6 research outputs found
Cosmology with the largest galaxy cluster surveys: Going beyond Fisher matrix forecasts
We make the first detailed MCMC likelihood study of cosmological constraints
that are expected from some of the largest, ongoing and proposed, cluster
surveys in different wave-bands and compare the estimates to the prevalent
Fisher matrix forecasts. Mock catalogs of cluster counts expected from the
surveys -- eROSITA, WFXT, RCS2, DES and Planck, along with a mock dataset of
follow-up mass calibrations are analyzed for this purpose. A fair agreement
between MCMC and Fisher results is found only in the case of minimal models.
However, for many cases, the marginalized constraints obtained from Fisher and
MCMC methods can differ by factors of 30-100%. The discrepancy can be
alarmingly large for a time dependent dark energy equation of state, w(a); the
Fisher methods are seen to under-estimate the constraints by as much as a
factor of 4--5. Typically, Fisher estimates become more and more inappropriate
as we move away from LCDM, to a constant-w dark energy to varying-w dark energy
cosmologies. Fisher analysis, also, predicts incorrect parameter degeneracies.
From the point of mass-calibration uncertainties, a high value of unknown
scatter about the mean mass-observable relation, and its redshift dependence,
is seen to have large degeneracies with the cosmological parameters sigma_8 and
w(a) and can degrade the cosmological constraints considerably. We find that
the addition of mass-calibrated cluster datasets can improve dark energy and
sigma_8 constraints by factors of 2--3 from what can be obtained compared to
CMB+SNe+BAO only. Since, details of future cluster surveys are still being
planned, we emphasize that optimal survey design must be done using MCMC
analysis rather than Fisher forecasting. [abridged]Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in JCA
Precision cosmology with a combination of wide and deep Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster surveys
We show the advantages of a wedding cake design for Sunyaev-Zel'dovich
cluster surveys. We show that by dividing up a cluster survey into a wide and a
deep survey, one can essentially recover the cosmological information that
would be diluted in a single survey of the same duration due to the
uncertainties in our understanding of cluster physics. The parameter degeneracy
directions of the deep and wide surveys are slightly different, and combining
them breaks these degeneracies effectively. A variable depth survey with a few
thousand clusters is as effective at constraining cosmological parameters as a
single depth survey with a much larger cluster sample.Comment: 4 figures, 1 table; revised versio
A new Tolman test of a cosmic distance duality relation at 21 cm
Under certain general conditions in an expanding universe, the luminosity
distance (d_L) and angular diameter distance (d_A) are connected by the
Etherington relation as d_L = d_A (1 + z)^2. The Tolman test suggests the use
of objects of known surface brightness, to test this relation. In this letter,
we propose the use of redshifted 21 cm signal from disk galaxies, where neutral
hydrogen (HI) masses are seen to be almost linearly correlated with surface
area, to conduct a new Tolman test. We construct simulated catalogs of
galaxies, with the observed size-luminosity relation and realistic redshift
evolution of HI mass functions, likely to be detected with the planned Square
Kilometer Array (SKA). We demonstrate that these observations may soon provide
the best implementation of the Tolman test to detect any violation of the
Etherington relation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, v2: published versio