Alcock Paczynski Research Articles

The completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: BAO and RSD measurements from the anisotropic power spectrum of the quasar sample between redshift 0.8 and 2.2

ABSTRACT We measure the clustering of quasars of the final data release (DR16) of eBOSS. The sample contains $343\, 708$ quasars between redshifts 0.8 ≤ z ≤ 2.2 over $4699\, \mathrm{deg}^2$. We calculate the Legendre multipoles (0,2,4) of the anisotropic power spectrum and perform a BAO and a Full-Shape (FS) analysis at the effective redshift zeff = 1.480. The errors include systematic errors that amount to 1/3 of the statistical error. The systematic errors comprise a modelling part studied using a blind N-body mock challenge and observational effects studied with approximate mocks to account for various types of redshift smearing and fibre collisions. For the BAO analysis, we measure the transverse comoving distance DM(zeff)/rdrag = 30.60 ± 0.90 and the Hubble distance DH(zeff)/rdrag = 13.34 ± 0.60. This agrees with the configuration space analysis, and the consensus yields: DM(zeff)/rdrag = 30.69 ± 0.80 and DH(zeff)/rdrag = 13.26 ± 0.55. In the FS analysis, we fit the power spectrum using a model based on Regularised Perturbation Theory, which includes redshift space distortions and the Alcock–Paczynski effect. The results are DM(zeff)/rdrag = 30.68 ± 0.90 and DH(zeff)/rdrag = 13.52 ± 0.51 and we constrain the linear growth rate of structure f(zeff)σ8(zeff) = 0.476 ± 0.047. Our results agree with the configuration space analysis. The consensus analysis of the eBOSS quasar sample yields: DM(zeff)/rdrag = 30.21 ± 0.79, DH(zeff)/rdrag = 3.23 ± 0.47, and f(zeff)σ8(zeff) = 0.462 ± 0.045 and is consistent with a flat ΛCDM cosmological model using Planck results.

Testing tidal alignment models for anisotropic correlations of halo ellipticities with N-body simulations

ABSTRACT There is a growing interest of using the intrinsic alignment (IA) of galaxy images as a tool to extract cosmological information complimentary to galaxy clustering analysis. Recently, Okumura & Taruya derived useful formulas for the intrinsic ellipticity–ellipticity correlation, the gravitational shear–intrinsic ellipticity correlation, and the velocity–intrinsic ellipticity correlation functions based on the linear alignment (LA) model. In this paper, using large-volume N-body simulations, we measure these alignment statistics for dark-matter haloes in real and redshift space and compare them to the LA and non-linear alignment model predictions. We find that anisotropic features of baryon acoustic oscillations in the IA statistics can be accurately predicted by our models. The anisotropy due to redshift-space distortions (RSDs) is also well described in the large-scale limit. Our results indicate that one can extract the cosmological information encoded in the IA through the Alcock–Paczynski and RSD effects.

Cosmological Constraints from the Redshift Dependence of the Alcock–Paczynski Effect: Possibility of Estimating the Nonlinear Systematics Using Fast Simulations

Abstract The tomographic Alcock–Paczynski (AP) method is so far the best method in separating the AP signal from the redshift space distortion (RSD) effects and deriving powerful constraints on cosmological parameters using the ≲ 40 h − 1 Mpc clustering region. To guarantee that the method can be easily applied to the future large-scale structure surveys, we study the possibility of estimating the systematics of the method using the fast simulation method. The major contribution of the systematics comes from the nonzero redshift evolution of the RSD effects, which is quantified by ξ ˆ Δ s ( μ , z ) in our analysis, and estimated using the BigMultidark exact N-body simulation and approximate COmoving Lagrangian Acceleration (COLA) simulation samples. We find about 5%/10% evolution when comparing the ξ ˆ Δ s ( μ , z ) measured as z = 0.5/z = 1 to the measurements at z = 0. We checked the inaccuracy in the 2pCFs computed using COLA, and find it 5–10 times smaller than the intrinsic systematics of the tomographic AP method, indicating that using COLA to estimate the systematics is good enough. Finally, we test the effect of halo bias, and find ≲1.5% change in ξ ˆ Δ s when varying the halo mass within the range of 2 × 1012–1014 M ⊙. We will perform more studies to achieve an accurate and efficient estimation of the systematics in the redshift range of z = 0–1.5.

Anisotropies of galaxy ellipticity correlations in real and redshift space: angular dependence in linear tidal alignment model

ABSTRACT Investigating intrinsic alignments (IAs) of galaxy shapes is important not only to constrain cosmological parameters unbiasedly from gravitational lensing but also to extract cosmological information complimentary to galaxy clustering analysis. We derive simple and useful formulas for the various IA statistics, including the intrinsic ellipticity–ellipticity correlation, the gravitational shear–intrinsic ellipticity correlation, and the velocity–intrinsic ellipticity correlation functions. The angular dependence of each statistic is explicitly given, namely the angle between the line-of-sight direction and the separation vector of two points. It thus allows us to analyse anisotropies of baryon acoustic oscillations encoded in the IA statistics, and we can extract the maximum cosmological information using the Alcock–Paczynski and redshift-space distortion effects. We also provide these formulas for the intrinsic ellipticities decomposed into E and B modes.

Cosmological Constraints from the Redshift Dependence of the Alcock–Paczynski Effect: Fourier Space Analysis

Abstract The tomographic Alcock–Paczynski (AP) method utilizes the redshift evolution of the AP distortion to place constraints on cosmological parameters. In previous works, it was performed via the anisotropic two-point correlation function statistic. In this work we consider the feasibility of conducting the analysis in the Fourier domain. We use the integrated galaxy power spectrum as a function of direction, , to quantify the magnitude of anisotropy in the large-scale structure clustering, and use its redshift variation to do the AP test. The method is tested on the large, high-resolution Big-MultiDark Planck simulation at redshifts z = 0–1. Testing the redshift evolution of in the true cosmology and cosmologies deviating from the truth with δΩ m = 0.1, δw = 0.3, we find that the redshift evolution of the AP distortion overwhelms the redshift space distortions effects by a factor of ∼1.7–3.6. The method works well throughout the range of k ∈ (0.2, 1.8) h Mpc−1. We tune the halo mass within the range 2 × 1013–1014 M ⊙, and find that the change of halo bias results in ≲5% change in , which is less significant compared with the cosmological effect. Our work shows that it is feasible to conduct the tomographic AP analysis in the Fourier space.

Observational constraints on interacting Tsallis holographic dark energy model

In this paper, we investigate a recent proposed model – so called the Tsallis holographic dark energy (THDE) model with consideration of the Hubble and the event future horizon as IR cutoffs. In this case, we consider the non-gravitational and phenomenological interaction between dark sectors. We fit the free parameters of the model using Pantheon Supernovae Type Ia data, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, Cosmic Microwave Background, Gamma-Ray burst and the the local value of the Hubble constant. We examine the THDE model to check its compatibility with observational data using objective Information Criterion (IC). We find that the THDE models cannot be supported by observational data once the Lambda CDM is considered as the referring model. Therefore we re-examine the analysis with the standard holographic dark energy model (HDE) as another reference. Changing the Lambda CDM to main standard dark energy model (HDE), we observe the compatibility of the THDE models. Using the Alcock–Paczynski (AP) test we check the deviation of the model compared to Lambda CDM and HDE. Surveying the evolution of squared of sound speed v^2_s as an another test we check the stability of the interacting and non-interacting THDE models and we find that while the THDE model with the Hubble horizon as IR cutoff is unstable against the background perturbation, the future event horizon as IR cutoff show stability at the late time. In addition, using the modified version of the CAMB package, we observe the suppressing the CMB spectrum at small K-modes and large scale.

Alcock–Paczynski Test with the Evolution of Redshift-space Galaxy Clustering Anisotropy

Abstract We develop an improved Alcock–Paczynski (AP) test method that uses the redshift-space two-point correlation function (2pCF) of galaxies. Cosmological constraints can be obtained by examining the redshift dependence of the normalized 2pCF, which should not change apart from the expected small nonlinear evolution. An incorrect choice of cosmology used to convert redshift to comoving distance will manifest itself as redshift-dependent 2pCF. Our method decomposes the redshift difference of the two-dimensional correlation function into the Legendre polynomials whose amplitudes are modeled by radial fitting functions. Our likelihood analysis with this 2D fitting scheme tightens the constraints on Ω m and w by ∼40% compared to the method of Li et al. that uses one-dimensional angular dependence only. We also find that the correction for the nonlinear evolution in the 2pCF has a non-negligible cosmology dependence, which has been neglected in previous similar studies by Li et al. With an accurate accounting for the nonlinear systematics and use of full two-dimensional shape information of the 2pCF down to scales as small as 5 h −1 Mpc it is expected that the AP test with redshift-space galaxy clustering anisotropy can be a powerful method to constraining the expansion history of the universe.

Beyond BAO: Improving cosmological constraints from BOSS data with measurement of the void-galaxy cross-correlation

We present a measurement of the anisotropic void-galaxy cross-correlation function in the CMASS galaxy sample of the BOSS DR12 data release. We perform a joint fit to the data for redshift space distortions (RSD) due to galaxy peculiar velocities and anisotropies due to the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) effect, for the first time using a velocity field reconstruction technique to remove the complicating effects of RSD in the void centre positions themselves. Fits to the void-galaxy function give a 1% measurement of the AP parameter combination $D_A(z)H(z)/c = 0.4367\pm 0.0045$ at redshift $z=0.57$, where $D_A$ is the angular diameter distance and $H$ the Hubble parameter, exceeding the precision obtainable from baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) by a factor of ~3.5 and free of systematic errors. From voids alone we also obtain a 10% measure of the growth rate, $f\sigma_8(z=0.57)=0.501\pm0.051$. The parameter degeneracies are orthogonal to those obtained from galaxy clustering. Combining void information with that from BAO and galaxy RSD in the same CMASS sample, we measure $D_A(0.57)/r_s=9.383\pm 0.077$ (at 0.8% precision), $H(0.57)r_s=(14.05\pm 0.14)\;10^3$ kms$^{-1}$Mpc$^{-1}$ (1%) and $f\sigma_8=0.453\pm0.022$ (4.9%), consistent with cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements from Planck. These represent a factor \sim2 improvement in precision over previous results through the inclusion of void information. Fitting a flat cosmological constant $\Lambda$CDM model to these results in combination with Planck CMB data, we find up to an 11% reduction in uncertainties on $H_0$ and $\Omega_m$ compared to use of the corresponding BOSS consensus values. Constraints on extended models with non-flat geometry and a dark energy of state that differs from $w=-1$ show an even greater improvement.

Testing gravity with galaxy-galaxy lensing and redshift-space distortions using CFHT-Stripe 82, CFHTLenS, and BOSS CMASS datasets

The combination of galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGL) and redshift space distortion of galaxy clustering (RSD) is a privileged technique to test general relativity predictions and break degeneracies between the growth rate of structure parameter f and the amplitude of the linear power spectrum σ8. We performed a joint GGL and RSD analysis on 250 sq. deg using shape catalogues from CFHTLenS and CFHT-Stripe 82 and spectroscopic redshifts from the BOSS CMASS sample. We adjusted a model that includes non-linear biasing, RSD, and Alcock–Paczynski effects. We used an N-body simulation supplemented by an abundance matching prescription for CMASS galaxies to build a set of overlapping lensing and clustering mocks. Together with additional spectroscopic data, this helps us to quantify and correct several systematic errors, such as photometric redshifts. We find f(z = 0.57) = 0.95 ± 0.23, σ8(z = 0.57) = 0.55 ± 0.07 and Ωm = 0.31 ± 0.08, in agreement with Planck cosmological results 2018. We also estimate the probe of gravity EG = 0.43 ± 0.10, in agreement with ΛCDM−GR predictions of EG = 0.40. This analysis reveals that RSD efficiently decreases the GGL uncertainty on Ωm by a factor of 4 and by 30% on σ8. We make our mock catalogues available on the Skies and Universe database.

Nonparametric Dark Energy Reconstruction Using the Tomographic Alcock–Paczynski Test

Abstract The tomographic Alcock–Paczynski (AP) method can result in tight cosmological constraints by using small and intermediate clustering scales of the large-scale structure of the galaxy distribution. By focusing on the redshift dependence, the AP distortion can be distinguished from the distortions produced by the redshift space distortions. In this work, we combine the tomographic AP method with other recent observational data sets of SN Ia+BAO+CMB+H 0 to reconstruct the dark energy equation-of-state w in a nonparametric form. The result favors a dynamical DE at z ≲ 1, and shows a mild deviation (≲2σ) from w = −1 at z = 0.5–0.7. We find the addition of the AP method improves the low-redshift (z ≲ 0.7) constraint by ∼50%.

The Redshift Dependence of the Alcock–Paczynski Effect: Cosmological Constraints from the Current and Next Generation Observations

Abstract The tomographic Alcock–Paczynski (AP) test is a robust large-scale structure (LSS) measurement that receives little contamination from the redshift space distortion. It has placed tight cosmological constraints by using small and intermediate clustering scales of the LSS data. However, previous works have neglected the cross-correlation among different redshift bins, which could cause the statistical uncertainty being underestimated by ∼20%. In this work, we further improve this method by including this multi-redshift’s full correlation. We apply it to the SDSS DR12 galaxies sample and find out that, for ΛCDM, the combination of AP with the Planck+BAO data set slightly reduces (within 1σ) Ω m to 0.304 ± 0.007 (68.3% CL). This then leads to a larger H 0 and also mildly affects Ω b h 2 and n s as well as the derived parameters z *, r *, and z re but not τ, A s , and σ 8. For the flat wCDM model, our measurement gives Ω m = 0.301 ± 0.010 and w = −1.090 ± 0.047, where the additional AP measurement reduces the error budget by ∼25%. When including more parameters into the analysis, the AP method also improves the constraints on Ω k , , and N eff by 20%–30%. Early universe parameters such as and r, however, are unaffected. Assuming the dark energy equation of state , the Planck+BAO+SNe Ia+H 0+AP data sets prefer a dynamical dark energy at ≈1.5σ CL. Finally, we forecast the cosmological constraints expected from the DESI galaxy survey and find that combining AP with the CMB+BAO method would improve the w 0–w a constraint by a factor of ∼10.

Comparing approximate methods for mock catalogues and covariance matrices II: power spectrum multipoles

ABSTRACT We study the accuracy of several approximate methods for gravitational dynamics in terms of halo power spectrum multipoles and their estimated covariance matrix. We propagate the differences in covariances into parameter constraints related to growth rate of structure, Alcock–Paczynski distortions, and biasing. We consider seven methods in three broad categories: algorithms that solve for halo density evolution deterministically using Lagrangian trajectories (ICE–COLA, pinocchio, and peakpatch), methods that rely on halo assignment schemes on to dark matter overdensities calibrated with a target N-body run (halogen, patchy), and two standard assumptions about the full density probability distribution function (Gaussian and lognormal). We benchmark their performance against a set of three hundred N-body simulations, running similar sets of approximate simulations with matched initial conditions, for each method. We find that most methods reproduce the monopole to within $5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, while residuals for the quadrupole are sometimes larger and scale dependent. The variance of the multipoles is typically reproduced within $10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. Overall, we find that covariances built from approximate simulations yield errors on model parameters within $10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of those from the N-body-based covariance.

TightH0 constraint from galaxy redshift surveys: combining baryon acoustic oscillation measurements and Alcock–Paczynski test with a CMB prior

We report a tight Hubble constant constraint $67.78^{+1.21}_{-1.86}$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ (2.26\% precision) derived from galaxy redshift surveys. We combine the BAO measurements from 6dFGS, the SDSS DR7 main galaxies, the BOSS DR12 galaxies, and eBOSS DR14 quasars, and also apply the tomographic Alcock-Paczynski (AP) method to the BOSS DR12 galaxies, to place constraints on $H_0$ in the spatially flat $\Lambda$CDM framework. Our result is fully consistent with the CMB constraints from Planck, but in $2.58\sigma$ tension with local measurements of Riess et al. 2016. Compared with the BAO alone constraint, the BAO+AP combined result reduces the error bar by 32%. This shows the strong power of the tomographic AP method in extracting cosmological information from galaxy redshift surveys.

Cosmological Constraints from the Redshift Dependence of the Alcock–Paczynski Effect: Dynamical Dark Energy

Abstract We perform an anisotropic clustering analysis of 1,133,326 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12 covering the redshift range 0.15 < z < 0.69. The geometrical distortions of the galaxy positions, caused by incorrect assumptions in the cosmological model, are captured in the anisotropic two-point correlation function on scales of 6–40 h −1 Mpc. The redshift evolution of this anisotropic clustering is used to place constraints on the cosmological parameters. We improve the methodology of Li et al. to enable efficient exploration of high-dimensional cosmological parameter spaces, and apply it to the Chevallier–Polarski–Linder parameterization of dark energy, w = w 0 + w a z/(1 + z). In combination with data on the cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillations, Type Ia supernovae, and H 0 from Cepheids, we obtain Ω m = 0.301 ± 0.008, w 0 = −1.042 ± 0.067, and w a = −0.07 ± 0.29 (68.3% CL). Adding our new Alcock–Paczynski measurements to the aforementioned results reduces the error bars by ∼30%–40% and improves the dark-energy figure of merit by a factor of ∼2. We check the robustness of the results using realistic mock galaxy catalogs.

Deconstructing the neutrino mass constraint from galaxy redshift surveys

The total mass of neutrinos can be constrained in a number of ways using galaxy redshift surveys. Massive neutrinos modify the expansion rate of the Universe, which can be measured using baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) or the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) test. Massive neutrinos also change the structure growth rate and the amplitude of the matter power spectrum, which can be measured using redshift-space distortions (RSD). We use the Fisher matrix formalism to disentangle these information sources, to provide projected neutrino mass constraints from each of these probes alone and to determine how sensitive each is to the assumed cosmological model. We isolate the distinctive effect of neutrino free-streaming on the matter power spectrum and structure growth rate as a signal unique to massive neutrinos that can provide the most robust constraints, which are relatively insensitive to extensions to the cosmological model beyond ΛCDM . We also provide forecasted constraints using all of the information contained in the observed galaxy power spectrum combined, and show that these maximally optimistic constraints are primarily limited by the accuracy to which the optical depth of the cosmic microwave background, τ, is known.

Galaxy power-spectrum responses and redshift-space super-sample effect

As a major source of cosmological information, galaxy clustering is susceptible to long-wavelength density and tidal fluctuations. These long modes modulate the growth and expansion rate of local structures, shifting them in both amplitude and scale. These effects are often named the growth and dilation effects, respectively. In particular the dilation shifts the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) peak and breaks the assumption of the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) test. This cannot be removed with reconstruction techniques because the effect originates from long modes outside the survey. In redshift space, the long modes generate a large-scale radial peculiar velocity that affects the redshift-space distortion (RSD) signal. We compute the redshift-space response functions of the galaxy power spectrum to long density and tidal modes at leading order in perturbation theory, including both the growth and dilation terms. We validate these response functions against measurements from simulated galaxy mock catalogs. As one application, long density and tidal modes beyond the scale of a survey correlate various observables leading to an excess error known as the super-sample covariance, and thus weaken their constraining power. We quantify the super-sample effect on BAO, AP, and RSD measurements, and study its impact on current and future surveys.

The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: cosmological analysis of the DR12 galaxy sample

We present cosmological results from the final galaxy clustering data set of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. Our combined galaxy sample comprises 1.2 million massive galaxies over an effective area of 9329 deg^2 and volume of 18.7 Gpc^3, divided into three partially overlapping redshift slices centred at effective redshifts 0.38, 0.51, and 0.61. We measure the angular diameter distance DM and Hubble parameter H from the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) method after applying reconstruction to reduce non-linear effects on the BAO feature. Using the anisotropic clustering of the pre-reconstruction density field, we measure the product DM*H from the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) effect and the growth of structure, quantified by f{\sigma}8(z), from redshift-space distortions (RSD). We combine measurements presented in seven companion papers into a set of consensus values and likelihoods, obtaining constraints that are tighter and more robust than those from any one method. Combined with Planck 2015 cosmic microwave background measurements, our distance scale measurements simultaneously imply curvature {\Omega}_K =0.0003+/-0.0026 and a dark energy equation of state parameter w = -1.01+/-0.06, in strong affirmation of the spatially flat cold dark matter model with a cosmological constant ({\Lambda}CDM). Our RSD measurements of f{\sigma}_8, at 6 per cent precision, are similarly consistent with this model. When combined with supernova Ia data, we find H0 = 67.3+/-1.0 km/s/Mpc even for our most general dark energy model, in tension with some direct measurements. Adding extra relativistic species as a degree of freedom loosens the constraint only slightly, to H0 = 67.8+/-1.2 km/s/Mpc. Assuming flat {\Lambda}CDM we find {\Omega}_m = 0.310+/-0.005 and H0 = 67.6+/-0.5 km/s/Mpc, and we find a 95% upper limit of 0.16 eV/c^2 on the neutrino mass sum.

The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: anisotropic galaxy clustering in Fourier space

We investigate the anisotropic clustering of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 12 (DR12) sample, which consists of $1\,198\,006$ galaxies in the redshift range $0.2 < z < 0.75$ and a sky coverage of $10\,252\,$deg$^2$. We analyse this dataset in Fourier space, using the power spectrum multipoles to measure Redshift-Space Distortions (RSD) simultaneously with the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) effect and the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale. We include the power spectrum monopole, quadrupole and hexadecapole in our analysis and compare our measurements with a perturbation theory based model, while properly accounting for the survey window function. To evaluate the reliability of our analysis pipeline we participate in a mock challenge, which resulted in systematic uncertainties significantly smaller than the statistical uncertainties. While the high-redshift constraint on $f\sigma_8$ at $z_{\rm eff}=0.61$ indicates a small ($\sim 1.4\sigma$) deviation from the prediction of the Planck $\Lambda$CDM model, the low-redshift constraint is in good agreement with Planck $\Lambda$CDM. This paper is part of a set that analyses the final galaxy clustering dataset from BOSS. The measurements and likelihoods presented here are combined with others in~\citet{Alam2016} to produce the final cosmological constraints from BOSS.

COSMOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS FROM THE REDSHIFT DEPENDENCE OF THE ALCOCK–PACZYNSKI EFFECT: APPLICATION TO THE SDSS-III BOSS DR12 GALAXIES

ABSTRACT We apply the methodology developed in Li et al. to BOSS DR12 galaxies and derive cosmological constraints from the redshift dependence of the Alcock–Paczynski (AP) effect. The apparent anisotropy in the distribution of observed galaxies arise from two main sources, the redshift-space distortion (RSD) effect due to the galaxy peculiar velocities, and the geometric distortion when incorrect cosmological models are assumed for transforming redshift to comoving distance, known as the AP effect. Anisotropies produced by the RSD effect are, although large, maintaining a nearly uniform magnitude over a large range of redshift, while the degree of anisotropies from the AP effect varies with redshift by a much larger magnitude. We split the DR12 galaxies into six redshift bins, measure the two-point correlation function in each bin, and assess the redshift evolution of anisotropies. We obtain constraints of , which are comparable with the current constraints from other cosmological probes such as SNe Ia, cosmic microwave background, and baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO). Combining these cosmological probes with our method yield tight constraints of . Our method is complementary to the other large-scale structure (LSS) probes like BAO and topology. We expect this technique will play an important role in deriving cosmological constraints from LSS surveys.

ON REMOVING INTERLOPER CONTAMINATION FROM INTENSITY MAPPING POWER SPECTRUM MEASUREMENTS

ABSTRACT Line intensity mapping experiments seek to trace large-scale structures by measuring the spatial fluctuations in the combined emission, in some convenient spectral line, from individually unresolved galaxies. An important systematic concern for these surveys is line confusion from foreground or background galaxies emitting in other lines that happen to lie at the same observed frequency as the “target” emission line of interest. We develop an approach to separate this “interloper” emission at the power spectrum level. If one adopts the redshift of the target emission line in mapping from observed frequency and angle on the sky to co-moving units, the interloper emission is mapped to the wrong co-moving coordinates. Because the mapping is different in the line of sight and transverse directions, the interloper contribution to the power spectrum becomes anisotropic, especially if the interloper and target emission are at widely separated redshifts. This distortion is analogous to the Alcock–Paczynski test, but here the warping arises from assuming the wrong redshift rather than an incorrect cosmological model. We apply this to the case of a hypothetical [C ii] emission survey at and find that the distinctive interloper anisotropy can, in principle, be used to separate strong foreground CO emission fluctuations. In our models, however, a significantly more sensitive instrument than currently planned is required, although there are large uncertainties in forecasting the high-redshift [C ii] emission signal. With upcoming surveys, it may nevertheless be useful to apply this approach after first masking pixels suspected of containing strong interloper contamination.