No Arabic abstract
The linear point (LP), defined as the mid-point between the dip and the peak of the two-point clustering correlation function (TPCF), has been shown to be an excellent standard ruler for cosmology. In fact, it is nearly redshift-independent, being weakly sensitive to non-linearities, scale-dependent halo bias and redshift-space distortions. So far, these findings were tested assuming that neutrinos are massless; in this paper we extend the analysis to massive-neutrino cosmologies. In particular, we examine if the scale-dependent growth induced by neutrinos affects the LP position and if it is possible to detect the neutrino masses using the shift of the LP compared to the massless-neutrino case. For our purposes, we employ two sets of state-of-the-art $N$-body simulations with massive neutrinos. For each of them we measure the TPCF of cold dark matter (CDM) and halos and, to estimate the LP, fit the TPCF with a model-independent parametric fit in the range of scales of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). Overall, we find that the LP retains its features as a standard ruler even when neutrinos are massive. The cosmic distances measured with the LP can therefore be employed to constrain the neutrino mass.
We investigate the effects of the nonminimal coupling between the scalar field dark energy (quintessence) and the dark matter on the two- point correlation function. It is well known that this coupling shifts the turnover scale as well as suppresses the amplitude of the matter power spectrum. However, these effects are too small to be observed when we limit the coupling strength to be consistent with observations. Since the coupling of quintessence to baryons is strongly constrained, species dependent coupling may arise. This results in a baryon bias that is dif- ferent from unity. Thus, we look over the correlation function in this coupled model. We find that even the non-coupled quintessence model gives the better fit to the correlation function compared to the cosmo- logical constant model. We are also able to observe the enhancement of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) peak due to the increasing bias factor of baryon from this species dependent coupling. In order to avoid the damping effect of the BAO signature in the matter power spectrum due to nonlinear clustering, we consider the coupling effect on the BAO bump in the linear regime. This provides an alternative method to constrain the coupling of dark energy to dark matter.
The apparent distribution of large-scale structures in the universe is sensitive to the velocity/potential of the sources as well as the potential along the line-of-sight through the mapping from real space to redshift space (redshift-space distortions, RSD). Since odd multipoles of the halo cross-correlation function vanish when considering standard Doppler RSD, the dipole is a sensitive probe of relativistic and wide-angle effects. We build a catalogue of ten million haloes (Milky-Way size to galaxy-cluster size) from the full-sky light-cone of a new RayGalGroupSims N-body simulation which covers a volume of ($2.625~h^{-1}$Gpc)$^3$ with $4096^3$ particles. Using ray-tracing techniques, we find the null geodesics connecting all the sources to the observer. We then self-consistently derive all the relativistic contributions (in the weak-field approximation) to RSD: Doppler, transverse Doppler, gravitational, lensing and integrated Sachs-Wolfe. It allows us, for the first time, to disentangle all contributions to the dipole from linear to non-linear scales. At large scale, we recover the linear predictions dominated by a contribution from the divergence of neighbouring line-of-sights. While the linear theory remains a reasonable approximation of the velocity contribution to the dipole at non-linear scales it fails to reproduce the potential contribution below $30-60~h^{-1}$Mpc (depending on the halo mass). At scales smaller than $sim 10~h^{-1}$Mpc, the dipole is dominated by the asymmetry caused by the gravitational redshift. The transition between the two regimes is mass dependent as well. We also identify a new non-trivial contribution from the non-linear coupling between potential and velocity terms.
Cosmological neutrinos strongly affect the evolution of the largest structures in the Universe, i.e. galaxies and galaxy clusters. We use large box-size full hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the non-linear effects that massive neutrinos have on the spatial properties of cold dark matter (CDM) haloes. We quantify the difference with respect to the concordance LambdaCDM model of the halo mass function and of the halo two-point correlation function. We model the redshift-space distortions and compute the errors on the linear distortion parameter beta introduced if cosmological neutrinos are assumed to be massless. We find that, if not taken correctly into account and depending on the total neutrino mass, these effects could lead to a potentially fake signature of modified gravity. Future nearly all-sky spectroscopic galaxy surveys will be able to constrain the neutrino mass if it is larger than 0.6 eV, using beta measurements alone and independently of the value of the matter power spectrum normalisation. In combination with other cosmological probes, this will strengthen neutrino mass constraints and help breaking parameter degeneracies.
We study the spherical, top-hat collapse model for a mixed dark matter model including cold dark matter (CDM) and massive neutrinos of mass scales ranging from m_nu= 0.05 to a few 0.1eV, the range of lower- and upper-bounds implied from the neutrino oscillation experiments and the cosmological constraints. To develop this model, we properly take into account relative differences between the density perturbation amplitudes of different components (radiation, baryon, CDM and neutrinos) around the top-hat CDM overdensity region assuming the adiabatic initial conditions. Furthermore, we solve the linearized Boltzmann hierarchy equations to obtain time evolution of the lineariezed neutrino perturbations, yet including the effect of nonlinear gravitational potential due to the nonlinear CDM and baryon overdensities in the late stage. We find that the presence of massive neutrinos slows down the collapse of CDM (plus baryon) overdensity, however, that the neutrinos cannot fully catch up with the the nonlinear CDM perturbation due to its large free-streaming velocity for the ranges of neutrino masses and halo masses we consider. We find that, just like CDM models, the collapse time of CDM overdensity is well monitored by the linear-theory extrapolated overdensity of CDM plus baryon perturbation, smoothed with a given halo mass scale, if taking into account the suppression effect of the massive neutrinos on the linear growth rate. Using these findings, we argue that the presence of massive neutrinos of mass scales 0.05 or 0.1eV may cause a significant decrease in the abundance of massive halos compared to the model without the massive neutrinos; e.g., by 25% or factor 2, respectively, for halos with 10^15Ms and at z=1.
The observed galaxy distribution via galaxy redshift surveys appears distorted due to redshift-space distortions (RSD). While one dominant contribution to RSD comes from the Doppler effect induced by the peculiar velocity of galaxies, the relativistic effects, including the gravitational redshift effect, are recently recognized to give small but important contributions. Such contributions lead to an asymmetric galaxy clustering along the line of sight, and produce non-vanishing odd multipoles when cross-correlating between different biased objects. However, non-zero odd multipoles are also generated by the Doppler effect beyond the distant-observer approximation, known as the wide-angle effect, and at quasi-linear scales, the interplay between wide-angle and relativistic effects becomes significant. In this paper, based on the formalism developed by Taruya et al., we present a quasi-linear model of the cross-correlation function taking a proper account of both the wide-angle and gravitational redshift effects, as one of the major relativistic effects. Our quasi-linear predictions of the dipole agree well with simulations even at the scales below $20,h^{-1},$Mpc, where non-perturbative contributions from the halo potential play an important role, flipping the sign of the dipole amplitude. When increasing the bias difference and redshift, the scale where the sign flip happens is shifted to a larger scale. We derive a simple approximate formula to quantitatively account for the behaviors of the sign flip.