Voids as a precision probe of dark energy

Abstract

The shapes of cosmic voids, as measured in spectroscopic galaxy redshift surveys, constitute a promising new probe of dark energy (DE). We forecast constraints on the DE equation of state and its variation from current and future surveys and find that the promise of void shape measurements compares favorably to that of standard methods such as supernovae and cluster counts even for currently available data. Owing to the complementary nature of the constraints, void shape measurements improve the Dark Energy Task Force figure of merit by 2 orders of magnitude for a future large scale experiment such as EUCLID when combined with other probes of dark energy available on a similar time scale. Modeling several observational and theoretical systematics has only moderate effects on these forecasts. We discuss additional systematics which will require further study using simulations.