The Cosmic Web from Perturbation Theory

Context: Analyzing the large-scale structure (LSS) with galaxy surveys demands accurate structure formation models. Such models should ideally be fast and have a clear theoretical framework to rapidly scan a variety of cosmological parameter spaces without requiring large training data sets. Aims: This study aims to extend Lagrangian perturbation theory (LPT), including viscosity and vorticity, to reproduce the cosmic evolution from dark matter N-body calculations at the field level. Methods: We extend LPT to an Eulerian framework, dubbed eALPT. An ultraviolet regularisation through the spherical collapse model provided by Augmented LPT, turns out to be crucial at low redshifts. This enables modelling the stress tensor, with this introducing vorticity. The model has two free parameters apart from the choice of cosmology, redshift snapshots, cosmic volume, and the number of particles-cells. Results: We find that the cross-correlation of the dark matter distribution as compared to N-body solvers increases at $k = 1\,h$ Mpc$^{-1}$ and $z = 0$ from $\sim$55\% with the Zel'dovich approximation ($\sim$70\% with ALPT), to $\sim$95\% with three timesteps eALPT, and power spectra within percentage accuracy up to $k \simeq 0.3\,h$ Mpc$^{-1}$.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

All-sky angular power spectra from cleaned WISE×\timesSuperCOSMOS galaxy number counts

Aiming to extract cosmological information from linear scales of the WISE$\times$SuperCOSMOS photometric redshift catalog, we perform a characterization of the systematic effects associated with stellar content, evidencing the presence of contamination and obscuration. We create an integrated model for these effects (which together we call `usurper contamination'), devise a method to remove both of them simultaneously and show its functionality by applying it to a set of mock catalogs. When administered to WISE$\times$SuperCOSMOS data, our method shows to improve the measurements of angular power spectra on scales $\ell\lesssim15$ and the extraction of cosmological parameters therefrom, even though a significant excess of power remains at these scales. When ignoring scales $\ell<15$, we still find strong indications of systematics, albeit these can be localized in the southern equatorial hemisphere. An independent analysis of the northern hemisphere at $\ell\geq 15$ agrees with a $\Lambda$CDM model with parameters from the Planck satellite and gives $\Omega_{\mathrm{c}}=0.254\pm0.020$ and $\Omega_{\mathrm{b}}<0.065$ at 95% confidence limit when combined with priors on $H_0$, $A_s$ and $n_s$.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in JCA

Ellipsoidal configurations in the de Sitter spacetime

The cosmological constant $\Lambda$ modifies certain properties of large astrophysical rotating configurations with ellipsoidal geometries, provided the objects are not too compact. Assuming an equilibrium configuration and so using the tensor virial equation with $\Lambda$ we explore several equilibrium properties of homogeneous rotating ellipsoids. One shows that the bifurcation point, which in the oblate case distinguishes the Maclaurin ellipsoid from the Jacobi ellipsoid, is sensitive to the cosmological constant. Adding to that, the cosmological constant allows triaxial configurations of equilibrium rotating the minor axis as solutions of the virial equations. The significance of the result lies in the fact that minor axis rotation is indeed found in nature. Being impossible for the oblate case, it is permissible for prolate geometries, with $\Lambda$ zero and positive. For the triaxial case, however, an equilibrium solution is found only for non-zero positive $\Lambda$. Finally, we solve the tensor virial equation for the angular velocity and display special effects of the cosmological constant there.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, published in Class. Quant. Grav. References adde

Equilibrium of large astrophysical structures in the Newton-Hooke spacetime

Using the scalar and tensor virial equations, the Lane-Emden equation expressing the hydrostatic equilibrium and small oscillations around the equilibrium, we show how the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ affects various astrophysical quantities important for large matter conglomeration in the universe. Among others we examine the effect of $\Lambda$ on the polytropic equation of state for spherically symmetric objects and find non-negligible results in certain realistic cases. We calculate the angular velocity for non-spherical oblate configurations which demonstrates a clear effect of $\Lambda$ on high eccentricity objects. We show that for oblate as well as prolate ellipsoids the cosmological constant influences the critical mass and the temperature of the astrophysical object. These and other results show that the effect of $\Lambda$ is large for flat astrophysical bodies.Comment: References adde

Minimum mass-radius ratio for charged gravitational objects

We rigorously prove that for compact charged general relativistic objects there is a lower bound for the mass-radius ratio. This result follows from the same Buchdahl type inequality for charged objects, which has been extensively used for the proof of the existence of an upper bound for the mass-radius ratio. The effect of the vacuum energy (a cosmological constant) on the minimum mass is also taken into account. Several bounds on the total charge, mass and the vacuum energy for compact charged objects are obtained from the study of the Ricci scalar invariants. The total energy (including the gravitational one) and the stability of the objects with minimum mass-radius ratio is also considered, leading to a representation of the mass and radius of the charged objects with minimum mass-radius ratio in terms of the charge and vacuum energy only.Comment: 19 pages, accepted by GRG, references corrected and adde

DESI Mock Challenge: Halo and galaxy catalogs with the bias assignment method

We present a novel approach to the construction of mock galaxy catalogues for large-scale structure analysis based on the distribution of dark matter halos obtained with effective bias models at the field level. We aim to produce mock galaxy catalogues capable of generating accurate covariance matrices for a number of cosmological probes that are expected to be measured in current and forthcoming galaxy redshift surveys (e.g. two- and three-point statistics). We use the bias assignment method (BAM) to model the statistics of halo distribution through a learning algorithm using a few detailed $N$-body simulations, and approximated gravity solvers based on Lagrangian perturbation theory. Using specific models of halo occupation distributions, we generate galaxy mocks with the expected number density and central-satellite fraction of emission-line galaxies, which are a key target of the DESI experiment. BAM generates mock catalogues with per cent accuracy in a number of summary statistics, such as the abundance, the two- and three-point statistics of halo distributions, both in real and redshift space. In particular, the mock galaxy catalogues display $\sim 3\%-10\%$ accuracy in the multipoles of the power spectrum up to scales of $k\sim 0.4\,h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$. We show that covariance matrices of two- and three-point statistics obtained with BAM display a similar structure to the reference simulation. BAM offers an efficient way to produce mock halo catalogues with accurate two- and three-point statistics, and is able to generate a variety of multi-tracer catalogues with precise covariance matrices of several cosmological probes. We discuss future developments of the algorithm towards mock production in DESI and other galaxy-redshift surveys. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication at A&

Impact of baryons on the cluster mass function and cosmological parameter determination

Recent results by the Planck collaboration have shown that cosmological parameters derived from the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and cluster number counts are in tension, with the latter preferring lower values of the matter density parameter, $\Omega_\mathrm{m}$, and power spectrum amplitude, $\sigma_8$. Motivated by this, we investigate the extent to which the tension may be ameliorated once the effect of baryonic depletion on the cluster mass function is taken into account. We use the large-volume Millennium Gas simulations in our study, including one where the gas is pre-heated at high redshift and one where the gas is heated by stars and active galactic nuclei (in the latter, the self-gravity of the baryons and radiative cooling are omitted). In both cases, the cluster baryon fractions are in reasonably good agreement with the data at low redshift, showing significant depletion of baryons with respect to the cosmic mean. As a result, it is found that the cluster abundance in these simulations is around 15 per cent lower than the commonly-adopted fit to dark matter simulations by Tinker et al (2008) for the mass range $10^{14}-10^{14.5}h^{-1} \mathrm{M}_\odot$. Ignoring this effect produces a significant artificial shift in cosmological parameters which can be expressed as $\Delta[\sigma_8(\Omega_\mathrm{m}/0.27)^{0.38}]\simeq -0.03$ at $z=0.17$ (the median redshift of the $\mathit{Planck}$ cluster sample) for the feedback model. While this shift is not sufficient to fully explain the $\mathit{Planck}$ discrepancy, it is clear that such an effect cannot be ignored in future precision measurements of cosmological parameters with clusters. Finally, we outline a simple, model-independent procedure that attempts to correct for the effect of baryonic depletion and show that it works if the baryon-dark matter back-reaction is negligible.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, Accepted by MNRA

Characterising superclusters with the galaxy cluster distribution

G. Chon, et al., “Characterising superclusters with the galaxy cluster distribution”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 567, August 2014. This version of record is available at: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2014/07/aa24047-14/aa24047-14.html Reproduced with Permission from Astronomy and Astrophysics, © ESO 2014.Superclusters are the largest observed matter density structures in the Universe. Recently, we presented the first supercluster catalogue constructed with a well-defined selection function based on the X-ray flux-limited cluster survey, REFLEX II. To construct the sample we proposed a concept to find large objects with a minimum overdensity such that it can be expected that most of their mass will collapse in the future. The main goal is to provide support for our concept here by using simulation that we can, on the basis of our observational sample of X-ray clusters, construct a supercluster sample defined by a certain minimum overdensity. On this sample we also test how superclusters trace the underlying dark matter distribution. Our results confirm that an overdensity in the number of clusters is tightly correlated with an overdensity of the dark matter distribution. This enables us to define superclusters within which most of the mass will collapse in the future. We also obtain first-order mass estimates of superclusters on the basis of the properties of the member clusters. We also show that in this context the ratio of the cluster number density and dark matter mass density is consistent with the theoretically expected cluster bias. Our previous work provided evidence that superclusters are a special environment in which the density structures of the dark matter grow differently from those in the field, as characterised by the X-ray luminosity function. Here we confirm for the first time that this originates from a top-heavy mass function at high statistical significance that is provided by a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. We also find in close agreement with observations that the superclusters only occupy a small volume of a few per cent, but contain more than half of the clusters in the present-day Universe.Peer reviewe

Comparing approximate methods for mock catalogues and covariance matrices - I. Correlation function

Computational astrophysic