The influence of galaxy formation physics on weak lensing tests of general relativity

Abstract

Forthcoming projects such as the Dark Energy Survey, Joint Dark Energy Mission, and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, aim to measure weak lensing shear correlations with unprecedented accuracy. Weak lensing observables are sensitive to both the distance-redshift relation and the growth of structure in the Universe. If the cause of accelerated cosmic expansion is dark energy within general relativity, both cosmic distances and structure growth are governed by the properties of dark energy. Consequently, one may use lensing to check for this consistency and test general relativity. After reviewing the phenomenology of such tests, we address a major challenge to such a program. The evolution of the baryonic component of the Universe is highly uncertain and can influence lensing observables, manifesting as modified structure growth for a fixed cosmic distance scale. Using two proposed methods, we show that one could be led to reject the null hypothesis of general relativity when it is the true theory if this uncertainty in baryonic processes is neglected. Recent simulations suggest that we can correct for baryonic effects using a parameterized model in which the halo mass-concentration relation is modified. The correction suffices to render biases small compared to statistical uncertainties. We study the ability of future weak lensing surveys to constrain the internal structures of halos and test the null hypothesis of general relativity simultaneously. Compared to alternative methods which null information from small-scales to mitigate sensitivity to baryonic physics, this internal calibration program should provide limits on deviations from general relativity that are several times more constraining. Specifically, we find that limits on general relativity in the case of internal calibration are degraded by only ∼ 30% or less compared to the case of perfect knowledge of nonlinear structure.