Large Redshift Surveys Research Articles

Cosmology and Astrophysics with Standard Sirens and Galaxy Catalogs in View of Future Gravitational Wave Observations

With the growing number of gravitational wave (GW) detections and the advent of large galaxy redshift surveys, a new era in cosmology is emerging. This study explores the synergies between GWs and galaxy surveys to jointly constrain cosmological and GW population parameters. We introduce CHIMERA, a novel code for GW cosmology combining information from the population properties of compact binary mergers and galaxy catalogs. We study constraints for scenarios representative of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4 and O5 observing runs, assuming to have a complete catalog of potential host galaxies with either spectroscopic or photometric redshift measurements. We find that a percent-level measurement of H 0 could be achieved with the best 100 binary black holes (BBHs) in O5 using a spectroscopic galaxy catalog. In this case, the intrinsic correlation that exists between H 0 and the BBH population mass scales is broken. Instead, by using a photometric catalog the accuracy is degraded up to a factor of ∼9, leaving a significant correlation between H 0 and the mass scales that must be carefully modeled to avoid bias. Interestingly, we find that using spectroscopic redshift measurements in the O4 configuration yields a better constraint on H 0 compared to the O5 configuration with photometric measurements. In view of the wealth of GW data that will be available in the future, we argue the importance of obtaining spectroscopic galaxy catalogs to maximize the scientific return of GW cosmology.

Impact of lensing magnification on the analysis of galaxy clustering in redshift space

We study the impact of lensing magnification on the observed three-dimensional galaxy clustering in redshift space. We used the RayGal suite of N-body simulations, from which we extracted samples of dark matter particles and haloes in the redshift regime of interest for future large redshift surveys. Several magnitude-limited samples were built that reproduce various levels of magnification bias ranging from s = 0 to s = 1.2, where s is the logarithmic slope of the cumulative magnitude number counts, in three redshift intervals within 1 < z < 1.95. We studied the two-point correlation function multipole moments in the different cases in the same way as would be applied to real data, and investigated how well the growth rate of structure parameter could be recovered. In the analysis, we used an hybrid model that combines non-linear redshift-space distortions and linear curved-sky lensing magnification. We find that the growth rate is underestimated when magnification bias is not accounted for in the modelling. This bias becomes non-negligible for z > 1.3 and can reach 10% at z ≃ 1.8, depending on the properties of the target sample. In our data, adding the lensing linear correction allowed us to recover an unbiased estimate of the growth rate in most cases when the correction was small, even when the fiducial cosmology was different from that of the data. For larger corrections (high redshifts, low bias, and high s value), we find that the weak-lensing limit has to be treated with caution as it may no longer be a good approximation. Our results also show the importance of knowing s in advance instead of letting this parameter free with flat priors because in this case, the error bars increase significantly.

The completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: N-body mock challenge for the quasar sample

ABSTRACT The growth rate and expansion history of the Universe can be measured from large galaxy redshift surveys using the Alcock–Paczynski effect. We validate the Redshift Space Distortion models used in the final analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 16 quasar clustering sample, in configuration and Fourier space, using a series of halo occupation distribution mock catalogues generated using the OuterRim N-body simulation. We test three models on a series of non-blind mocks, in the OuterRim cosmology, and blind mocks, which have been rescaled to new cosmologies, and investigate the effects of redshift smearing and catastrophic redshifts. We find that for the non-blind mocks, the models are able to recover fσ8 to within 3 per cent and α∥ and α⊥ to within 1 per cent. The scatter in the measurements is larger for the blind mocks, due to the assumption of an incorrect fiducial cosmology. From this mock challenge, we find that all three models perform well, with similar systematic errors on fσ8, α∥, and α⊥ at the level of $\sigma _{f\sigma _8}=0.013$, $\sigma _{\alpha _\parallel }=0.012$, and $\sigma _{\alpha _\bot }=0.008$. The systematic error on the combined consensus is $\sigma _{f\sigma _8}=0.011$, $\sigma _{\alpha _\parallel }=0.008$, and $\sigma _{\alpha _\bot }=0.005$, which is used in the final DR16 analysis. For baryon acoustic oscillation fits in configuration and Fourier space, we take conservative systematic errors of $\sigma _{\alpha _\parallel }=0.010$ and $\sigma _{\alpha _\bot }=0.007$.

The cosmic web through the lens of graph entropy

ABSTRACT We explore the information theory entropy of a graph as a scalar to quantify the cosmic web. We find entropy values in the range between 1.5 and 3.2 bits. We argue that this entropy can be used as a discrete analogue of scalars used to quantify the connectivity in continuous density fields. After showing that the entropy clearly distinguishes between clustred and random points, we use simulations to gauge the influence of survey geometry, cosmic variance, redshift space distortions, redshift evolution, cosmological parameters, and spatial number density. Cosmic variance shows the least important influence while changes from the survey geometry, redshift space distortions, cosmological parameters, and redshift evolution produce larger changes of the order of 10−2 bits. The largest influence on the graph entropy comes from changes in the number density of clustred points. As the number density decreases, and the cosmic web is less pronounced, the entropy can diminish up to 0.2 bits. The graph entropy is simple to compute and can be applied both to simulations and observational data from large galaxy redshift surveys; it is a new statistic that can be used in a complementary way to other kinds of topological or clustering measurements.

The synthetic Emission Line COSMOS catalogue: Hα and [O ii] galaxy luminosity functions and counts at 0.3 < z < 2.5

ABSTRACT Star-forming galaxies with strong nebular and collisional emission lines are privileged target galaxies in forthcoming cosmological large galaxy redshift surveys. We use the COSMOS2015 photometric catalogue to model galaxy spectral energy distributions and emission-line fluxes. We adopt an empirical but physically motivated model that uses information from the best-fitting spectral energy distribution of stellar continuum to each galaxy. The emission-line flux model is calibrated and validated against direct flux measurements in subsets of galaxies that have 3D-HST or zCOSMOS-Bright spectra. We take a particular care in modelling dust attenuation such that our model can explain both Hα and [O ii] observed fluxes at different redshifts. We find that a simple solution to this is to introduce a redshift evolution in the dust attenuation fraction parameter, f = Estar(B − V)/Egas(B − V), as f(z) = 0.44 + 0.2z. From this catalogue, we derive the Hα and [O ii] luminosity functions up to redshifts of about 2.5 after carefully accounting for emission line flux and redshift errors. This allows us to make predictions for Hα and [O ii] galaxy number counts in next-generation cosmological redshift surveys. Our modelled emission lines and spectra in the COSMOS2015 catalogue shall be useful to study the target selection for planned next-generation galaxy redshift surveys and we make them publicly available as ‘EL-COSMOS’ on the ASPIC data base.

GUNDAM: a toolkit for fast spatial correlation functions in galaxy surveys

ABSTRACT We describe the capabilities of a new software package to calculate two-point correlation functions (2PCFs) of large galaxy samples. The code can efficiently estimate 3D/projected/angular 2PCFs with a variety of statistical estimators and bootstrap errors, and is intended to provide a complete framework (including calculation, storage, manipulation, and plotting) to perform this type of spatial analysis with large redshift surveys. Gundam implements a very fast skip list/linked list algorithm that efficiently counts galaxy pairs and avoids the computation of unnecessary distances. It is several orders of magnitude faster than a naive pair counter, and matches or even surpass other advanced algorithms. The implementation is also embarrassingly parallel, making full use of multicore processors or large computational clusters when available. The software is designed to be flexible, user friendly and easily extensible, integrating optimized, well-tested packages already available in the astronomy community. Out of the box, it already provides advanced features such as custom weighting schemes, fibre collision corrections and 2D correlations. Gundam will ultimately provide an efficient toolkit to analyse the large-scale structure ‘buried’ in upcoming extremely large data sets generated by future surveys.

Abundance of peaks and dips in 3D mass and halo density fields: a test for cosmology

Using cosmological N-body simulations, we study the abundance of local maxima (peaks) and minima (dips) identified in the smoothed distribution of halos and dark matter (DM) on scales of $10-100$s Mpcs. The simulations include Gaussian and local-type $f_{\rm NL}$ non-Gaussian initial conditions. The expression derived in the literature for the abundance (irrespective of height) of peaks for Gaussian fields is surprisingly accurate for the evolved halo and DM density fields for all initial conditions considered. Furthermore, the height distribution is very well fitted by a log-normal on quasi-linear scales. The abundance as a function of scale depends on the cosmological parameters ($H_0$ and background matter densities) through the shape of the power spectrum, but it is insensitive to the clustering amplitude. Further, the abundance in the smoothed halo distribution is substantially different in the non-Gaussian from the Gaussian simulations. The interpretation of this effect is straightforward in terms of the scale dependence of halo bias in non-Gaussian models. The abundance of extrema extracted from three-dimensional large galaxy redshift surveys could be a competitive probe of the cosmological parameters and initial non-Gaussianity. It breaks the degeneracy between $f_{\rm NL}$ and the clustering amplitude, making it complementary to counts of galaxy clusters and peaks in weak-lensing maps.

Gas Contents of Galaxy Groups from Thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich Effects

Abstract A matched filter technique is applied to the Planck all-sky Compton y-parameter map to measure the thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (tSZ) effect produced by galaxy groups of different halo masses selected from large redshift surveys in the low-z universe. Reliable halo mass estimates are available for all of the groups, which allows us to bin groups of similar halo masses to investigate how the tSZ effect depends on halo mass over a large mass range. Filters are simultaneously matched for all groups to minimize projection effects. We find that the integrated y-parameter and the hot gas content it implies are consistent with the predictions of the universal pressure profile model only for massive groups above , but much lower than the model prediction for low-mass groups. The halo mass dependence found is in good agreement with the predictions of a set of simulations that include strong active galactic nucleus feedback, but simulations including only supernova feedback significantly overpredict the hot gas contents in galaxy groups. Our results suggest that hot gas in galaxy groups is either effectively ejected or in phases much below the virial temperatures of the host halos.

Connecting optical and X-ray tracers of galaxy cluster relaxation

Substantial effort has been devoted in determining the ideal proxy for quantifying the morphology of the hot intracluster medium in clusters of galaxies. These proxies, based on X-ray emission, typically require expensive, high-quality X-ray observations making them difficult to apply to large surveys of groups and clusters. Here, we compare optical relaxation proxies with X-ray asymmetries and centroid shifts for a sample of SDSS clusters with high-quality, archival X-ray data from Chandra and XMM-Newton. The three optical relaxation measures considered are: the shape of the member-galaxy projected velocity distribution -- measured by the Anderson-Darling (AD) statistic, the stellar mass gap between the most-massive and second-most-massive cluster galaxy, and the offset between the most-massive galaxy (MMG) position and the luminosity-weighted cluster centre. The AD statistic and stellar mass gap correlate significantly with X-ray relaxation proxies, with the AD statistic being the stronger correlator. Conversely, we find no evidence for a correlation between X-ray asymmetry or centroid shift and the MMG offset. High-mass clusters ($M_\mathrm{halo} > 10^{14.5}\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$) in this sample have X-ray asymmetries, centroid shifts, and Anderson-Darling statistics which are systematically larger than for low-mass systems. Finally, considering the dichotomy of Gaussian and non-Gaussian clusters (measured by the AD test), we show that the probability of being a non-Gaussian cluster correlates significantly with X-ray asymmetry but only shows a marginal correlation with centroid shift. These results confirm the shape of the radial velocity distribution as a useful proxy for cluster relaxation, which can then be applied to large redshift surveys lacking extensive X-ray coverage.

N-body simulations of gravitational redshifts and other relativistic distortions of galaxy clustering

Large redshift surveys of galaxies and clusters are providing the first opportunities to search for distortions in the observed pattern of large-scale structure due to such effects as gravitational redshift. We focus on non-linear scales and apply a quasi-Newtonian approach using N-body simulations to predict the small asymmetries in the cross-correlation function of two galaxy different populations. Following recent work by Bonvin et al., Zhao and Peacock and Kaiser on galaxy clusters, we include effects which enter at the same order as gravitational redshift: the transverse Doppler effect, light-cone effects, relativistic beaming, luminosity distance perturbation and wide-angle effects. We find that all these effects cause asymmetries in the cross-correlation functions. Quantifying these asymmetries, we find that the total effect is dominated by the gravitational redshift and luminosity distance perturbation at small and large scales, respectively. By adding additional subresolution modelling of galaxy structure to the large-scale structure information, we find that the signal is significantly increased, indicating that structure on the smallest scales is important and should be included. We report on comparison of our simulation results with measurements from the SDSS/BOSS galaxy redshift survey in a companion paper.

Galaxy groups in the low-redshift Universe

We apply a halo-based group finder to four large redshift surveys, the 2MRS (Two Micron All-Sky Redshift Survey), 6dFGS (Six-degree Field Galaxy Survey), SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) and 2dFGRS (Two-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey), to construct group catalogues in the low-redshift Universe. The group finder is based on that of Yang et al. but with an improved halo mass assignment so that it can be applied uniformly to various redshift surveys of galaxies. Halo masses are assigned to groups according to proxies based on the stellar mass/luminosity of member galaxies. The performances of the group finder in grouping galaxies according to common haloes and in halo mass assignments are tested using realistic mock samples constructed from hydrodynamical simulations and empirical models of galaxy occupation in dark matter haloes. Our group finder finds ∼94 per cent of the correct true member galaxies for 90–95 per cent of the groups in the mock samples; the halo masses assigned by the group finder are un-biased with respect to the true halo masses, and have a typical uncertainty of ∼0.2 dex. The properties of group catalogues constructed from the observational samples are described and compared with other similar catalogues in the literature.

Fast weak-lensing simulations with halo model

Full ray-tracing maps of gravitational lensing, constructed from N-Body simulations, represent a fundamental tool to interpret present and future weak lensing data. However the limitation of computational resources and storage capabilities severely restrict the number of realizations that can be performed in order to accurately sample both the cosmic shear models and covariance matrices. In this paper we present a halo model formalism for weak gravitational lensing that alleviates these issues by producing weak-lensing mocks at a reduced computational cost. Our model takes as input the halo population within a desired light-cone and the linear power spectrum of the underlined cosmological model. We examine the contribution given by the presence of substructures within haloes to the cosmic shear power spectrum and quantify it to the percent level. Our method allows us to reconstruct high-resolution convergence maps, for any desired source redshifts, of light-cones that realistically trace the matter density distribution in the universe, account for masked area and sample selections. We compare our analysis on the same large scale structures constructed using ray-tracing techniques and find very good agreements both in the linear and non-linear regimes up to few percent levels. The accuracy and speed of our method demonstrate the potential of our halo model for weak lensing statistics and the possibility to generate a large sample of convergence maps for different cosmological models as needed for the analysis of large galaxy redshift surveys.

Speed from light: growth rate and bulk flow at z ∼ 0.1 from improved SDSS DR13 photometry

Observed galaxy luminosities (derived from redshifts) hold information on the large-scale peculiar velocity field in the form of spatially correlated scatter, which allows for bounds on bulk flows and the growth rate of matter density perturbations using large galaxy redshift surveys. We apply this luminosity approach to galaxies from the recent SDSS Data Release 13. Our goal is twofold. First, we take advantage of the recalibrated photometry to identify possible systematic errors relevant to our previous analysis of earlier data. Second, we seek improved constraints on the bulk flow and the normalized growth rate f$\sigma_{8}$ at z ~ 0.1. Our results confirm the robustness of our method. Bulk flow amplitudes, estimated in two redshift bins with 0.02 < z$_{1}$ < 0.07 < z$_{2}$ < 0.22, are generally smaller than in previous measurements, consistent with both the updated photometry and expectations for the $\Lambda$CDM model. The obtained growth rate, f$\sigma_{8}$ = 0.48 +/- 0.16, is larger than, but still compatible with, its previous estimate, and closer to the reference value of Planck. Rather than precision, the importance of these results is due to the fact that they follow from an independent method that relies on accurate photometry, which is a top requirement for next-generation photometric catalogs.

Lensing convergence and the neutrino mass scale in galaxy redshift surveys

We demonstrate the importance of including the lensing contribution in galaxy clustering analyses with large galaxy redshift surveys. It is well known that radial cross-correlations between different redshift bins of galaxy surveys are dominated by lensing. But we show here that also neglecting lensing in the autocorrelations within one bin severely biases cosmological parameter estimation with redshift surveys. It leads to significant shifts for several cosmological parameters, most notably the scalar spectral index and the neutrino mass scale. Especially the latter parameter is one of the main targets of future galaxy surveys.

Clustering-based redshift estimation: application to VIPERS/CFHTLS

We explore the accuracy of the clustering-based redshift estimation proposed by M\'enard et al. (2013) when applied to VIPERS and CFHTLS real data. This method enables us to reconstruct redshift distributions from measurement of the angular clus- tering of objects using a set of secure spectroscopic redshifts. We use state of the art spectroscopic measurements with iAB < 22.5 from the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) as reference population to infer the redshift distribution of galaxies from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) T0007 release. VIPERS provides a nearly representative sample to the flux limit iAB < 22.5 at redshift > 0.5 which allows us to test the accuracy of the clustering-based red- shift distributions. We show that this method enables us to reproduce the true mean color-redshift relation when both populations have the same magnitude limit. We also show that this technique allows the inference of redshift distributions for a population fainter than the one of reference and we give an estimate of the color-redshift mapping in this case. This last point is of great interest for future large redshift surveys which suffer from the need of a complete faint spectroscopic sample.

Redshift weights for baryon acoustic oscillations: application to mock galaxy catalogues

Large redshift surveys capable of measuring the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) signal have proven to be an effective way of measuring the distance-redshift relation in cosmology. Building off the work in Zhu et al. (2015), we develop a technique to directly constrain the distance-redshift relation from BAO measurements without splitting the sample into redshift bins. We parametrize the distance-redshift relation, relative to a fiducial model, as a quadratic expansion. We measure its coefficients and reconstruct the distance-redshift relation from the expansion. We apply the redshift weighting technique in Zhu et al. (2015) to the clustering of galaxies from 1000 QuickPM (QPM) mock simulations after reconstruction and achieve a 0.75% measurement of the angular diameter distance $D_A$ at $z=0.64$ and the same precision for Hubble parameter H at $z=0.29$. These QPM mock catalogs are designed to mimic the clustering and noise level of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 12 (DR12). We compress the correlation functions in the redshift direction onto a set of weighted correlation functions. These estimators give unbiased $D_A$ and $H$ measurements at all redshifts within the range of the combined sample. We demonstrate the effectiveness of redshift weighting in improving the distance and Hubble parameter estimates. Instead of measuring at a single 'effective' redshift as in traditional analyses, we report our $D_A$ and $H$ measurements at all redshifts. The measured fractional error of $D_A$ ranges from 1.53% at $z=0.2$ to 0.75% at $z=0.64$. The fractional error of $H$ ranges from 0.75% at $z=0.29$ to 2.45% at $z = 0.7$. Our measurements are consistent with a Fisher forecast to within 10% to 20% depending on the pivot redshift. We further show the results are robust against the choice of fiducial cosmologies, galaxy bias models, and RSD streaming parameters.

Clustering properties ofg-selected galaxies atz∼ 0.8

Current and future large redshift surveys, as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (SDSS-IV/eBOSS) or the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), will use emission-line galaxies (ELG) to probe cosmological models by mapping the large-scale structure of the Universe in the redshift range $0.6 < z < 1.7$. With current data, we explore the halo-galaxy connection by measuring three clustering properties of $g$-selected ELGs as matter tracers in the redshift range $0.6 < z < 1$: (i) the redshift-space two-point correlation function using spectroscopic redshifts from the BOSS ELG sample and VIPERS; (ii) the angular two-point correlation function on the footprint of the CFHT-LS; (iii) the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal around the ELGs using the CFHTLenS. We interpret these observations by mapping them onto the latest high-resolution MultiDark Planck N-body simulation, using a novel (Sub)Halo-Abundance Matching technique that accounts for the ELG incompleteness. ELGs at $z\sim0.8$ live in halos of $(1\pm 0.5)\times10^{12}\,h^{-1}$M$_{\odot}$ and 22.5$\pm2.5$% of them are satellites belonging to a larger halo. The halo occupation distribution of ELGs indicates that we are sampling the galaxies in which stars form in the most efficient way, according to their stellar-to-halo mass ratio.

A SEARCH FOR HYPERLUMINOUS X-RAY SOURCES IN THE XMM-NEWTON SOURCE CATALOG

ABSTRACT We present a new method to identify luminous off-nuclear X-ray sources in the outskirts of galaxies from large public redshift surveys, distinguishing them from foreground and background interlopers. Using the 3XMM-DR5 catalog of X-ray sources and the SDSS DR12 spectroscopic sample of galaxies, with the help of this off-nuclear cross-matching technique, we selected 98 sources with inferred X-ray luminosities in the range 1041 &lt; L X &lt; 1044 erg s−1, compatible with hyperluminous X-ray objects (HLX). To validate the method, we verify that it allowed us to recover known HLX candidates such as ESO 243–49 HLX–1 and M82 X–1. From a statistical study, we conservatively estimate that up to 71 ± 11 of these sources may be foreground- or background sources, statistically leaving at least 16 that are likely to be HLXs, thus providing support for the existence of the HLX population. We identify two good HLX candidates and using other publicly available data sets, in particular the VLA FIRST in radio, UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey in the near-infrared, GALEX in the ultraviolet and Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Megacam archive in the optical, we present evidence that these objects are unlikely to be foreground or background X-ray objects of conventional types, e.g., active galactic nuclei, BL Lac objects, Galactic X-ray binaries, or nearby stars. However, additional dedicated X-ray and optical observations are needed to confirm their association with the assumed host galaxies and thus secure their HLX classification.

Filaments from the galaxy distribution and from the velocity field in the local universe

Abstract The cosmic web that characterizes the large-scale structure of the Universe can be quantified by a variety of methods. For example, large redshift surveys can be used in combination with point process algorithms to extract long curvilinear filaments in the galaxy distribution. Alternatively, given a full 3D reconstruction of the velocity field, kinematic techniques can be used to decompose the web into voids, sheets, filaments and knots. In this Letter, we look at how two such algorithms – the Bisous model and the velocity shear web – compare with each other in the local Universe (within 100 Mpc), finding good agreement. This is both remarkable and comforting, given that the two methods are radically different in ideology and applied to completely independent and different data sets. Unsurprisingly, the methods are in better agreement when applied to unbiased and complete data sets, like cosmological simulations, than when applied to observational samples. We conclude that more observational data is needed to improve on these methods, but that both methods are most likely properly tracing the underlying distribution of matter in the Universe.

Getting leverage on inflation with a large photometric redshift survey

We assess the potential of a future large-volume photometric redshift survey to constrain observational inflationary parameters using three large-scale structure observables: the angular shear and galaxy power spectra, and the cluster mass function measured through weak lensing. When used in combination with Planck-like CMB measurements, we find that the spectral index ns can be constrained to a 1 σ precision of up to 0.0025. The sensitivity to the running of the spectral index can potentially improve to 0.0017, roughly a factor of five better than the present 1σ constraint from Planck and auxiliary CMB data, allowing us to test the assumptions of the slow-roll scenario with unprecedented accuracy. Interestingly, neither CMB+shear nor CMB+galaxy nor CMB+clusters alone can achieve this level of sensitivity; it is the combined power of all three probes that conspires to break the different parameter degeneracies inherent in each type of observations. We make our forecast software publicly available via download or upon request from the authors.