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Register a new userAssessing Cosmic Acceleration with the Alcock-Paczynski Effect in the SDSS-IV Quasar Catalog
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The geometry of the Universe may be probed using the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) effect, in which the observed redshift size of a spherical distribution of sources relative to its angular size varies according to the assumed cosmological model. Past applications of this effect have been limited, however, by a paucity of suitable sources and mitigating astrophysical factors, such as internal redshift-space distortions and poorly known source evolution. In this Letter, we introduce a new test based on the AP effect that avoids the use of spatially bound systems, relying instead on sub-samples of quasars at redshifts z < 1.5 in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV, with a possible extension to higher redshifts and improved precision when this catalog is expanded by upcoming surveys. We here use this method to probe the redshift-dependent expansion rate in three pertinent Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmologies: LCDM, which predicts a transition from deceleration to acceleration at z ~ 0.7; Einstein-de Sitter, in which the Universe is always decelerating; and the R_h=ct universe, which expands at a constant rate. LCDM is consistent with these data, but R_h=ct is favoured overall.
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We perform an Alcock-Paczynski test using stacked cosmic voids identified in the SDSS Data Release 7 main sample and Data Release 10 LOWZ and CMASS samples. We find ~1,500 voids out to redshift $0.6$ using a heavily modified and extended version of the watershed algorithm ZOBOV, which we call VIDE (Void IDentification and Examination). To assess the impact of peculiar velocities we use the mock void catalogs presented in Sutter et al. (2013). We find a constant uniform flattening of 14% along the line of sight when peculiar velocities are included. This flattening appears universal for all void sizes at all redshifts and for all tracer densities. We also use these mocks to identify an optimal stacking strategy. After correcting for systematic effects we find that our Alcock-Paczynski measurement leads to a preference of our best-fit value of $Omega_{rm M}sim 0.15$ over $Omega_{rm M} = 1.0$ by a likelihood ratio of 10. Likewise, we find a factor of $4.5$ preference of the likelihood ratio for a $Lambda$CDM $Omega_{rm M} = 0.3$ model and a null measurement. Taken together, we find substantial evidence for the Alcock-Paczynski signal in our sample of cosmic voids. Our assessment using realistic mocks suggests that measurements with future SDSS releases and other surveys will provide tighter cosmological parameter constraints. The void-finding algorithm and catalogs used in this work will be made publicly available at http://www.cosmicvoids.net.
We apply the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) test to the stacked voids identified using the large-scale structure galaxy catalog from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This galaxy catalog is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 12 and is the final catalog of SDSS-III. We also use 1000 mock galaxy catalogs that match the geometry, density, and clustering properties of the BOSS sample in order to characterize the statistical uncertainties of our measurements and take into account systematic errors such as redshift space distortions. For both BOSS data and mock catalogs, we use the ZOBOV algorithm to identify voids, we stack together all voids with effective radii of 30-100Mpc/h in the redshift range 0.43-0.7, and we accurately measure the shape of the stacked voids. Our tests with the mock catalogs show that we measure the stacked void ellipticity with a statistical precision of 2.6%. We find that the stacked voids in redshift space are slightly squashed along the line of sight, which is consistent with previous studies. We repeat this measurement of stacked void shape in the BOSS data assuming several values of Omega_m within the flat LCDM model, and we compare to the mock catalogs in redshift space in order to perform the AP test. We obtain a constraint of $Omega_m = 0.38^{+0.18}_{-0.15}$ at the 68% confidence level from the AP test. We discuss the various sources of statistical and systematic noise that affect the constraining power of this method. In particular, we find that the measured ellipticity of stacked voids scales more weakly with cosmology than the standard AP prediction, leading to significantly weaker constraints. We discuss how AP constraints will improve in future surveys with larger volumes and densities.
Feasibility of the Alcock Paczynski (AP) test by stacking voids in the 21cm line intensity field is presented. We analyze the Illstris-TNG simulation to obtain the 21cm signal map. We then randomly distribute particles depending on the 21cm intensity field to find voids by using publicly available code, VIDE. As in the galaxy clustering, the shape of the stacked void in the 21cm field is squashed along the line of sight due to the peculiar velocities in redshift-space, although it becomes spherical in real-space. The redshift-space distortion for the stacked void weakly depends on redshift and we show that the dependency can be well described by the linear prediction, with the amplitude of the offset being free parameters. We find that the AP test using the stacked voids in a 21cm intensity map is feasible and the parameter estimation on $Omega_{rm m}$ and $w$ is unbiased.
Euclid will survey galaxies in a cosmological volume of unprecedented size, providing observations of more than a billion objects distributed over a third of the full sky. Approximately 20 million of these galaxies will have spectroscopy available, allowing us to map the three-dimensional large-scale structure of the Universe in great detail. This paper investigates prospects for the detection of cosmic voids therein, and the unique benefit they provide for cosmology. In particular, we study the imprints of dynamic and geometric distortions of average void shapes and their constraining power on the growth of structure and cosmological distance ratios. To this end, we make use of the Flagship mock catalog, a state-of-the-art simulation of the data expected to be observed with Euclid. We arrange the data into four adjacent redshift bins, each of which contains about 11000 voids, and estimate the void-galaxy cross-correlation function in every bin. Fitting a linear-theory model to the data, we obtain constraints on $f/b$ and $D_M H$, where $f$ is the linear growth rate of density fluctuations, $b$ the galaxy bias, $D_M$ the comoving angular diameter distance, and $H$ the Hubble rate. In addition, we marginalize over two nuisance parameters included in our model to account for unknown systematic effects in the analysis. With this approach Euclid will be able to reach a relative precision of about 4% on measurements of $f/b$ and 0.5% on $D_M H$ in each redshift bin. Better modeling or calibration of the nuisance parameters may further increase this precision to 1% and 0.4%, respectively. Our results show that the exploitation of cosmic voids in Euclid will provide competitive constraints on cosmology even as a stand-alone probe. For example, the equation-of-state parameter $w$ for dark energy will be measured with a precision of about 10%, consistent with earlier more approximate forecasts.
We perform an anisotropic clustering analysis of 1,133,326 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release (DR) 12 covering the redshift range $0.15<z<0.69$. The geometrical distortions of the galaxy positions, caused by incorrect cosmological model assumptions, are captured in the anisotropic two-point correlation function on scales 6 -- 40 $h^{-1}rm Mpc$. The redshift evolution of this anisotropic clustering is used to place constraints on the cosmological parameters. We improve the methodology of Li et al. 2016, to enable efficient exploration of high dimensional cosmological parameter spaces, and apply it to the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder parametrization of dark energy, $w=w_0+w_a{z}/({1+z})$. In combination with the CMB, BAO, SNIa and $H_0$ from Cepheid data, we obtain $Omega_m = 0.301 pm 0.008, w_0 = -1.042 pm 0.067, $ and $w_a = -0.07 pm 0.29$ (68.3% CL). Adding our new AP measurements to the aforementioned results reduces the error bars by $sim$30 -- 40% and improves the dark energy figure of merit by a factor of $sim$2. We check the robustness of the results using realistic mock galaxy catalogues.
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