Galaxy three-point correlation function in modified gravity

Abstract

The next generation of galaxy surveys will provide highly accurate measurements of the large-scale structure of the Universe, allowing for more stringent tests of gravity on cosmological scales. Higher-order statistics are a valuable tool to study the non-Gaussianities in the matter field and to break degeneracies between modified gravity and other physical or nuisance parameters. However, understanding from first principles the behavior of these correlations is essential to characterize deviations from General Relativity (GR), and the purpose of this work. This work uses contemporary ideas of standard perturbation theory on biased tracers to characterize the three-point correlation function at tree level for modified gravity models with a scale-dependent gravitational strength, and applies the theory to two specific models [$f(R)$ and DGP] that are representative for Chameleon and Vainshtein screening mechanisms. Additionally, we use a multipole decomposition, which apart from speeding up the algorithm to extract the signal from data, also helps to visualize and characterize GR deviations.