Theoretical systematics in testing the Cosmological Principle with the kinematic quasar dipole

The Cosmological Principle is part of the foundation that underpins the standard model of the Universe. In the era of precision cosmology, when stress tests of the standard model are uncovering various tensions and possible anomalies, it is critical to check the viability of this Principle. A key test is the consistency between the kinematic dipoles of the cosmic microwave background and of the large-scale matter distribution. Results using radio continuum and quasar samples indicate a rough agreement in the directions of the two dipoles, but a larger than expected amplitude of the matter dipole. The resulting tension with the radiation dipole has been estimated at $\sim 5\sigma$ for some cases, suggesting a potential new cosmological tension and a possible violation of the Cosmological Principle. However, the standard formalism for predicting the dipole in the 2-dimensional projection of sources overlooks possible evolution effects in the luminosity function. In fact, radial information from the luminosity function is necessary for a correct projection of the 3-dimensional source distribution. Using a variety of current models of the quasar luminosity function, we show that neglecting redshift evolution can significantly overestimate the relative velocity amplitude. While the models we investigate are consistent with each other and with current data, the dipole derived from these, which depends on derivatives of the luminosity function, can disagree by more than $3\sigma$. This theoretical systematic bias needs to be resolved before robust conclusions can be made about a new cosmic tension.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Statistical techniques for future surveys: extracting fundamental physics out of the large-scale structure

As últimas décadas trouxeram um desenvolvimento sem precedentes para a cosmologia através de mapas cada vez mais detalhados da radiação cósmica de fundo. Contudo, por representar uma informação essencialmente bidimensional, a quantidade de informação disponível é menor do que a obtida através dos mapas tridimensionais extraídos com levantamentos de galáxias. A distribuição de matéria escura inferida por esses levantamentos depende do processo altamente não-linear de colapso gravitacional, que pode ser incorporado na sua descrição através de simulações de $N$-corpos (geralmente Newtonianas) até escalas da ordem de dezenas de Mpc. Em contraste, escalas maiores (centenas de Mpc) são livres de efeitos astrofísicos e podem ser trabalhadas de forma acurada com teoria de perturbações. Nessas escalas podemos vincular a física do universo primordial através de características específicas deixadas nas estatísticas de $n$-pontos dos traçadores da matéria (e.g. galáxias e halos) e obter novos efeitos gravitacionais através da conexão entre a teoria e os observáveis (fundamentalmente dados em termos do redshift e ângulos de observação no céu). Primeiramente, exploramos as anisotropias da distribuição de halos de matéria escura devidas aos efeitos relativísticos que emergem ao conectarmos o redshift observado com o fornecido teoricamente pela relatividade geral. Focamos no dipolo do espectro de potência (estatística de 2-pontos) cruzado entre halos de diferentes massas de uma simulação de $N$-corpos relativística no limite de campos fracos. Apresentamos, em todos os detalhes, a sequência de como extrair parâmetros essenciais para descrever esse efeito, como modelá-lo e interpretá-lo no cone de luz observado. Do ponto de vista observacional, enquanto desejamos obter redshifts altamente precisos, através de levantamentos espectroscópicos, também desejamos cobrir o maior volume possível para alcançarmos as escalas onde efeitos relativísticos e não-Gaussianidades primordiais (característica de modelos inflacionários, por exemplo) podem ser observados. Contudo, ao trabalharmos com traçadores discretos da matéria, devemos ter uma densidade suficiente de objetos para que o sinal das funções de $n$-pontos supere o ruído. Esses volumes podem ser densamente mapeados através dos chamados levantamentos fotométricos, ao custo da precisão espectroscópica dos redshifts. Como segundo objetivo, desejamos calibrar os chamados redshifts fotométricos utilizando a correlação entre galáxias e mapas de intensidade de hidrogênio neutro. Avaliamos a capacidade do bispectro (estatística de 3-pontos) em recuperar os parâmetros da distribuição de redshift e comparamos com o espectro de potências, verificando como o método depende da contaminação em primeiro plano presente nos mapas de intensidade para ambos os casos.We have seen an unprecedented development in the field of cosmology, in the past decades, with the development of increasingly detailed cosmic microwave background maps. Notwithstanding, the amount of information one can extract from those two-dimensional maps is limited when compared to what can be achieved through the three-dimensional mapping obtained with galaxy surveys. The spatial dark matter distribution inferred with these surveys depends on the highly non-linear gravitational collapse, which can be incorporated in our three-dimensional description through $N$-body simulations (usually performed within Newtonian gravity) up to the tens of Mpc scales. In contrast, scales at the order of hundreds of Mpc are free from astrophysical effects and can be accurately described with perturbation theory. At these scales, relic features characteristic of primordial universe physics are left in the $n$-point statistics of dark matter tracers (e.g. galaxies and halos), and we can obtain novel gravitational effects through a theory-observables connection (the latter which are based on a set of fundamental observables such as redshift and observed angles on the sky). Primarily, we explore the relativistic anisotropies in the dark matter halo distribution that emerge after connecting the observed redshift with its theoretical general relativistic prediction. We focus on the power-spectrum dipole (2-point statistics) signal that appears after cross-correlating different halo populations (i.e. different masses) obtained from a weak-field relativistic $N$-body simulation. We make a complete presentation of the details necessary to extract essential parameters to model and interpret the results on an observed light cone. From an observational perspective, while it is desirable to have high-precision redshifts, we also require a large volume coverage to reach the necessary scales at which relativistic and primordial non-Gaussian effects (the latter is a characteristic feature of inflationary models) are manifested. However, when dealing with discrete dark matter tracers, we must acquire a large number of observations for the $n$-point signal to overcome its noise. Large volumes can be densely mapped through the so-called photometric redshifts, at the cost of redshifts with spectroscopic precision. Therefore, our second objective is to calibrate photometric redshifts utilising the clustering information of both galaxies and neutral hydrogen intensity mapping. We assess the ability of the bispectrum (3-point statistics) to recover the redshift distribution parameters, and we compare the results with the power spectrum. We also verify, for both 2- and 3-point statistics, how this clustering redshifts method depends upon the foreground contamination present in the neutral hydrogen maps

Não-Gaussianidades Primordiais: Teoria e Perspectivas para Observações

Early Universe physics leaves distinct imprints on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Large-Scale Structure (LSS). The current cosmological paradigm to explain the origin of the structures we see in the Universe today (CMB and LSS), named Inflation, says that the Universe went through a period of accelerated expansion. Density fluctuations that eventually have grown into the temperature fluctuations of the CMB and the galaxies and other structures we see in the LSS come from the quantization of the scalar field (inflaton) which provokes the accelerated expansion. The most simple inflationary model, which contains only one slowly-rolling scalar field with canonical kinetic term in the action, produces a power-spectrum (Fourier transform of the two-point correlation function) approximately scale invariant and an almost null bispectrum (Fourier transform of the three-point correlation function). This characteristic is called Gaussianity, once random fields that follow a normal distribution have all the odd moments null. Yet, more complex inflationary models (with more scalar fields and/or non-trivial kinetic terms in the action, etc) and possible alternatives to inflation have a non-vanishing bispectrum which can be parametrized by a non-linearity parameter f_NL, whose value differs from model to model. In this work we studied the basic ingredients to understand such statements and focused on the observational evidences of this parameters and how the current and upcoming galaxy surveys are able to impose constraints to the value of f_NL with a better accuracy, through the multi-tracer technique, than those obtained by means of CMB measurements.A física do Universo primordial deixa sinais distintos na Radiação Cósmica de Fundo (CMB) e Estrutura em Larga Escala (LSS). O paradigma atual da cosmologia explica a origem das estruturas que vemos hoje (CMB e LSS) através da inflação, teoria que diz que o Universo passou por um período de expansão acelerada. As flutuações de densidade que eventualmente crescem, dando origem às flutuações de temperatura da CMB, às galáxias e outras estruturas que vemos na LSS, provém da quantização do campo escalar (inflaton) que provoca a tal expansão acelerada. O modelo inflacionário mais simples, o qual contém um único campo escalar nas condições de rolamento lento e termo cinético canônico da ação, possui o espectro de potências (transformada de Fourier da função de correlação de dois pontos) aproximadamente invariante de escala e o bispectro (transformada de Fourier da função de correlação de três pontos) aproximadamente nulo. Tal característica é conhecida por Gaussianidade, uma vez que campos aleatórios cuja distribuição é uma normal tem todas as funções de correlação de ordem ímpar nulas. Contudo, modelos inflacionários mais complexos (mais campos escalares, termos cinéticos não-triviais na ação, etc) e alternativas possíveis à inflação possuem um bispectro não nulo, o qual pode ser parametrizado através do parâmetro de não-linearidade f_NL, cujo valor difere de modelo para modelo. Neste trabalho estudamos os ingredientes básicos para entender tais afirmações e focamos nas evidências observacionais desse parâmetro e como os levantamentos de galáxias atuais e futuros podem impor restrições ao valor de f_NL com uma precisão maior, através da técnica de múltiplos traçadores, do que aquelas obtidas com medidas da CMB

Modes of the Dark Ages 21 cm field accessible to a lunar radio interferometer

At redshifts beyond ≳30, the 21 cm line from neutral hydrogen is expected to be essentially the only viable probe of the three-dimensional matter distribution. The lunar far-side is an extremely appealing site for future radio arrays that target this signal, as it is protected from terrestrial radio frequency interference, and has no ionosphere to attenuate and absorb radio emission at low frequencies (tens of MHz and below). We forecast the sensitivity of low-frequency lunar radio arrays to the bispectrum of the 21 cm brightness temperature field, which can in turn be used to probe primordial non-Gaussianity generated by particular early universe models. We account for the loss of particular regions of Fourier space due to instrumental limitations and systematic effects, and predict the sensitivity of different representative array designs to local-type non-Gaussianity in the bispectrum, parametrized by NL. Under the most optimistic assumption of sample variance-limited observations, we find that ⁡(NL)≲0.01 could be achieved for several broad redshift bins at ≳30 if foregrounds can be removed effectively. These values degrade to between ⁡(NL)∼0.03 and 0.7 for =30 to =170, respectively, when a large foreground wedge region is excluded

Clustering redshifts with the 21cm-galaxy cross-bispectrum

The cross-correlation between 21-cm intensity mapping (IM) experiments and photometric surveys of galaxies (or any other cosmological tracer with a broad radial kernel) is severely degraded by the loss of long-wavelength radial modes due to Galactic foreground contamination. Higher-order correlators are able to restore some of these modes due to the non-linear coupling between them and the local small-scale clustering induced by gravitational collapse. We explore the possibility of recovering information from the bispectrum between a photometric galaxy sample and an IM experiment, in the context of the clustering-redshifts technique. We demonstrate that the bispectrum is able to calibrate the redshift distribution of the photometric sample to the required accuracy of future experiments such as the Rubin Observatory, using future single-dish and interferometric 21-cm observations, in situations where the two-point function is not able to do so due to foreground contamination. We also show how this calibration is affected by the photometric redshift width σz,0 and maximum scale kmax. We find that it is important to reach scales $k \gtrsim 0.3\, h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, with the constraints saturating at around $k\sim 1\, h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ for next-generation experiments

Observing relativistic features in large-scale structure surveys – I. Multipoles of the power spectrum

Planned efforts to probe the largest observable distance scales in future cosmological surveys are motivated by a desire to detect relic correlations left over from inflation, and the possibility of constraining novel gravitational phenomena beyond General Relativity (GR). On such large scales, the usual Newtonian approaches to modelling summary statistics like the power spectrum and bispectrum are insufficient, and we must consider a fully relativistic and gauge-independent treatment of observables such as galaxy number counts in order to avoid subtle biases, e.g. in the determination of the $f_{\rm NL}$ parameter. In this work, we present an initial application of an analysis pipeline capable of accurately modelling and recovering relativistic spectra and correlation functions. As a proof of concept, we focus on the non-zero dipole of the redshift-space power spectrum that arises in the cross-correlation of different mass bins of dark matter halos, using strictly gauge-independent observable quantities evaluated on the past light cone of a fully relativistic N-body simulation in a redshift bin $1.7 \le z \le 2.9$. We pay particular attention to the correct estimation of power spectrum multipoles, comparing different methods of accounting for complications such as the survey geometry (window function) and evolution/bias effects on the past light cone, and discuss how our results compare with previous attempts at extracting novel GR signatures from relativistic simulations.Comment: Minor corrections in the text of version