A signature of the dark energy equation of state may be observed in the shape of voids. We estimate the constraints on cosmological parameters that would be determined from the ellipticity distribution of voids from future spectroscopic surveys already planned for the study of large scale structure. The constraints stem from the sensitivity of the distribution of ellipticity to the cosmological parameters through the variance of fluctuations of the density field smoothed at some length scale. This length scale can be chosen to be of the order of the comoving radii of voids at very early times when the fluctuations are Gaussian distributed. We use Fisher estimates to show that the constraints from void ellipticities are promising. Combining these constraints with other traditional methods results in the improvement of the Dark Energy Task Force Figure of Merit on the dark energy parameters by an order of hundred for future experiments. The estimates of these future constraints depend on a number of systematic issues which require further study using simulations. We outline these issues and study the impact of certain observational and theoretical systematics on the forecasted constraints on dark energy parameters.
We show that the number of observed voids in galaxy redshift surveys is a sensitive function of the equation of state of dark energy. Using the Fisher matrix formalism we find the error ellipses in the $w_0-w_a$ plane when the equation of state of dark energy is assumed to be of the form $w_{CPL}(z)=w_0 +w_a z/(1+z)$. We forecast the number of voids to be observed with the ESA Euclid satellite and the NASA WFIRST mission, taking into account updated details of the surveys to reach accurate estimates of their power. The theoretical model for the forecast of the number of voids is based on matches between abundances in simulations and the analytical prediction. To take into account the uncertainties within the model, we marginalize over its free parameters when calculating the Fisher matrices. The addition of the void abundance constraints to the data from Planck, HST and supernova survey data noticeably tighten the $w_0-w_a$ parameter space. We thus quantify the improvement in the constraints due to the use of voids and demonstrate that the void abundance is a sensitive new probe for the dark energy equation of state.
We study a class of early dark energy (EDE) models, in which, unlike in standard dark energy models, a substantial amount of dark energy exists in the matter-dominated era. We self-consistently include dark energy perturbations, and show that these models may be successfully constrained using future observations of galaxy clusters, in particular the redshift abundance, and the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) power spectrum. We make predictions for EDE models, as well as LCDM for incoming X-ray (eROSITA) and microwave (South Pole Telescope) observations. We show that galaxy clusters mass function and the SZ power spectrum will put strong constraints both on the equation of state of de today and the redshift at which EDE transits to present-day LCDM like behavior for these models, thus providing complementary information to the geometric probes of dark energy. Not including perturbations in EDE models leads to those models being practically indistinguishable from LCDM. An MCMC analysis of future galaxy cluster surveys provides constraints for EDE parameters that are competitive with and complementary to background expansion observations such as supernovae.
Recently it was shown that the inclusion of higher signal harmonics in the inspiral signals of binary supermassive black holes (SMBH) leads to dramatic improvements in parameter estimation with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). In particular, the angular resolution becomes good enough to identify the host galaxy or galaxy cluster, in which case the redshift can be determined by electromagnetic means. The gravitational wave signal also provides the luminosity distance with high accuracy, and the relationship between this and the redshift depends sensitively on the cosmological parameters, such as the equation-of-state parameter $w=p_{rm DE}/rho_{rm DE}$ of dark energy. With a single binary SMBH event at $z < 1$ having appropriate masses and orientation, one would be able to constrain $w$ to within a few percent. We show that, if the measured sky location is folded into the error analysis, the uncertainty on $w$ goes down by an additional factor of 2-3, leaving weak lensing as the only limiting factor in using LISA as a dark energy probe.
Modified gravity has garnered interest as a backstop against dark matter and dark energy (DE). As one possible modification, the graviton can become massive, which introduces a new scalar field - here with a Galileon-type symmetry. The field can lead to a nontrivial equation of state (EOS) of DE which is density-and-scale-dependent. Tension between Type Ia supernovae and Planck could be reduced. In voids the scalar field dramatically alters the EOS of DE, induces a soon-observable gravitational slip between the two metric potentials, and develops a topological defect (domain wall) due to a nontrivial vacuum structure for the field.
We present a purely geometrical method for probing the expansion history of the Universe from the observation of the shape of stacked voids in spectroscopic redshift surveys. Our method is an Alcock-Paczynski (AP) test based on the average sphericity of voids posited on the local isotropy of the Universe. It works by comparing the temporal extent of cosmic voids along the line of sight with their angular, spatial extent. We describe the algorithm that we use to detect and stack voids in redshift shells on the light cone and test it on mock light cones produced from N-body simulations. We establish a robust statistical model for estimating the average stretching of voids in redshift space and quantify the contamination by peculiar velocities. Finally, assuming that the void statistics that we derive from N-body simulations is preserved when considering galaxy surveys, we assess the capability of this approach to constrain dark energy parameters. We report this assessment in terms of the figure of merit (FoM) of the dark energy task force and in particular of the proposed EUCLID mission which is particularly suited for this technique since it is a spectroscopic survey. The FoM due to stacked voids from the EUCLID wide survey may double that of all other dark energy probes derived from EUCLID data alone (combined with Planck priors). In particular, voids seem to outperform Baryon Acoustic Oscillations by an order of magnitude. This result is consistent with simple estimates based on mode-counting. The AP test based on stacked voids may be a significant addition to the portfolio of major dark energy probes and its potentialities must be studied in detail.