1,285 research outputs found
Galaxy Bias and Halo-Occupation Numbers from Large-Scale Clustering
We show that current surveys have at least as much signal to noise in
higher-order statistics as in the power spectrum at weakly nonlinear scales. We
discuss how one can use this information to determine the mean of the galaxy
halo occupation distribution (HOD) using only large-scale information, through
galaxy bias parameters determined from the galaxy bispectrum and trispectrum.
After introducing an averaged, reasonably fast to evaluate, trispectrum
estimator, we show that the expected errors on linear and quadratic bias
parameters can be reduced by at least 20-40%. Also, the inclusion of the
trispectrum information, which is sensitive to "three-dimensionality" of
structures, helps significantly in constraining the mass dependence of the HOD
mean. Our approach depends only on adequate modeling of the abundance and
large-scale clustering of halos and thus is independent of details of how
galaxies are distributed within halos. This provides a consistency check on the
traditional approach of using two-point statistics down to small scales, which
necessarily makes more assumptions. We present a detailed forecast of how well
our approach can be carried out in the case of the SDSS.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure
Noninteracting dark matter
Since an acceptable dark matter candidate may interact only weakly with
ordinary matter and radiation, it is of interest to consider the limiting case
where the dark matter interacts only with gravity and itself, the matter
originating by the gravitational particle production at the end of inflation.
We use the bounds on the present dark mass density and the measured large-scale
fluctuations in the thermal cosmic background radiation to constrain the two
parameters in a self-interaction potential that is a sum of quadratic and
quartic terms in a single scalar dark matter field that is minimally coupled to
gravity. In quintessential inflation, where the temperature at the end of
inflation is relatively low, the field starts acting like cold dark matter
relatively late, shortly before the epoch of equal mass densities in matter and
radiation. This could have observable consequences for galaxy formation. We
respond to recent criticisms of the quintessential inflation scenario, since
these issues also apply to elements of the noninteracting dark matter picture.Comment: 37 pages, 3 figure
A Novel Phase Shift Acquired due to Virtual Forces
This paper has been withdrawn by the author.Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the author. 11 pages, 4 figure
Gravitational field of vacuumless defects
It has been recently shown that topological defects can arise in symmetry
breaking models where the scalar field potential has no minima and is
a monotonically decreasing function of . Here we study the
gravitational fields produced by such vacuumless defects in the cases of both
global and gauge symmetry breaking. We find that a global monopole has a
strongly repulsive gravitational field, and its spacetime has an event horizon
similar to that in de Sitter space. A gauge monopole spacetime is essentially
that of a magnetically charged black hole. The gravitational field of a global
string is repulsive and that of a gauge string is attractive at small distances
and repulsive at large distances. Both gauge and global string spacetimes have
singularities at a finite distance from the string core.Comment: 19 pages, REVTeX, 6 Postscript figure
Optimal Testing of Discrete Distributions with High Probability
We study the problem of testing discrete distributions with a focus on the high probability regime. Specifically, given samples from one or more discrete distributions, a property , and parameters , we want to distinguish {\em with probability at least } whether these distributions satisfy or are -far from in total variation distance. Most prior work in distribution testing studied the constant confidence case (corresponding to ), and provided sample-optimal testers for a range of properties. While one can always boost the confidence probability of any such tester by black-box amplification, this generic boosting method typically leads to sub-optimal sample bounds. Here we study the following broad question: For a given property , can we {\em characterize} the sample complexity of testing as a function of all relevant problem parameters, including the error probability ? Prior to this work, uniformity testing was the only statistical task whose sample complexity had been characterized in this setting. As our main results, we provide the first algorithms for closeness and independence testing that are sample-optimal, within constant factors, as a function of all relevant parameters. We also show matching information-theoretic lower bounds on the sample complexity of these problems. Our techniques naturally extend to give optimal testers for related problems. To illustrate the generality of our methods, we give optimal algorithms for testing collections of distributions and testing closeness with unequal sized samples
Inverting the Sachs-Wolfe Formula: an Inverse Problem Arising in Early-Universe Cosmology
The (ordinary) Sachs-Wolfe effect relates primordial matter perturbations to
the temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background
radiation; can be observed in all directions around us. A standard
but idealised model of this effect leads to an infinite set of moment-like
equations: the integral of with respect to k ()
is equal to a given constant, , for . Here, P is the
power spectrum of the primordial density variations, is a spherical
Bessel function and y is a positive constant. It is shown how to solve these
equations exactly for ~. The same solution can be recovered, in
principle, if the first ~m equations are discarded. Comparisons with classical
moment problems (where is replaced by ) are made.Comment: In Press Inverse Problems 1999, 15 pages, 0 figures, Late
Cosmological Models with Variable Gravitational and Cosmological constants in Gravity
We consider the evolution of a flat Friedmann-Roberstson-Walker Universe in a
higher derivative theories, including terms to the
Einstein-Hilbert action in the presence of a variable gravitational and
cosmological constants. We study here the evolution of the gravitational and
cosmological constants in the presence of radiation and matter domination era
of the universe. We present here new cosmological solutions which are
physically interesting for model building.Comment: 14 pages, no figure. to be published in Int. J. Mod. Phys.
CMB anisotropies due to cosmological magnetosonic waves
We study scalar mode perturbations (magnetosonic waves) induced by a helical
stochastic cosmological magnetic field and derive analytically the
corresponding cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization
anisotropy angular power spectra. We show that the presence of a stochastic
magnetic field, or an homogeneous magnetic field, influences the acoustic
oscillation pattern of the CMB anisotropy power spectrum, effectively acting as
a reduction of the baryon fraction. We find that the scalar magnetic energy
density perturbation contribution to the CMB temperature anisotropy is small
compared to the contribution to the CMB -polarization anisotropy.Comment: 17 pages, references added, version accepted for publication in Phys.
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