Primordial non-Gaussianity Research Articles

Cosmic Tidal Reconstruction with Halo Fields

Abstract The gravitational coupling between large-scale perturbations and small-scale perturbations leads to anisotropic distortions of the small-scale matter distribution. The measured local small-scale power spectrum can thus be used to infer the large-scale matter distribution. In this paper, we present a new tidal reconstruction algorithm for reconstructing large-scale modes using the full three-dimensional tidal shear information. We apply it to simulated dark matter halo fields and find the reconstructed large-scale density field correlates well with the original matter density field on large scales, improving upon the previous tidal reconstruction method, which only uses two transverse shear fields. This has profound implications for recovering lost 21 cm radial modes due to foreground subtraction and constraining primordial non-Gaussianity using the multitracer method with future cosmological surveys.

Accounting for scalar non-Gaussianity in secondary gravitational waves

It is well known that enhancement in the primordial scalar perturbations over small scales generates detectable amplitudes of secondary gravitational waves (GWs), by sourcing the tensor perturbations at the second order. These stochastic gravitational waves are expected to carry the imprints of primordial non-Gaussianities. The scalar bispectrum that is typically produced in models of inflation leading to significant secondary GWs is nontrivial and highly scale dependent. In this work, we present a method to account for such general scale-dependent scalar bispectrum arising from inflationary models in the calculation of the spectral density of secondary GWs. Using this method, we compute the contributions arising from the scalar bispectrum to the amplitude of secondary GWs in two specific models of inflation driven by the canonical scalar field. We find that these non-Gaussian contributions can be highly model dependent and have to be consistently taken into account while estimating the total amplitude of the secondary GWs. Beyond the models considered, we emphasize that the method discussed is robust and free from assumptions about the shape of the bispectrum and generalizes earlier approaches adopted in the literature. We argue that this method of accounting for the scalar bispectrum shall be helpful in future computations for exotic models generating larger amplitudes of scalar non-Gaussianities along with a significant amount of secondary GWs.

Removing interlopers from intensity mapping probes of primordial non-Gaussianity

ABSTRACT Line intensity mapping (LIM) has the potential to produce highly precise measurements of scale-dependence bias from primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) due to its ability to map much larger volumes than are available from galaxy surveys. However, LIM experiences contamination from foreground emission, including interloping emission lines from other redshifts that alter the power spectra of the maps at these scales, potentially biasing measurements of fNL. Here, we model the effect of line interlopers on upcoming LIM probes of PNG from inflation. As an example, we consider the $[\rm C\,{{\small II}}]$ line at target redshift zt = 3.6 to probe PNG, with the important systematic concern being foreground contamination from CO lines residing at redshifts different from the target redshift. We find interloper lines can lead to a significant bias if we neglect the interlopers in the parameter estimation. Including the interlopers in the parameter estimation would cause an increase in errors for our PNG constraints, leading to a false positive for non-standard inflation models. We model how well the cross-correlation technique could reduce this interloper contamination using $[\rm C\,{\small II}]$ and CO(4–3) at the same redshift and find the uncertainty of fNL reduces by factors of 2 and 6 for local and orthogonal shape PNG, respectively, and by a factor of 5 for local shape if we consider seven interloper lines. This shows that when jointly fitting the auto- and cross-spectrum in the presence of interlopers, the errors are comparable to those from fitting without interlopers, almost eliminating the effect of interlopers when measuring non-Gaussianity.

Including relativistic and primordial non-Gaussianity contributions in cosmological simulations by modifying the initial conditions

We present a method to implement relativistic corrections to the evolution of dark matter structures in Newtonian simulations of a ΛCDM universe via the initial conditions. We take the nonlinear correspondence between the Lagrangian (Newtonian) evolution of dark matter inhomogeneities and the synchronous-comoving (relativistic) matter density description, and use it to promote the relativistic constraint as the initial condition for numerical simulations of structure formation. In this case, the incorporation of Primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) contributions as initial conditions is straightforward. We implement the relativistic, f NL and g NL contributions as initial conditions for the L-PICOLA code, and compute the power spectrum and bispectrum of the evolved matter field. We focus specifically on the case of largest values of non-Gaussianity allowed at 1-σ by Planck observations (f NL = −4.2 and g NL = −7000). As a checkup, we show consistency with the one-loop perturbative prescription and with a fully relativistic simulation (GRAMSES) on the adequate scales. Our results confirm that both relativistic and PNG features are most prominent at very large scales and for squeezed triangulations. We discuss future prospects to probe these two contributions in the bispectrum of the matter density distribution.

Leverage on small-scale primordial non-Gaussianity through cross-correlations between CMB E-mode and μ-distortion anisotropies

ABSTRACT Multifield inflation models and non-Bunch–Davies vacuum initial conditions both predict sizeable non-Gaussian primordial perturbations and anisotropic μ-type spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) blackbody. While CMB anisotropies allow us to probe non-Gaussianity at wavenumbers $k\simeq 0.05\, {\rm Mpc^{-1}}$, μ-distortion anisotropies are related to non-Gaussianity of primordial perturbation modes with much larger wavenumbers, $k\simeq 740\, {\rm Mpc^{-1}}$. Through cross-correlations between CMB and μ-distortion anisotropies, one can therefore shed light on the aforementioned inflation models. We investigate the ability of a future CMB satellite imager like LiteBIRD to measure μT and μE cross-power spectra between anisotropic μ-distortions and CMB temperature and E-mode polarization anisotropies in the presence of foregrounds, and derive LiteBIRD forecasts on ${f_{\rm NL}^\mu (k\simeq 740\, {\rm Mpc^{-1}})}$. We show that μE cross-correlations with CMB polarization provide more constraining power on $f_{\rm NL}^\mu$ than μT cross-correlations in the presence of foregrounds, and the joint combination of μT and μE observables adds further leverage to the detection of small-scale primordial non-Gaussianity. For multifield inflation, we find that LiteBIRD would detect ${f_{\rm NL}^\mu }=4500$ at 5σ significance after foreground removal, and achieve a minimum error of ${\sigma (f_{\rm NL}^\mu =0) \simeq 800}$ at 68 per cent CL by combining CMB temperature and polarization. Due to the huge dynamic range of wavenumbers between CMB and μ-distortion anisotropies, such large $f^\mu _{\rm NL}$ values would still be consistent with current CMB constraints in the case of very mild scale dependence of primordial non-Gaussianity. Anisotropic spectral distortions thus provide a new path, complementary to CMB B-modes, to probe inflation with LiteBIRD.

BOSS DR12 full-shape cosmology: ΛCDM constraints from the large-scale galaxy power spectrum and bispectrum monopole

We present a full $\Lambda$CDM analysis of the BOSS DR12 dataset, including information from the power spectrum multipoles, the real-space power spectrum, the reconstructed power spectrum and the bispectrum monopole. This is the first analysis to feature a complete treatment of the galaxy bispectrum, including a consistent theoretical model and without large-scale cuts. Unlike previous works, the statistics are measured using window-free estimators: this greatly reduces computational costs by removing the need to window-convolve the theory model. Our pipeline is tested using a suite of high-resolution mocks and shown to be robust and precise, with systematic errors far below the statistical thresholds. Inclusion of the bispectrum yields consistent parameter constraints and shrinks the $\sigma_8$ posterior by $13\%$ to reach $<5\%$ precision; less conservative analysis choices would reduce the error-bars further. Our constraints are broadly consistent with Planck: in particular, we find $H_0 = 69.6^{+1.1}_{-1.3}\,\mathrm{km}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, $\sigma_8 = 0.692^{+0.035}_{-0.041}$ and $n_s=0.870^{+0.067}_{-0.064}$, including a BBN prior on the baryon density. When $n_s$ is set by Planck, we find $H_0 = 68.31^{+0.83}_{-0.86}\,\mathrm{km}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ and $\sigma_8 = 0.722^{+0.032}_{-0.036}$. Our $S_8$ posterior, $0.751\pm0.039$, is consistent with weak lensing studies, but lower than Planck. Constraints on the higher-order bias parameters are significantly strengthened from the inclusion of the bispectrum, and we find no evidence for deviation from the dark matter halo bias relations. These results represent the most complete full-shape analysis of BOSS DR12 to-date, and the corresponding spectra will enable a variety of beyond-$\Lambda$CDM analyses, probing phenomena such as the neutrino mass and primordial non-Gaussianity.

The large-scale structure from non-Gaussian primordial perturbations

ABSTRACT The late-time effect of primordial non-Gaussianity offers a window into the physics of inflation and the very early Universe. In this work, we study the consequences of a particular class of primordial non-Gaussianity that is fully characterized by initial density fluctuations drawn from a non-Gaussian probability density function, rather than by construction of a particular form for the primordial bispectrum. We numerically generate multiple realizations of cosmological structure and use the late-time matter power spectrum, bispectrum, and trispectrum to determine the effect of these modified initial conditions. We show that the initial non-Gaussianity has only a small imprint on the first three polyspectra, when compared to a standard Gaussian cosmology. Furthermore, some of our models present an interesting scale-dependent deviation from the Gaussian case in the bispectrum and trispectrum, although the signal is at most at the per cent level. The majority of our models are consistent with cosmic microwave background constraints on the trispectrum, while the others are only marginally excluded. Finally, we discuss further possible extensions of our study.

Predictions for local PNG bias in the galaxy power spectrum and bispectrum and the consequences for f NL constraints

We use hydrodynamical separate universe simulations with the IllustrisTNG model to predict the local primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) bias parameters b ϕ and b ϕδ, which enter at leading order in the galaxy power spectrum and bispectrum. This is the first time that b ϕδ is measured from either gravity-only or galaxy formation simulations. For dark matter halos, the popular assumption of universality overpredicts the b ϕδ(b 1) relation in the range 1 ≲ b 1 ≲ 3 by up to Δ b ϕδ ∼ 3 (b 1 is the linear density bias). The adequacy of the universality relation is worse for the simulated galaxies, with the relations b ϕ(b 1) and b ϕδ(b 1) being generically redshift-dependent and very sensitive to how galaxies are selected (we test total, stellar and black hole mass, black hole mass accretion rate and color). The uncertainties on b ϕ and b ϕδ have a direct, often overlooked impact on the constraints of the local PNG parameter f NL, which we study and discuss. For a survey with V = 100 Gpc3/h3 at z=1, uncertainties Δ b ϕ ≲ 1 and Δ b ϕδ ≲ 5 around values close to the fiducial can yield relatively unbiased constraints on f NL using power spectrum and bispectrum data. We also show why priors on galaxy bias are useful even in analyses that fit for products f NL b ϕ and f NL b ϕδ. The strategies we discuss to deal with galaxy bias uncertainties can be straightforwardly implemented in existing f NL constraint analyses (we provide fits for some of the bias relations). Our results motivate more works with galaxy formation simulations to refine our understanding of b ϕ and b ϕδ towards improved constraints on f NL.

Density reconstruction from biased tracers and its application to primordial non-Gaussianity

Large-scale Fourier modes of the cosmic density field are of great value for learning about cosmology because of their well-understood relationship to fluctuations in the early universe. However, cosmic variance generally limits the statistical precision that can be achieved when constraining model parameters using these modes as measured in galaxy surveys, and moreover, these modes are sometimes inaccessible due to observational systematics or foregrounds. For some applications, both limitations can be circumvented by reconstructing large-scale modes using the correlations they induce between smaller-scale modes of an observed tracer (such as galaxy positions). In this paper, we further develop a formalism for this reconstruction, using a quadratic estimator similar to the one used for lensing of the cosmic microwave background. We incorporate nonlinearities from gravity, nonlinear biasing, and local-type primordial non-Gaussianity, and verify that the estimator gives the expected results when applied to N-body simulations. We then carry out forecasts for several upcoming surveys, demonstrating that, when reconstructed modes are included alongside directly-observed tracer density modes, constraints on local primordial non-Gaussianity are generically tightened by tens of percents compared to standard single-tracer analyses. In certain cases, these improvements arise from cosmic variance cancellation, with reconstructed modes taking the place of modes of a separate tracer, thus enabling an effective "multitracer" approach with single-tracer observations.

Generalized local ansatz for scale-dependent primordial non-Gaussianities and future galaxy surveys

Abstract We revisit a possible scale-dependence of local-type primordial non-Gaussianities induced by super-horizon evolution of scalar field perturbations. We develop the formulation based on δN formalism and derive the generalized form of the local-type bispectrum and also trispectrum which allows us to implement the scale-dependence and suitably compare model prediction with observational data. We propose simple but phenomenologically meaningful expressions, which encompass the information of a wide range of physically motivated models. We also formulate a large-scale power spectrum and bispectrum of biased objects in the presence of the scale-dependent primordial non-Gaussianities. We perform the Fisher analysis for future galaxy surveys and give the projected constraints on the parameters of the generalized local-form of primordial non-Gaussianities.

Cosmology at high redshift — a probe of fundamental physics

An observational program focused on the high redshift (2<z<6) Universe has the opportunity to dramatically improve over upcoming LSS and CMB surveys on measurements of both the standard cosmological model and its extensions. Using a Fisher matrix formalism that builds upon recent advances in Lagrangian perturbation theory, we forecast constraints for future spectroscopic and 21-cm surveys on the standard cosmological model, curvature, neutrino mass, relativistic species, primordial features, primordial non-Gaussianity, dynamical dark energy, and gravitational slip. We compare these constraints with those achievable by current or near-future surveys such as DESI and Euclid, all under the same forecasting formalism, and compare our formalism with traditional linear methods. Our Python code FishLSS — used to calculate the Fisher information of the full shape power spectrum, CMB lensing, the cross-correlation of CMB lensing with galaxies, and combinations thereof — is publicly available.

Shift-symmetric \U0001d5b2\U0001d5ae(\U0001d5ad) multi-Galileon

A Poincarè invariant, local scalar field theory in which the Lagrangian and the equation of motion contain only up to second-order derivatives of the fields is called generalized Galileon. The covariant version of it in four dimensions is called Horndeski theory, and has been vigorously studied in applications to inflation and dark energy. In this paper, we study a class of multi-field extensions of the generalized Galileon theory. By imposing shift and SO(N) symmetries on all the currently known multi-Galileon terms in general dimensions, we find that the structure of the Lagrangian is uniquely determined and parameterized by a series of coupling constants. We also study tensor perturbation in the shift-symmetric SO(3) multi-Galileon theory in four dimensions. The tensor perturbations can obtain a mass term stemming from the same symmetry breaking pattern as the solid inflation. We also find that the shift-symmetric SO(3) multi-Galileon theory gives rise to new cubic interactions of the tensor modes, suggesting the existence of a new type of tensor primordial non-Gaussianity.

Joint analyses of 2D CMB lensing and 3D galaxy clustering in the spherical Fourier-Bessel basis

Cross-correlating cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing and galaxy clustering has been shown to greatly improve the constraints on the local primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) parameter $f_{\rm NL}$ by reducing sample variance and also parameter degeneracies. To model the full use of the 3D information of galaxy clustering, we forecast $f_{\rm NL}$ measurements using the decomposition in the spherical Fourier-Bessel (SFB) basis, which can be naturally cross-correlated with 2D CMB lensing in spherical harmonics. In the meantime, such a decomposition would also enable us to constrain the growth rate of structure, a probe of gravity, through the redshift-space distortion (RSD). As a comparison, we also consider the tomographic spherical harmonic (TSH) analysis of galaxy samples with different bin sizes. Assuming galaxy samples that mimic a few future surveys, we perform Fisher forecasts using linear modes for $f_{\rm NL}$ and the growth rate exponent $\gamma$, marginalized over standard $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological parameters and two nuisance parameters that account for clustering bias and magnification bias. Compared to TSH analysis using only one bin, SFB analysis could improve $\sigma(f_{\rm NL})$ by factors 3 to 12 thanks to large radial modes. With future wide-field and high-redshift photometric surveys like the LSST, the constraint $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}) < 1$ could be achieved using linear angular multipoles up to $\ell_{\rm min}\simeq 20$. Compared to using galaxy auto-power spectra only, joint analyses with CMB lensing could improve $\sigma(\gamma)$ by factors 2 to 5 by reducing degeneracies with other parameters, especially the clustering bias. For future spectroscopic surveys like the DESI or $\textit{Euclid}$, using linear scales, $\gamma$ could be constrained to $3\,\%$ precision assuming the GR fiducial value.

The Kaiser-Rocket effect: three decades and counting

The peculiar motion of the observer, if not accurately accounted for, is bound to induce a well-defined clustering signal in the distribution of galaxies. This signal is related to the Kaiser rocket effect. Here we examine the amplitude and form of this effect, both analytically and numerically, and discuss possible implications for the analysis and interpretation of forthcoming cosmological surveys.For an idealistic cosmic variance dominated full-sky survey with a Gaussian selection function peaked at z ∼ 1.5 it is a > 5σ effect and it can in principle bias very significantly the inference of cosmological parameters, especially for primordial non-Gaussianity. For forthcoming surveys, with realistic masks and selection functions, the Kaiser rocket is not a significant concern for cosmological parameter inference except perhaps for primordial non-Gaussianity studies. However, it is a systematic effect, whose origin, nature and imprint on galaxy maps are well known and thus should be subtracted or mitigated. We present several approaches to do so.

Non-Gaussianity and the induced gravitational wave background

Scalar metric fluctuations generically source a spectrum of gravitational waves at second order in perturbation theory, poising gravitational wave experiments as potentially powerful probes of the small-scale curvature power spectrum. We perform a detailed study of the imprint of primordial non-Gaussianity on these induced gravitational waves, emphasizing the role of both the disconnected and connected components of the primoridal trispectrum. Specializing to local-type non-Gaussianity, we numerically compute all contributions and present results for a variety of enhanced primordial curvature power spectra.

Constraining the initial primordial black hole clustering with CMB distortion

The merger rate of primordial black holes depends on their initial clustering. In the absence of primordial non-Gaussianity correlating short and large-scales, primordial black holes are distributed \`a la Poisson at the time of their formation. However, primordial non-Gaussianity of the local-type may correlate primordial black holes on large-scales. We show that future experiments looking for CMB $\mu$-distortion would test the hypothesis of initial primordial black hole clustering induced by local non-Gaussianity, while existing limits already show that significant non-Gaussianity is necessary to induce primordial black hole clustering.

Double-peaked inflation model: Scalar induced gravitational waves and primordial-black-hole suppression from primordial non-Gaussianity

A significant abundance of primordial black hole (PBH) dark matter can be produced by curvature perturbations with power spectrum $\Delta_\zeta^2(k_{\mathrm{peak}})\sim \mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$ at small scales, associated with the generation of observable scalar induced gravitational waves (SIGWs). However, the primordial non-Gaussianity may play a non-negligible role, which is not usually considered. We propose two inflation models that predict double peaks of order $\mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$ in the power spectrum and study the effects of primordial non-Gaussianity on PBHs and SIGWs. This model is driven by a power-law potential, and has a noncanonical kinetic term whose coupling function admits two peaks. By field-redefinition, it can be recast into a canonical inflation model with two quasi-inflection points in the potential. We find that the PBH abundance will be altered saliently if non-Gaussianity parameter satisfies $|f_{\mathrm{NL}}(k_{\text{peak}},k_{\text{peak}},k_{\text{peak}})|\gtrsim \Delta^2_{\zeta}(k_{\mathrm{peak}})/(23\delta^3_c) \sim \mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$. Whether the PBH abundance is suppressed or enhanced depends on the $f_{\mathrm{NL}}$ being positive or negative, respectively. In our model, non-Gaussianity parameter $f_{\mathrm{NL}}(k_{\mathrm{peak}},k_{\mathrm{peak}},k_{\mathrm{peak}})\sim \mathcal{O}(1)$ takes positive sign, thus PBH abundance is suppressed dramatically. On the contrary, SIGWs are insensitive to primordial non-Gaussianity and hardly affected, so they are still within the sensitivities of space-based GWs observatories and Square Kilometer Array.

The intrinsic bispectrum of the CMB from isocurvature initial conditions

Non-linear effects in the early Universe generate non-zero bispectra of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization, even in the absence of primordial non-Gaussianity. In this paper, we compute the contributions from isocurvature modes to the CMB bispectra using a modified version of the second-order Boltzmann solver SONG. We investigate the ability of current and future CMB experiments to constrain these modes with observations of the bispectrum. Our results show that the enhancement due to single isocurvature modes mixed with the adiabatic mode is negligible for the parameter ranges currently allowed by the most recent Planck results. However, we find that a large compensated isocurvature mode can produce a detectable bispectrum when its correlation with the adiabatic mode is appreciable. The non-observation of this contribution in searches for the lensing bispectrum from Planck allows us to place a new constraint on the relative amplitude of the correlated part of the compensated isocurvature mode of f CIP = 1±100. We compute forecasts for future observations by COrE, SO, CMB-S4 and an ideal experiment and conclude that a dedicated search for the bispectrum from compensated modes could rule out a number of scenarios realised in the curvaton model. In addition, the CMB-S4 experiment could detect the most extreme of those scenarios (f CIP = 16.5) at 2 to 3-σ significance.

Primordial non-Gaussianity from the completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey – I: Catalogue preparation and systematic mitigation

ABSTRACT We investigate the large-scale clustering of the final spectroscopic sample of quasars from the recently completed extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). The sample contains 343 708 objects in the redshift range 0.8 &amp;lt; z &amp;lt; 2.2 and 72 667 objects with redshifts 2.2 &amp;lt; z &amp;lt; 3.5, covering an effective area of $4699\, {\rm deg}^{2}$. We develop a neural network-based approach to mitigate spurious fluctuations in the density field caused by spatial variations in the quality of the imaging data used to select targets for follow-up spectroscopy. Simulations are used with the same angular and radial distributions as the real data to estimate covariance matrices, perform error analyses, and assess residual systematic uncertainties. We measure the mean density contrast and cross-correlations of the eBOSS quasars against maps of potential sources of imaging systematics to address algorithm effectiveness, finding that the neural network-based approach outperforms standard linear regression. Stellar density is one of the most important sources of spurious fluctuations, and a new template constructed using data from the Gaia spacecraft provides the best match to the observed quasar clustering. The end-product from this work is a new value-added quasar catalogue with the improved weights to correct for non-linear imaging systematic effects, which will be made public. Our quasar catalogue is used to measure the local-type primordial non-Gaussianity in a companion paper.

Precise calibration of the one-loop trispectrum in the effective field theory of large scale structure

The Large-Scale Structure (LSS) of the universe has the potential to provide decisive answers to the remaining open questions in cosmology. Early attempts at modelling it analytically focused on using perturbation theory. However, small-scale effects introduced by gravitational collapse cannot be described perturbatively and this failure of perturbation theory is reflected even on the largest scales. The Effective Field Theory of Large Scale Structure (EFTofLSS) has emerged as a consistent method for describing LSS on large scales by introducing counterterms that account for the effects of small-scale dynamics. So far studies of the EFT have mostly focused on the two and three point functions with little attention devoted to the four point function or trispectrum. The trispectrum probes cubic interactions arising from non-linear clustering, biasing, and primordial non-Gaussianities, and constitutes a key element of the covariance matrix of the power spectrum. In this paper, we present explicit calibrations of the EFT counterterms for the one-loop trispectrum. Specifically, we find clear evidence for non-zero EFT corrections. We define two one-parameter ans\"{a}tze for the counterterm of the one-loop propagator and show that they provide a good correction to the residual at scales below k~0.07 h/Mpc. We then take the amplitudes of the linear and quadratic counterkernels calculated in our previous paper on the bispectrum and use them in the remaining counterterms, establishing consistency of the counterterms in the two, three and four point function. We also show that the commonly used EdS approximation for the growth of the density fields leads to errors that are of the same magnitude as loop corrections to the trispectrum on large scales.