Hydrodynamical chemistry simulations of the SZ effect and the impacts from primordial non-Gaussianities

The impacts of Compton scattering of hot cosmic gas with the cosmic microwave background radiation (Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, SZ) are consistently quantified in Gaussian and non-Gaussian scenarios, by means of 3D numerical, N-body, hydrodynamic simulations, including cooling, star formation, stellar evolution and metal pollution (He, C, O, Si, Fe, S, Mg, etc.) from different stellar phases, according to proper yields for individual metal species and mass-dependent stellar lifetimes. Light cones are built through the simulation outputs and samples of one hundred maps for the resulting temperature fluctuations are derived for both Gaussian and non-Gaussian primordial perturbations. From them, we estimate the possible changes due to early non-Gaussianities on: SZ maps, probability distribution functions, angular power spectra and corresponding bispectra. We find that the different growth of structures in the different cases induces significant spectral distortions only in models with large non-Gaussian parameters, $f_{\rm NL}$. In general, the overall trends are covered by the non-linear, baryonic evolution, whose feedback mechanisms tend to randomize the gas behaviour and homogenize its statistical features, quite independently from the background matter distribution. Deviations due to non-Gaussianity are almost undistinguishable for $f_{\rm NL}\lesssim 100$, remaining always at few-per-cent level, within the error bars of the Gaussian scenario. Rather extreme models with $f_{\rm NL}\sim1000$ present more substantial deviations from the Gaussian case, overcoming baryon contaminations and showing discrepancies up to a factor of a few in the spectral properties.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication on MNRA

Approximation of the potential in scalar field dark energy models

We study the nature of potentials in scalar field based models for dark energy - with both canonical and noncanonical kinetic terms. We calculate numerically, and using an analytic approximation around $a\approx 1$, potentials for models with constant equation-of-state parameter, $w_{\phi}$. We find that for a wide range of models with canonical and noncanonical kinetic terms there is a simple approximation for the potential that holds when the scale factor is in the range $0.6\lesssim a\lesssim 1.4$. We discuss how this form of the potential can also be used to represent models with non-constant $w_{\phi}$ and, hence, how it could be used in reconstruction from cosmological data.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by Phys. Rev.

Cosmological perturbation theory in Generalized Einstein-Aether models

We investigate the evolution of cosmological perturbations in models of dark energy described by a time-like unit normalized vector field specified by a general function $\mathcal{F}(\mathcal{K})$, so-called Generalized Einstein-Aether models. First we study the background dynamics of such models via a designer approach in an attempt to model this theory as dark energy. We find that only one specific form of this designer approach matches $\Lambda$CDM at background order and we also obtain a differential equation which $\mathcal{F}(\mathcal{K})$ must satisfy for general $w$CDM cosmologies. We also present the equations of state for perturbations in Generalized Einstein-Aether models, which completely parametrize these models at the level of linear perturbations. A generic feature of modified gravity models is that they introduce new degrees of freedom. By fully eliminating these we are able to express the gauge invariant entropy perturbation and the scalar, vector, and tensor anisotropic stresses in terms of the perturbed fluid variables and metric perturbations only. These can then be used to study the evolution of perturbations in the scalar, vector, and tensor sectors and we use these to evolve the Newtonian gravitational potentials.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, submitted to PR

Gravitational wave constraints on dark sector models

We explore the constraints on dark sector models imposed by the recent observation of coincident gravitational waves and gamma rays from a binary neutron star merger, GW170817. Rather than focusing on specific models as has been considered by other authors, we explore this in the context of the equation of state approach of which the specific models are special cases. After confirming the strong constraints found by others for Horndeski, Einstein-Aether and massive gravity models, we discuss how it is possible to construct models which might evade the constraints from GW170817 but still leading to cosmologically interesting modifications to gravity. Possible examples are ``miracle cancellations" such as in $f(R)$ models, nonlocal models and higher-order derivatives. The latter two rely on the dimensionless ratio of the wave number of the observed gravitational waves to the Hubble expansion rate being very large ($\sim10^{19}$) which is used to suppress modifications to the speed of gravitational waves.Comment: 10 page