuum, namely $Lambda(H)=Lambda_{0}+3 u (H^{2}-H^{2}_{0})$. Since $| u|ll1$ this form endows the vacuum energy of a mild dynamics which affects the evolution of the main cosmological observables at the background and perturbation levels. Specifically, at the perturbation level we find that the growth index of the running vacuum cosmological model is $gamma_{Lambda_{H}} approx frac{6+3 u}{11-12 u}$ and thus it nicely extends analytically the result of the $Lambda$CDM model, $gamma_{Lambda}approx 6/11$.
Gravitational waves (GWs) are subject to gravitational lensing in the same way as electromagnetic radiation. However, to date, no unequivocal observation of a lensed GW transient has been reported. Independently, GW observatories continue to search for the stochastic GW signal which is produced by many transient events at high redshift. We exploit a surprising connection between the lensing of individual transients and limits to the background radiation produced by the unresolved population of binary back hole mergers: we show that it constrains the fraction of individually resolvable lensed binary black holes to less than $sim 4times 10^{-5}$ at present sensitivity. We clarify the interpretation of existing, low redshift GW observations (obtained assuming no lensing) in terms of their apparent lensed redshifts and masses and explore constraints from GW observatories at future sensitivity. Based on our results, recent claims of observations of lensed events are statistically disfavoured.
The existence of inhomogeneities in the observed Universe modifies the distance-redshift relations thereby affecting the results of cosmological tests in comparison to the ones derived assuming spatially uniform models. By modeling the inhomogeneities through a Zeldovich-Kantowski-Dyer-Roeder (ZKDR) approach which is phenomenologically characterized by a smoothness parameter $alpha$, we rediscuss the constraints on the cosmic parameters based on Supernovae type Ia and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) data. The present analysis is restricted to a flat $Lambda$CDM model with the reasonable assumption that $Lambda$ does not clump. A $chi^{2}$-analysis using 557 SNe Ia data from the Union2 Compilation Data (Amanullah {it et al.} 2010) constrains the pair of parameters ($Omega_m, alpha$) to $Omega_m=0.27_{-0.03}^{+0.08}$($2sigma$) and $alpha geq 0.25$. A similar analysis based only on 59 Hymnium GRBs (Wei 2010) constrains the matter density parameter to be $Omega_m= 0.35^{+0.62}_{-0.24}$ ($2sigma$) while all values for the smoothness parameter are allowed. By performing a joint analysis, it is found that $Omega_m = 0.27^{+0.06}_{-0.03}$ and $alpha geq 0.52$. As a general result, although considering that current GRB data alone cannot constrain the smoothness $alpha$ parameter our analysis provides an interesting cosmological probe for dark energy even in the presence of inhomogeneities.