5,664 research outputs found
Testing coupled dark energy with next-generation large-scale observations
Coupling dark energy to dark matter provides one of the simplest way to
effectively modify gravity at large scales without strong constraints from
local (i.e. solar system) observations. Models of coupled dark energy have been
studied several times in the past and are already significantly constrained by
cosmic microwave background experiments. In this paper we estimate the
constraints that future large-scale observations will be able to put on the
coupling and in general on all the parameters of the model. We combine cosmic
microwave background, tomographic weak lensing, redshift distortions and power
spectrum probes. We show that next-generation observations can improve the
current constraint on the coupling to dark matter by two orders of magnitude;
this constraint is complementary to the current solar-system bounds on a
coupling to baryons.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figs, 8 table
Detecting stable massive neutral particles through particle lensing
Stable massive neutral particles emitted by astrophysical sources undergo
deflection under the gravitational potential of our own galaxy. The deflection
angle depends on the particle velocity and therefore non-relativistic particles
will be deflected more than relativistic ones. If these particles can be
detected through neutrino telescopes, cosmic ray detectors or directional dark
matter detectors, their arrival directions would appear aligned on the sky
along the source-lens direction. On top of this deflection, the arrival
direction of non-relativistic particles is displaced with respect to the
relativistic counterpart also due to the relative motion of the source with
respect to the observer; this induces an alignment of detections along the sky
projection of the source trajectory. The final alignment will be given by a
combination of the directions induced by lensing and source proper motion. We
derive the deflection-velocity relation for the Milky Way halo and suggest that
searching for alignments on detection maps of particle telescopes could be a
way to find new particles or new astrophysical phenomena.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. Accepted by PR
Constraining Primordial Non-Gaussianity With the Abundance of High Redshift Clusters
We show how observations of the evolution of the galaxy cluster number
abundance can be used to constrain primordial non-Gaussianity in the universe.
We carry out a maximum likelihood analysis incorporating a number of current
datasets and accounting for a wide range of sources of systematic error. Under
the assumption of Gaussianity, the current data prefer a universe with matter
density and are inconsistent with at the
level. If we assume , the predicted degree of cluster
evolution is consistent with the data for non-Gaussian models where the
primordial fluctuations have at least two times as many peaks of height
or more as a Gaussian distribution does. These results are robust to
almost all sources of systematic error considered: in particular, the
Gaussian case can only be reconciled with the data if a number of
systematic effects conspire to modify the analysis in the right direction.
Given an independent measurement of , the techniques described here
represent a powerful tool with which to constrain non-Gaussianity in the
primordial universe, independent of specific details of the non-Gaussian
physics. We discuss the prospects and strategies for improving the constraints
with future observations.Comment: Minor revisions to match published ApJ version, 14 pages emulateap
Scaling solutions in general non-minimal coupling theories
A class of generalized non-minimal coupling theories is investigated, in
search of scaling attractors able to provide an accelerated expansion at the
present time. Solutions are found in the strong coupling regime and when the
coupling function and the potential verify a simple relation. In such cases,
which include power law and exponential functions, the dynamics is independent
of the exact form of the coupling and the potential. The constraint from the
time variability of , however, limits the fraction of energy in the scalar
field to less than 4% of the total energy density, and excludes accelerated
solutions at the present.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
General CMB and Primordial Trispectrum Estimation
We present trispectrum estimation methods which can be applied to general
non-separable primordial and CMB trispectra. We present a general optimal
estimator for the connected part of the trispectrum, for which we derive a
quadratic term to incorporate the effects of inhomogeneous noise and masking.
We describe a general algorithm for creating simulated maps with given
arbitrary (and independent) power spectra, bispectra and trispectra. We propose
a universal definition of the trispectrum parameter , so that the
integrated bispectrum on the observational domain can be consistently compared
between theoretical models. We define a shape function for the primordial
trispectrum, together with a shape correlator and a useful parametrisation for
visualizing the trispectrum. We derive separable analytic CMB solutions in the
large-angle limit for constant and local models. We present separable mode
decompositions which can be used to describe any primordial or CMB bispectra on
their respective wavenumber or multipole domains. By extracting coefficients of
these separable basis functions from an observational map, we are able to
present an efficient estimator for any given theoretical model with a
nonseparable trispectrum. The estimator has two manifestations, comparing the
theoretical and observed coefficients at either primordial or late times. These
mode decomposition methods are numerically tractable with order
operations for the CMB estimator and approximately order for the general
primordial estimator (reducing to order in both cases for a special class
of models). We also demonstrate how the trispectrum can be reconstructed from
observational maps using these methods.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figures. In v2 Figures 4-7 are altered slightly and some
extra references are included in the bibliography. v3 matches version
submitted to journal. Includes discussion of special case
A late-time transition in the cosmic dark energy?
We study constraints from the latest CMB, large scale structure (2dF,
Abell/ACO, PSCz) and SN1a data on dark energy models with a sharp transition in
their equation of state, w(z). Such a transition is motivated by models like
vacuum metamorphosis where non-perturbative quantum effects are important at
late times. We allow the transition to occur at a specific redshift, z_t, to a
final negative pressure -1 < w_f < -1/3. We find that the CMB and supernovae
data, in particular, prefer a late-time transition due to the associated delay
in cosmic acceleration. The best fits (with 1 sigma errors) to all the data are
z_t = 2.0^{+2.2}_{-0.76}, \Omega_Q = 0.73^{+0.02}_{-0.04} and w_f = -1^{+0.2}.Comment: 6 Pages, 5 colour figures, MNRAS styl
Linear and non-linear perturbations in dark energy models
I review the linear and second-order perturbation theory in dark energy
models with explicit interaction to matter in view of applications to N-body
simulations and non-linear phenomena. Several new or generalized results are
obtained: the general equations for the linear perturbation growth; an
analytical expression for the bias induced by a species-dependent interaction;
the Yukawa correction to the gravitational potential due to dark energy
interaction; the second-order perturbation equations in coupled dark energy and
their Newtonian limit. I also show that a density-dependent effective dark
energy mass arises if the dark energy coupling is varying.Comment: 12 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev; v2: added a ref. and corrected a
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