1,553 research outputs found
On the Magnitude of Dark Energy Voids and Overdensities
We investigate the clustering of dark energy within matter overdensities and
voids. In particular, we derive an analytical expression for the dark energy
density perturbations, which is valid both in the linear, quasi-linear and
fully non-linear regime of structure formation. We also investigate the
possibility of detecting such dark energy clustering through the ISW effect. In
the case of uncoupled quintessence models, if the mass of the field is of order
the Hubble scale today or smaller, dark energy fluctuations are always small
compared to the matter density contrast. Even when the matter perturbations
enter the non-linear regime, the dark energy perturbations remain linear. We
find that virialised clusters and voids correspond to local overdensities in
dark energy, with \delta_{\phi}/(1+w) \sim \Oo(10^{-5}) for voids,
\delta_{\phi}/(1+w) \sim \Oo(10^{-4}) for super-voids and
\delta_{\phi}/(1+w) \sim \Oo(10^{-5}) for a typical virialised cluster. If
voids with radii of exist within the visible Universe then
may be as large as . Linear overdensities of
matter and super-clusters generally correspond to local voids in dark energy;
for a typical super-cluster: \delta_{\phi}/(1+w) \sim \Oo(-10^{-5}). The
approach taken in this work could be straightforwardly extended to study the
clustering of more general dark energy models.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures. Accepted by the Astrophys.
Measuring the Mach number of the Universe via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect
We introduce a new statistic to measure more accurately the cosmic sound
speed of clusters of galaxies at different redshifts. This statistic is
evaluated by cross-correlating cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations
caused by the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect from observed clusters of galaxies with
their redshifts. When clusters are distributed in redshift bins of narrow
width, one could measure the mean squared cluster peculiar velocity with an
error \sigma_{C_S^2}\lsim (300{\rm km/s})^2. This can be done around z>0.3 with
clusters of flux above 200 mJy which will be detected by PLANCK, coupled with
high resolution microwave images to eliminate the cosmological part of the CMB
fluctuations. The latter can be achieved with observations by the planned ALMA
array or the NSF South Pole telescope and other surveys. By measuring the
cosmic sound speed and the bulk flow in, e.g., 4 spheres of ~ 100h^{-1}Mpc at
z=0.3, we could have a direct measurement of the matter density
0.21<\Omega_m<0.47 at 95 % confidence level.Comment: Ap.J.Letters, submitte
On virialization with dark energy
We review the inclusion of dark energy into the formalism of spherical
collapse, and the virialization of a two-component system, made of matter and
dark energy. We compare two approaches in previous studies. The first assumes
that only the matter component virializes, e.g. as in the case of a classic
cosmological constant. The second approach allows the full system to virialize
as a whole. We show that the two approaches give fundamentally different
results for the final state of the system. This might be a signature
discriminating between the classic cosmological constant which cannot virialize
and a dynamical dark energy mimicking a cosmological constant. This signature
is independent of the measured value of the equation of state. An additional
issue which we address is energy non-conservation of the system, which
originates from the homogeneity assumption for the dark energy. We propose a
way to take this energy loss into account.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in JCA
An Improved Semi-Analytical Spherical Collapse Model for Non-linear Density Evolution
We derive a semi-analytical extension of the spherical collapse model of
structure formation that takes account of the effects of deviations from
spherical symmetry and shell crossing which are important in the non-linear
regime. Our model is designed so that it predicts a relation between the
peculiar velocity and density contrast that agrees with the results of N-body
simulations in the region where such a comparison can sensibly be made. Prior
to turnaround, when the unmodified spherical collapse model is expect to be a
good approximation, the predictions of the two models coincide almost exactly.
The effects of a late time dominating dark energy component are also taken into
account. The improved spherical collapse model is a useful tool when one
requires a good approximation not just to the evolution of the density contrast
but also its trajectory. Moreover, the analytical fitting formulae presented is
simple enough to be used anywhere where the standard spherical collapse might
be used but with the advantage that it includes a realistic model of the
effects of virialisation.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Matches the version in print at Astrophys.
Optimising Spectroscopic and Photometric Galaxy Surveys: Efficient Target Selection and Survey Strategy
The next generation of spectroscopic surveys will have a wealth of
photometric data available for use in target selection. Selecting the best
targets is likely to be one of the most important hurdles in making these
spectroscopic campaigns as successful as possible. Our ability to measure dark
energy depends strongly on the types of targets that we are able to select with
a given photometric data set. We show in this paper that we will be able to
successfully select the targets needed for the next generation of spectroscopic
surveys. We also investigate the details of this selection, including
optimisation of instrument design and survey strategy in order to measure dark
energy. We use color-color selection as well as neural networks to select the
best possible emission line galaxies and luminous red galaxies for a
cosmological survey. Using the Fisher matrix formalism we forecast the
efficiency of each target selection scenario. We show how the dark energy
figures of merit change in each target selection regime as a function of target
type, survey time, survey density and other survey parameters. We outline the
optimal target selection scenarios and survey strategy choices which will be
available to the next generation of spectroscopic surveys.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figures, accepted to MNRAS in dec 201
Large scale distribution of total mass versus luminous matter from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations: First search in the SDSS-III BOSS Data Release 10
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) in the early Universe are predicted to
leave an as yet undetected signature on the relative clustering of total mass
versus luminous matter. A detection of this effect would provide an important
confirmation of the standard cosmological paradigm and constrain alternatives
to dark matter as well as non-standard fluctuations such as Compensated
Isocurvature Perturbations (CIPs). We conduct the first observational search
for this effect, by comparing the number-weighted and luminosity-weighted
correlation functions, using the SDSS-III BOSS Data Release 10 CMASS sample.
When including CIPs in our model, we formally obtain evidence at of
the relative clustering signature and a limit that matches the existing upper
limits on the amplitude of CIPs. However, various tests suggest that these
results are not yet robust, perhaps due to systematic biases in the data. The
method developed in this Letter, used with more accurate future data such as
that from DESI, is likely to confirm or disprove our preliminary evidence.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in PR
Dipole anisotropies of IRAS galaxies and the contribution of a large-scale local void
Recent observations of dipole anisotropies show that the velocity of the
Local Group (\Vec v_{\rm G}) induced by the clustering of IRAS galax ies has
an amplitude and direction similar to those of the velocity of Cosmic Microwave
Background dipole anisotropy (\Vec v_{\rm CMB}), but the difference | \Vec
v_{\rm G} - \Vec v_{\rm CMB} | is still km/s, which is about 28% of
|\Vec v_{\rm CMB} |. Here we consider the possibility that the origin of this
difference comes from a hypothetical large-scale local void, with which we can
account for the accelerating behavior of type Ia supernovae due to the spatial
inhomogeneity of the Hubble constant without dark energies and derive the
constraint to the model parameters of the local void. It is found as a result
that the distance between the Local Group and the center of the void must be
Mpc, whose accurate value depends on the background model
parameters.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, to be published in ApJ 584, No.2 (2003
Predicting spectral features in galaxy spectra from broad-band photometry
We explore the prospects of predicting emission line features present in
galaxy spectra given broad-band photometry alone. There is a general consent
that colours, and spectral features, most notably the 4000 A break, can predict
many properties of galaxies, including star formation rates and hence they
could infer some of the line properties. We argue that these techniques have
great prospects in helping us understand line emission in extragalactic objects
and might speed up future galaxy redshift surveys if they are to target
emission line objects only. We use two independent methods, Artifical Neural
Neworks (based on the ANNz code) and Locally Weighted Regression (LWR), to
retrieve correlations present in the colour N-dimensional space and to predict
the equivalent widths present in the corresponding spectra. We also investigate
how well it is possible to separate galaxies with and without lines from broad
band photometry only. We find, unsurprisingly, that recombination lines can be
well predicted by galaxy colours. However, among collisional lines some can and
some cannot be predicted well from galaxy colours alone, without any further
redshift information. We also use our techniques to estimate how much
information contained in spectral diagnostic diagrams can be recovered from
broad-band photometry alone. We find that it is possible to classify AGN and
star formation objects relatively well using colours only. We suggest that this
technique could be used to considerably improve redshift surveys such as the
upcoming FMOS survey and the planned WFMOS survey.Comment: 10 pages 7 figures summitted to MNRA
Numerical Analyses of Weakly Nonlinear Velocity-Density Coupling
We study evolution of various statistical quantities of smoothed cosmic
density and velocity fields using N-body simulations. The parameter
characterizes nonlinear coupling of
these two fields and determines behavior of bulk velocity dispersion as a
function of local density contrast.
It is found that this parameter depends strongly on the smoothing scale even
in quasi-linear regimes where the skewness parameter
is nearly constant and close to the predicted value by the second-order
perturbation theory. We also analyze weakly nonlinear effects caused by an
adaptive smoothing known as the gather approach.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, to appear in ApJ (558, Sep 10
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