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Register a new userTesting the theory of gravity with DESI: estimators, predictions and simulation requirements
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Shortly after its discovery, General Relativity (GR) was applied to predict the behavior of our Universe on the largest scales, and later became the foundation of modern cosmology. Its validity has been verified on a range of scales and environments from the Solar system to merging black holes. However, experimental confirmations of GR on cosmological scales have so far lacked the accuracy one would hope for -- its applications on those scales being largely based on extrapolation and its validity sometimes questioned in the shadow of the unexpected cosmic acceleration. Future astronomical instruments surveying the distribution and evolution of galaxies over substantial portions of the observable Universe, such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), will be able to measure the fingerprints of gravity and their statistical power will allow strong constraints on alternatives to GR. In this paper, based on a set of $N$-body simulations and mock galaxy catalogs, we study the predictions of a number of traditional and novel estimators beyond linear redshift distortions in two well-studied modified gravity models, chameleon $f(R)$ gravity and a braneworld model, and the potential of testing these deviations from GR using DESI. These estimators employ a wide array of statistical properties of the galaxy and the underlying dark matter field, including two-point and higher-order statistics, environmental dependence, redshift space distortions and weak lensing. We find that they hold promising power for testing GR to unprecedented precision. The major future challenge is to make realistic, simulation-based mock galaxy catalogs for both GR and alternative models to fully exploit the statistic power of the DESI survey and to better understand the impact of key systematic effects. Using these, we identify future simulation and analysis needs for gravity tests using DESI.
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We present a resume on the modified theory of gravity, called pseudo-complex General Relativity (pc-GR). It is the second in a series of papers, where the first one (Boller et al. 2019, referred to as paper I) discussed the observational consequences of pc-GR. In this paper, we concentrate on the underlying theory. PC-GR involves an algebraic extension of the standard theory of GR and it depends on two phenomenological parameters. An element included in pc-GR that is not present in standard GR is the energy-momentum tensor corresponding to an anisotropic ideal fluid, which we call dark energy. The two parameters are related to the coupling of mass to the dark energy and its fall-off as a function of r. The consequences and predictions of this theory will be discussed in the context of the observational results of the Even Horizon Telescope, expected soon. Our main result is that due to the accumulation of dark energy near a large mass, the modified theory predicts a dark ring followed by a bright ring in the emission profile of the accretion disc. We also discuss the light ring in the equatorial plane.
We test Einstein gravity using cosmological observations of both expansion and structure growth, including the latest data from supernovae (Union2.1), CMB (WMAP7), weak lensing (CFHTLS) and peculiar velocity of galaxies (WiggleZ). We fit modified gravity parameters of the generalized Poisson equations simultaneously with the effective equation of state for the background evolution, exploring the covariances and model dependence. The results show that general relativity is a good fit to the combined data. Using a Pad{e} approximant form for the gravity deviations accurately captures the time and scale dependence for theories like $f(R)$ and DGP gravity, and weights high and low redshift probes fairly. For current observations, cosmic growth and expansion can be fit simultaneously with little degradation in accuracy, while removing the possibility of bias from holding one aspect fixed.
We use the cosmic shear data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey to place constraints on $f(R)$ and {it Generalized Dilaton} models of modified gravity. This is highly complimentary to other probes since the constraints mainly come from the non-linear scales: maximal deviations with respects to the General-Relativity + $Lambda$CDM scenario occurs at $ksim1 h mbox{Mpc}^{-1}$. At these scales, it becomes necessary to account for known degeneracies with baryon feedback and massive neutrinos, hence we place constraints jointly on these three physical effects. To achieve this, we formulate these modified gravity theories within a common tomographic parameterization, we compute their impact on the clustering properties relative to a GR universe, and propagate the observed modifications into the weak lensing $xi_{pm}$ quantity. Confronted against the cosmic shear data, we reject the $f(R)$ ${ |f_{R_0}|=10^{-4}, n=1}$ model with more than 99.9% confidence interval (CI) when assuming a $Lambda$CDM dark matter only model. In the presence of baryonic feedback processes and massive neutrinos with total mass up to 0.2eV, the model is disfavoured with at least 94% CI in all different combinations studied. Constraints on the ${ |f_{R_0}|=10^{-4}, n=2}$ model are weaker, but nevertheless disfavoured with at least 89% CI. We identify several specific combinations of neutrino mass, baryon feedback and $f(R)$ or Dilaton gravity models that are excluded by the current cosmic shear data. Notably, universes with three massless neutrinos and no baryon feedback are strongly disfavoured in all modified gravity scenarios studied. These results indicate that competitive constraints may be achieved with future cosmic shear data.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a new instrument currently under construction for the Mayall 4-m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. It will consist of a wide-field optical corrector with a 3.2 degree diameter field of view, a focal plane with 5,000 robotically controlled fiber positioners and 10 fiber-fed broad-band spectrographs. The DESI Instrument Control System (ICS) coordinates fiber positioner operations, interfaces to the Mayall telescope control system, monitors operating conditions, reads out the 30 spectrograph CCDs and provides observer support and data quality monitoring. In this article, we summarize the ICS design, review the current status of the project and present results from a multi-stage test plan that was developed to ensure the system is fully operational by the time the instrument arrives at the observatory in 2019.
Recently, the Planck collaboration has released the first cosmological papers providing the highest resolution, full sky, maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies. In this paper we study a phenomenological model which interpolates between the pure $Lambda$CDM model and the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) braneworld model with an additional parameter $alpha$. Firstly, we calculate the distance information of Planck data which includes the shift parameter $R$, the acoustic scale $l_A$, and the photon decoupling epoch $z_ast$ in different cosmological models and find that this information is almost independent on the input models we use. Then, we compare the constraints on the free parameter $alpha$ of the DGP model from the distance information of Planck and WMAP data and find that the Planck data with high precision do not improve the constraint on $alpha$, but give the higher median value and the better limit on the current matter density fraction $Omega_m$. Then, combining the distance information of Planck measurement, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), type Ia supernovae (SNIa) and the prior on the current Hubble constant (HST), we obtain the tight constraint on the parameter $alpha < 0.20$ at $95%$ confidence level, which implies that the flat DGP model has been ruled out by the current cosmological data. Finally, we allow the additional parameter $alpha < 0$ in our calculations and interestingly obtain $alpha=-0.29pm0.20$ ($68%$ C.L.), which means the current data slightly favor the effective equation of state $w_{rm eff}<-1$. More importantly, the tension between constraints on $H_0$ from different observational data has been eased.
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