Cosmology in doubly coupled massive gravity: constraints from SNIa, BAO and CMB

Massive gravity in the presence of doubly coupled matter field via en effective composite metric yields an accelerated expansion of the universe. It has been recently shown that the model admits stable de Sitter attractor solutions and could be used as a dark energy model. In this work, we perform a first analysis of the constraints imposed by the SNIa, BAO and CMB data on the massive gravity model with the effective composite metric and show that all the background observations are mutually compatible at the one sigma level with the model.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Constraining a halo model for cosmological neutral hydrogen

We describe a combined halo model to constrain the distribution of neutral hydrogen (HI) in the post-reionization universe. We combine constraints from the various probes of HI at different redshifts: the low-redshift 21-cm emission line surveys, intensity mapping experiments at intermediate redshifts, and the Damped Lyman-Alpha (DLA) observations at higher redshifts. We use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach to combine the observations and place constraints on the free parameters in the model. Our best-fit model involves a relation between neutral hydrogen mass $M_{\rm HI}$ and halo mass $M$ with a non-unit slope, and an upper and a lower cutoff. We find that the model fits all the observables but leads to an underprediction of the bias parameter of DLAs at $z \sim 2.3$. We also find indications of a possible tension between the HI column density distribution and the mass function of HI-selected galaxies at $z\sim 0$. We provide the central values of the parameters of the best-fit model so derived. We also provide a fitting form for the derived evolution of the concentration parameter of HI in dark matter haloes, and discuss the implications for the redshift evolution of the HI-halo mass relation.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables; version accepted for publication in MNRA

Integrated cosmological probes: Concordance quantified

Assessing the consistency of parameter constraints derived from different cosmological probes is an important way to test the validity of the underlying cosmological model. In an earlier work [Nicola et al., 2017], we computed constraints on cosmological parameters for $\Lambda$CDM from an integrated analysis of CMB temperature anisotropies and CMB lensing from Planck, galaxy clustering and weak lensing from SDSS, weak lensing from DES SV as well as Type Ia supernovae and Hubble parameter measurements. In this work, we extend this analysis and quantify the concordance between the derived constraints and those derived by the Planck Collaboration as well as WMAP9, SPT and ACT. As a measure for consistency, we use the Surprise statistic [Seehars et al., 2014], which is based on the relative entropy. In the framework of a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model, we find all data sets to be consistent with one another at a level of less than 1$\sigma$. We highlight that the relative entropy is sensitive to inconsistencies in the models that are used in different parts of the analysis. In particular, inconsistent assumptions for the neutrino mass break its invariance on the parameter choice. When consistent model assumptions are used, the data sets considered in this work all agree with each other and $\Lambda$CDM, without evidence for tensions.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, updated following referee's comments, now includes discussion of the Riess et al., 2016 Hubble parameter measurement, matches version accepted by JCA

Cross-correlating 21 cm and galaxy surveys: implications for cosmology and astrophysics

We forecast astrophysical and cosmological parameter constraints from synergies between 21 cm intensity mapping and wide field optical galaxy surveys (both spectroscopic and photometric) over $z \sim 0-3$. We focus on the following survey combinations in this work: (i) a CHIME-like and DESI-like survey in the northern hemisphere, (ii) an LSST-like and SKA I MID-like survey and (ii) a MeerKAT-like and DES-like survey in the southern hemisphere. We work with the $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model having parameters $\{h, \Omega_m, n_s, \Omega_b, \sigma_8\}$, parameters $v_{c,0}$ and $\beta$ representing the cutoff and slope of the HI-halo mass relation in the previously developed HI halo model framework, and a parameter $Q$ that represents the scale dependence of the optical galaxy bias. Using a Fisher forecasting framework, we explore (i) the effects of the HI and galaxy astrophysical uncertainties on the cosmological parameter constraints, assuming priors from the present knowledge of the astrophysics, (ii) the improvements on astrophysical constraints over their current priors in the three configurations considered, (ii) the tightening of the constraints on the parameters relative to the corresponding HI auto-correlation surveys alone.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in MNRA

Integrated approach to cosmology: Combining CMB, large-scale structure and weak lensing

Recent observational progress has led to the establishment of the standard $\Lambda$CDM model for cosmology. This development is based on different cosmological probes that are usually combined through their likelihoods at the latest stage in the analysis. We implement here an integrated scheme for cosmological probes, which are combined in a common framework starting at the map level. This treatment is necessary as the probes are generally derived from overlapping maps and are thus not independent. It also allows for a thorough test of the cosmological model and of systematics through the consistency of different physical tracers. As a first application, we combine current measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from the Planck satellite, and galaxy clustering and weak lensing from SDSS. We consider the spherical harmonic power spectra of these probes including all six auto- and cross-correlations along with the associated full Gaussian covariance matrix. This provides an integrated treatment of different analyses usually performed separately including CMB anisotropies, cosmic shear, galaxy clustering, galaxy-galaxy lensing and the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect with galaxy and shear tracers. We derive constraints on $\Lambda$CDM parameters that are compatible with existing constraints and highlight tensions between data sets, which become apparent in this integrated treatment. We discuss how this approach provides a complete and powerful integrated framework for probe combination and how it can be extended to include other tracers in the context of current and future wide field cosmological surveys.Comment: 29 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables, to appear in PRD, updated following referee's comments including small changes in result

Shapelets: I. A Method for Image Analysis

We present a new method for the analysis of images, a fundamental task in observational astronomy. It is based on the linear decomposition of each object in the image into a series of localised basis functions of different shapes, which we call `Shapelets'. A particularly useful set of complete and orthonormal shapelets is that consisting of weighted Hermite polynomials, which correspond to perturbations around a circular gaussian. They are also the eigenstates of the 2-dimensional Quantum Harmonic Oscillator, and thus allow us to use the powerful formalism developed for this problem. Among their remarkable properties, they are invariant under Fourier transforms (up to a rescaling), leading to an analytic form for convolutions. The generator of linear transformations such as translations, rotations, shears and dilatations can be written as simple combinations of raising and lowering operators. We derive analytic expressions for practical quantities, such as the centroid (astrometry), flux (photometry) and radius of the object, in terms of its shapelet coefficients. We also construct polar basis functions which are eigenstates of the angular momentum operator, and thus have simple properties under rotations. As an example, we apply the method to Hubble Space Telescope images, and show that the small number of shapelet coefficients required to represent galaxy images lead to compression factors of about 40 to 90. We discuss applications of shapelets for the archival of large photometric surveys, for weak and strong gravitational lensing and for image deprojection.Comment: 13 Latex pages, including 10 figures and 2 tables. Submitted to MNRAS. Also available at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ar

Cosmic Shear with Einstein Rings

We explore a new technique to measure cosmic shear using Einstein rings. In Birrer et al. (2017), we showed that the detailed modelling of Einstein rings can be used to measure external shear to high precision. In this letter, we explore how a collection of Einstein rings can be used as a statistical probe of cosmic shear. We present a forecast of the cosmic shear information available in Einstein rings for different strong lensing survey configurations. We find that, assuming that the number density of Einstein rings in the COSMOS survey is representative, future strong lensing surveys should have a cosmological precision comparable to the current ground based weak lensing surveys. We discuss how this technique is complementary to the standard cosmic shear analyses since it is sensitive to different systematic and can be used for cross-calibration.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 1 table. ApJL accepte