Modeling the nonlinear clustering in modified gravity models I: A fitting formula for matter power spectrum of f(R) gravity

Based on a suite of N-body simulations of the Hu-Sawicki model of f(R) gravity with different sets of model and cosmological parameters, we develop a new fitting formula with a numeric code, MGHalofit, to calculate the nonlinear matter power spectrum P(k) for the Hu-Sawicki model. We compare the MGHalofit predictions at various redshifts (z<=1) to the f(R) simulations and find that the accuracy on P(k) is 6% at k<1 h/Mpc and 12% at 1<k<10 h/Mpc respectively. Based on a sensitivity study of an ongoing and a future spectroscopic survey, we estimate the detectability of a signal of modified gravity described by the Hu-Sawicki model using the power spectrum up to quasi-nonlinear scales. MGHalofit is publicly available at http://icosmology.info/website/MGHalofit.html.Comment: 28 AAS pages, 6 figures. Minor revision reflecting the accepted version by The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. The MGHalofit code is publicly available at http://icosmology.info/website/MGHalofit.htm

Constraining the dark matter-vacuum energy interaction using the EDGES 21-cm absorption signal

The recent measurement of the global 21-cm absorption signal reported by the Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionization Signature (EDGES) Collaboration is in tension with the prediction of the $\Lambda$CDM model at a $3.8\,\sigma$ significance level. In this work, we report that this tension can be released by introducing an interaction between dark matter and vacuum energy. We perform a model parameter estimation using a combined dataset including EDGES and other recent cosmological observations, and find that the EDGES measurement can marginally improve the constraint on parameters that quantify the interacting vacuum, and that the combined dataset favours the $\Lambda$CDM at 68\% CL. This proof-of-the-concept study demonstrates the potential power of future 21-cm experiments to constrain the interacting dark energy models.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in Ap

Cosmological tests of gravity with latest observations

We perform observational tests of modified gravity on cosmological scales following model-dependent and model-independent approaches using the latest astronomical observations, including measurements of the local Hubble constant, cosmic microwave background, the baryonic acoustic oscillations and redshift space distortions derived from galaxy surveys including the SDSS BOSS and eBOSS, as well as the weak lensing observations performed by the CFHTLenS team. Using all data combined, we find a deviation from the prediction of general relativity in both the effective Newton's constant, $\mu(a,k)$, and in the gravitational slip, $\eta(a,k)$. The deviation is at a $3.1\sigma$ level in the joint $\{\mu(a,k),\eta(a,k)\}$ space using a two-parameter phenomenological model for $\mu$ and $\eta$, and it reaches a $3.7\sigma$ level if a general parametrisation is used. This signal, which may be subject to unknown observational systematics, or a sign of new physics, is worth further investigating with forthcoming observations.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures; ApJ accepte

Dark energy imprints on the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich signal

We investigate the imprint of dark energy on the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) angular power spectrum on scales of $\ell=1000$ to $10000$, and find that the kSZ signal is sensitive to the dark energy parameter. For example, varying the constant $w$ by 20\% around $w=-1$ results in a $\gtrsim10\%$ change on the kSZ spectrum; changing the dark energy dynamics parametrized by $w_a$ by $\pm0.5$, a 30\% change on the kSZ spectrum is expected. We discuss the observational aspects and develop a fitting formula for the kSZ power spectrum. Finally, we discuss how the precise modeling of the post-reionization signal would help the constraints on patchy reionization signal, which is crucial for measuring the duration of reionization.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 2 table

Detecting Features in the Dark Energy Equation of State: A Wavelet Approach

We study the utility of wavelets for detecting the redshift evolution of the dark energy equation of state w(z) from the combination of supernovae, CMB and BAO data. We show that local features in w, such as bumps, can be detected efficiently using wavelets. To demonstrate, we first generate a mock supernovae (SNe) data sample for a SNAP-like survey with a bump feature in w(z) hidden in, then successfully discover it by performing a blind wavelet analysis. We also apply our method to analyze the recently released "Constitution" SNe data, combined with WMAP and BAO from SDSS, and find weak hints of dark energy dynamics. Namely, we find that models with w(z) < -1 for 0.2 < z < 0.5, and w(z)> -1 for 0.5 < z <1, are mildly favored at 95% confidence level. This is in good agreement with several recent studies using other methods, such as redshift binning with principal component analysis (PCA) (e.g. Zhao and Zhang, arXiv:0908.1568)Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Minor changes from v1, matches the version published in JCAP

A measurement of the Hubble constant using galaxy redshift surveys

We perform a measurement of the Hubble constant, $H_0$, using the latest baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) measurements from galaxy surveys of 6dFGS, SDSS DR7 Main Galaxy Sample, BOSS DR12 sample, and eBOSS DR14 quasar sample, in the framework of a flat $\Lambda$CDM model. Based on the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, we examine the consistency of $H_0$ values derived from various data sets. We find that our measurement is consistent with that derived from Planck and with the local measurement of $H_0$ using the Cepheids and type Ia supernovae. We perform forecasts on $H_0$ from future BAO measurements, and find that the uncertainty of $H_0$ determined by future BAO data alone, including complete eBOSS, DESI and Euclid-like, is comparable with that from local measurements.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in Ap