Shear Two-point Correlation Function Research Articles

Unleashing cosmic shear information with the tomographic weak lensing PDF

In this work, we demonstrate the constraining power of the tomographic weak lensing convergence PDF for StageIV-like source galaxy redshift bins and shape noise. We focus on scales of 10 to 20 arcmin in the mildly nonlinear regime, where the convergence PDF and its changes with cosmological parameters can be predicted theoretically. We model the impact of reconstructing the convergence from the shear field using the well-known Kaiser-Squires formalism. We cross-validate the predicted and the measured convergence PDF derived from convergence maps reconstructed using simulated shear catalogues. Employing a Fisher forecast, we determine the constraining power for (Ωm,S8,w0). We find that adding a 5-bin tomography improves the κ−PDF constraints by a factor of {3.8,1.3,1.6} for (Ωm,S8,w0) respectively. Additionally, we perform a joint analysis with the shear two-point correlation functions, finding an enhancement of around a factor of 1.5 on all parameters with respect to the two-point statistics alone. These improved constraints come from disentangling from w0 by extracting non-Gaussian information, in particular, including the PDF skewness at different redshift bins. We also study the effect of varying the number of parameters to forecast, in particular we add h, finding that the convergence PDF maintains its constraining power while the precision from two-point correlations degrades by a factor of {1.7,1.4,1.8} for , respectively.

Hyper Suprime-Cam Year 3 results: Cosmology from cosmic shear two-point correlation functions

Hyper Suprime-Cam Year 3 results: Cosmology from cosmic shear two-point correlation functions

A general framework for removing point-spread function additive systematics in cosmological weak lensing analysis

ABSTRACT Cosmological weak lensing measurements rely on a precise measurement of the shear two-point correlation function (2PCF) along with a deep understanding of systematics that affect it. In this work, we demonstrate a general framework for detecting and modelling the impact of PSF systematics on the cosmic shear 2PCF and mitigating its impact on cosmological analysis. Our framework can detect PSF leakage and modelling error from all spin-2 quantities contributed by the PSF second and higher moments, rather than just the second moments, using the cross-correlations between galaxy shapes and PSF moments. We interpret null tests using the HSC Year 3 (Y3) catalogs with this formalism and find that leakage from the spin-2 combination of PSF fourth moments is the leading contributor to additive shear systematics, with total contamination that is an order-of-magnitude higher than that contributed by PSF second moments alone. We conducted a mock cosmic shear analysis for HSC Y3 and find that, if uncorrected, PSF systematics can bias the cosmological parameters Ωm and S8 by ∼0.3σ. The traditional second moment-based model can only correct for a 0.1σ bias, leaving the contamination largely uncorrected. We conclude it is necessary to model both PSF second and fourth moment contaminations for HSC Y3 cosmic shear analysis. We also reanalyse the HSC Y1 cosmic shear analysis with our updated systematics model and identify a 0.07σ bias on Ωm when using the more restricted second moment model from the original analysis. We demonstrate how to self-consistently use the method in both real space and Fourier space, assess shear systematics in tomographic bins, and test for PSF model overfitting.

ShapePipe: A new shape measurement pipeline and weak-lensing application to UNIONS/CFIS data

Context. The Ultraviolet Near-Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS) is an ongoing collaboration that will provide the largest deep photometric survey of the northern sky in four optical bands to date. As part of this collaboration, the Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) is observing r-band data with an average seeing of 0.65 arcsec, which is complete to magnitude 24.5 and thus ideal for weak-lensing studies. Aims. We perform the first weak-lensing analysis of CFIS r-band data over an area spanning 1700 deg2 of the sky. We create a catalogue with measured shapes for 40 million galaxies, corresponding to an effective density of 6.8 galaxies per square arcminute, and demonstrate a low level of systematic biases. This work serves as the basis for further cosmological studies that will use the full UNIONS survey of 4800 deg2 when completed. Methods. Here we present SHAPEPIPE, a newly developed weak-lensing pipeline. This pipeline makes use of state-of-the-art methods such as NGMIX for accurate galaxy shape measurement. Shear calibration is performed with metacalibration. We carry out extensive validation tests on the point spread function (PSF) and on the galaxy shapes. In addition, we create realistic image simulations to validate the estimated shear. Results. We quantify the PSF model accuracy and show that the level of systematics is low as measured by the PSF residuals. Their effect on the shear two-point correlation function is sub-dominant compared to the cosmological contribution on angular scales < 100′. The additive shear bias is below 5 × 10−4, and the residual multiplicative shear bias is at most 10−3 as measured on image simulations. Using complete orthogonal sets of E-/B-mode integrals (COSEBIs), we show that there are no significant B-modes present in second-order shear statistics. We present convergence maps and see clear correlations of the E-mode with known cluster positions. We measure the stacked tangential shear profile around Planck clusters at a significance higher than 4σ.

Pure-mode correlation functions for cosmic shear and application to KiDS-1000

One probe for systematic effects in gravitational lensing surveys is the presence of so-called B modes in the cosmic shear two-point correlation functions, ξ±(ϑ), since lensing is expected to produce only E-mode shear. Furthermore, there exist ambiguous modes that cannot uniquely be assigned to either E- or B-mode shear. In this paper we derive explicit equations for the pure-mode shear correlation functions, ξ±E/B(ϑ), and their ambiguous components, ξ±amb(ϑ), that can be derived from the measured ξ±(ϑ) on a finite angular interval, ϑmin ≤ ϑ ≤ ϑmax, such that ξ±(ϑ) can be decomposed uniquely into pure-mode functions as ξ+ = ξ+E+ξ+B+ξ+amb and ξ− = ξ−E−ξ−B+ξ−amb. The derivation is obtained by defining a new set of Complete Orthogonal Sets of E and B mode-separating Integrals (COSEBIs), for which explicit relations are obtained and which yields a smaller covariance between COSEBI modes. We derive the relation between ξ±E/B/amb and the underlying E- and B-mode power spectra. The pure-mode correlation functions can provide a diagnostic of systematics in configuration space. We then apply our results to Scinet LIght Cone Simulations (SLICS) and the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS-1000) cosmic shear data, calculate the new COSEBIs and the pure-mode correlation functions, as well as the corresponding covariances, and show that the new statistics fit equally well to the best fitting cosmological model as the previous KiDS-1000 analysis and recover the same level of (insignificant) B modes. We also consider in some detail the ambiguous modes at the first- and second-order level, finding some surprising results. For example, the shear field of a point mass, when cut along a line through the center, cannot be ascribed uniquely to an E-mode shear and is thus ambiguous; additionally, the shear correlation functions resulting from a random ensemble of point masses, when measured over a finite angular range, correspond to an ambiguous mode.

E/B mode decomposition of HSC-Y1 cosmic shear using COSEBIs: Cosmological constraints and comparison with other two-point statistics

Abstract We perform a cosmic shear analysis of Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program first-year data (HSC-Y1) using complete orthogonal sets of E/B-integrals (COSEBIs) to derive cosmological constraints. We compute E/B-mode COSEBIs from cosmic shear two-point correlation functions measured on an angular range of 4′ < θ < 180′. We perform a standard Bayesian likelihood analysis for cosmological inference from the measured E-mode COSEBIs, including contributions from intrinsic alignments of galaxies as well as systematic effects from point spread function model errors, shear calibration uncertainties, and source redshift distribution errors. We adopt a covariance matrix derived from realistic mock catalogs constructed from full-sky gravitational lensing simulations that fully take account of the survey geometry and measurement noise. For a flat Λ cold dark matter model, we find $S\,_8 \equiv \sigma _8\sqrt{\Omega _{\rm m}/0.3}=0.809_{-0.026}^{+0.036}$. We carefully check the robustness of the cosmological results against astrophysical modeling uncertainties and systematic uncertainties in measurements, and find that none of them has a significant impact on the cosmological constraints. We also find that the measured B-mode COSEBIs are consistent with zero. We examine, using mock HSC-Y1 data, the consistency of our S8 constraints with those derived from the other cosmic shear two-point statistics, the power spectrum analysis by Hikage et al. (2019, PASJ, 71, 43) and the two-point correlation function analysis by Hamana et al. (2020, PASJ, 72, 16), which adopt the same HSC-Y1 shape catalog, and find that all the S8 constraints are consistent with each other, although the expected correlations between derived S8 constraints are weak.

Cosmological forecasts with the clustering of weak lensing peaks

ABSTRACT Maximizing the information that can be extracted from weak lensing (WL) measurements is a key goal for upcoming stage IV surveys. This is typically achieved through statistics that are complementary to the cosmic shear two-point correlation function, the most well established of which is the WL peak abundance. In this work, we study the clustering of WL peaks, and present parameter constraint forecasts for an lsst-like survey. We use the cosmo-SLICS wCDM simulations to measure the peak two-point correlation function for a range of cosmological parameters, and use the simulation data to train a Gaussian process regression emulator that is applied to generate likelihood contours and provide parameter constraint forecasts from mock observations. We investigate the dependence of the peak two-point correlation function on the peak height, and find that the clustering of low-amplitude peaks is complementary to that of high-amplitude peaks. Consequently, their combination gives significantly tighter constraints than the clustering of high peaks alone. The peak two-point correlation function is significantly more sensitive to the cosmological parameters h and w0 than the peak abundance, and when the probes are combined, constraints on Ωm, S8, h, and w0 improve by at least a factor of 2, relative to the peak abundance alone. Finally, we compare the forecasts for WL peaks and voids, and show that the two are also complementary; both probes can offer better constraints on S8 and w0 than the shear correlation function by roughly a factor of 2.

Erratum: Cosmological constraints from cosmic shear two-point correlation functions with HSC survey first-year data

Erratum: Cosmological constraints from cosmic shear two-point correlation functions with HSC survey first-year data

The integrated three-point correlation function of cosmic shear

ABSTRACT We present the integrated three-point shear correlation function iζ± – a higher order statistic of the cosmic shear field – which can be directly estimated in wide-area weak lensing surveys without measuring the full three-point shear correlation function, making this a practical and complementary tool to two-point statistics for weak lensing cosmology. We define it as the one-point aperture mass statistic Map measured at different locations on the shear field correlated with the corresponding local two-point shear correlation function ξ±. Building upon existing work on the integrated bispectrum of the weak lensing convergence field, we present a theoretical framework for computing the integrated three-point function in real space for any projected field within the flat-sky approximation and apply it to cosmic shear. Using analytical formulae for the non-linear matter power spectrum and bispectrum, we model iζ± and validate it on N-body simulations within the uncertainties expected from the sixth year cosmic shear data of the Dark Energy Survey. We also explore the Fisher information content of iζ± and perform a joint analysis with ξ± for two tomographic source redshift bins with realistic shape noise to analyse its power in constraining cosmological parameters. We find that the joint analysis of ξ± and iζ± has the potential to considerably improve parameter constraints from ξ± alone, and can be particularly useful in improving the figure of merit of the dynamical dark energy equation of state parameters from cosmic shear data.

Impact of baryons in cosmic shear analyses with tomographic aperture mass statistics

NonGaussian cosmic shear statistics based on weak-lensing aperture mass (Map) maps can outperform the classical shear two-point correlation function (γ-2PCF) in terms of cosmological constraining power. However, reaching the full potential of these new estimators requires accurate modeling of the physics of baryons as the extra nonGaussian information mostly resides at small scales. We present one such modeling based on the Magneticum hydrodynamical simulation for the KiDS-450 and DES-Y1 surveys and a Euclid-like survey. We compute the bias due to baryons on the lensing PDF and the distribution of peaks and voids in Map maps and propagate it to the cosmological forecasts on the structure growth parameter S8, the matter density parameter Ωm, and the dark energy equation of state w0 using the SLICS and cosmo-SLICS sets of dark-matter-only simulations. We report a negative bias of a few percent on S8 and Ωm and also measure a positive bias of the same level on w0 when including a tomographic decomposition. These biases reach ∼5% when combining Map statistics with the γ-2PCF as these estimators show similar dependency on the AGN feedback. We verify that these biases constitute a less than 1σ shift on the probed cosmological parameters for current cosmic shear surveys. However, baryons need to be accounted for at the percentage level for future Stage IV surveys and we propose to include the uncertainty on the AGN feedback amplitude by marginalizing over this parameter using multiple simulations such as those presented in this paper. Finally, we explore the possibility of mitigating the impact of baryons by filtering the Map map but find that this process would require suppressing the small-scale information to a point where the constraints would no longer be competitive.

Probing dark energy with tomographic weak-lensing aperture mass statistics

We forecast and optimize the cosmological power of various weak-lensing aperture mass (Map) map statistics for future cosmic shear surveys, including peaks, voids, and the full distribution of pixels (1DMap). These alternative methods probe the non-Gaussian regime of the matter distribution, adding complementary cosmological information to the classical two-point estimators. Based on the SLICS and cosmo-SLICSN-body simulations, we buildEuclid-like mocks to explore theS8 − Ωm − w0parameter space. We develop a new tomographic formalism that exploits the cross-information between redshift slices (cross-Map) in addition to the information from individual slices (auto-Map) probed in the standard approach. Our auto-Mapforecast precision is in good agreement with the recent literature on weak-lensing peak statistics and is improved by ∼50% when including cross-Map. It is further boosted by the use of 1DMapthat outperforms all other estimators, including the shear two-point correlation function (γ-2PCF). When considering all tomographic terms, our uncertainty range on the structure growth parameterS8is enhanced by ∼45% (almost twice better) when combining 1DMapand theγ-2PCF compared to theγ-2PCF alone. We additionally measure the first combined forecasts on the dark energy equation of statew0, finding a factor of three reduction in the statistical error compared to theγ-2PCF alone. This demonstrates that the complementary cosmological information explored by non-GaussianMapmap statistics not only offers the potential to improve the constraints on the recentσ8–Ωmtension, but also constitutes an avenue to understanding the accelerated expansion of our Universe.

KiDS-1000 cosmology: Cosmic shear constraints and comparison between two point statistics

We present cosmological constraints from a cosmic shear analysis of the fourth data release of the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS-1000), which doubles the survey area with nine-band optical and near-infrared photometry with respect to previous KiDS analyses. Adopting a spatially flat standard cosmological model, we findS8=σ8(Ωm/0.3)0.5= 0.759−0.021+0.024for our fiducial analysis, which is in 3σtension with the prediction of thePlanckLegacy analysis of the cosmic microwave background. We compare our fiducial COSEBIs (Complete Orthogonal Sets of E/B-Integrals) analysis with complementary analyses of the two-point shear correlation function and band power spectra, finding the results to be in excellent agreement. We investigate the sensitivity of all three statistics to a number of measurement, astrophysical, and modelling systematics, finding ourS8constraints to be robust and dominated by statistical errors. Our cosmological analysis of different divisions of the data passes the Bayesian internal consistency tests, with the exception of the second tomographic bin. As this bin encompasses low-redshift galaxies, carrying insignificant levels of cosmological information, we find that our results are unchanged by the inclusion or exclusion of this sample.

Non-Gaussianity in the weak lensing correlation function likelihood – implications for cosmological parameter biases

ABSTRACT We study the significance of non-Gaussianity in the likelihood of weak lensing shear two-point correlation functions, detecting significantly non-zero skewness and kurtosis in 1D marginal distributions of shear two-point correlation functions in simulated weak lensing data. We examine the implications in the context of future surveys, in particular LSST, with derivations of how the non-Gaussianity scales with survey area. We show that there is no significant bias in 1D posteriors of Ωm and σ8 due to the non-Gaussian likelihood distributions of shear correlations functions using the mock data (100 deg2). We also present a systematic approach to constructing approximate multivariate likelihoods with 1D parametric functions by assuming independence or more flexible non-parametric multivariate methods after decorrelating the data points using principal component analysis (PCA). While the use of PCA does not modify the non-Gaussianity of the multivariate likelihood, we find empirically that the 1D marginal sampling distributions of the PCA components exhibit less skewness and kurtosis than the original shear correlation functions. Modelling the likelihood with marginal parametric functions based on the assumption of independence between PCA components thus gives a lower limit for the biases. We further demonstrate that the difference in cosmological parameter constraints between the multivariate Gaussian likelihood model and more complex non-Gaussian likelihood models would be even smaller for an LSST-like survey. In addition, the PCA approach automatically serves as a data compression method, enabling the retention of the majority of the cosmological information while reducing the dimensionality of the data vector by a factor of ∼5.

Cosmological constraints from cosmic shear two-point correlation functions with HSC survey first-year data

Abstract We present measurements of cosmic shear two-point correlation functions (TPCFs) from Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC) first-year data, and derive cosmological constraints based on a blind analysis. The HSC first-year shape catalog is divided into four tomographic redshift bins ranging from $z=0.3$ to 1.5 with equal widths of $\Delta z =0.3$. The unweighted galaxy number densities in each tomographic bin are 5.9, 5.9, 4.3, and $2.4\:$arcmin$^{-2}$ from the lowest to highest redshifts, respectively. We adopt the standard TPCF estimators, $\xi _\pm$, for our cosmological analysis, given that we find no evidence of significant B-mode shear. The TPCFs are detected at high significance for all 10 combinations of auto- and cross-tomographic bins over a wide angular range, yielding a total signal-to-noise ratio of 19 in the angular ranges adopted in the cosmological analysis, $7^{\prime }<\theta <56^{\prime }$ for $\xi _+$ and $28^{\prime }<\theta <178^{\prime }$ for $\xi _-$. We perform the standard Bayesian likelihood analysis for cosmological inference from the measured cosmic shear TPCFs, including contributions from intrinsic alignment of galaxies as well as systematic effects from PSF model errors, shear calibration uncertainty, and source redshift distribution errors. We adopt a covariance matrix derived from realistic mock catalogs constructed from full-sky gravitational lensing simulations that fully account for survey geometry and measurement noise. For a flat $\Lambda$ cold dark matter model, we find $S\,_8 \equiv \sigma _8\sqrt{\Omega _{\rm m}/0.3}=0.804_{-0.029}^{+0.032}$, and $\Omega _{\rm m}=0.346_{-0.100}^{+0.052}$. We carefully check the robustness of the cosmological results against astrophysical modeling uncertainties and systematic uncertainties in measurements, and find that none of them has a significant impact on the cosmological constraints.

The effects of varying depth in cosmic shear surveys

We present a semi-analytic model for the shear two-point correlation function of a cosmic shear survey with non-uniform depth. Ground-based surveys are subject to depth variations that primarily arise through varying atmospheric conditions. For a survey like the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), we find that the measured depth variation increases the amplitude of the observed shear correlation function at the level of a few percent out to degree-scales, relative to the assumed uniform-depth case. The impact on the inferred cosmological parameters is shown to be insignificant for a KiDS-like survey. For next-generation cosmic shear experiments, however, we conclude that variable depth should be accounted for.

Matter power spectrum: from Ly α forest to CMB scales

ABSTRACT We present a new compilation of inferences of the linear 3D matter power spectrum at redshift $z\, {=}\, 0$ from a variety of probes spanning several orders of magnitude in physical scale and in cosmic history. We develop a new lower noise method for performing this inference from the latest Ly α forest 1D power spectrum data. We also include cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization power spectra and lensing reconstruction data, the cosmic shear two-point correlation function, and the clustering of luminous red galaxies. We provide a Dockerized Jupyter notebook housing the fairly complex dependences for producing the plot of these data, with the hope that groups in the future can help add to it. Overall, we find qualitative agreement between the independent measurements considered here and the standard ΛCDM cosmological model fit to the Planck data.

Accurate cosmic shear errors: do we need ensembles of simulations?

Accurate inference of cosmology from weak lensing shear requires an accurate shear power spectrum covariance matrix. Here, we investigate this accuracy requirement and quantify the relative importance of the Gaussian (G), super-sample covariance (SSC) and connected non-Gaussian (cNG) contributions to the covariance. Specifically, we forecast cosmological parameter constraints for future wide-field surveys and study how different covariance matrix components affect parameter bounds. Our main result is that the cNG term represents only a small and potentially negligible contribution to statistical parameter errors: the errors obtained using the G+SSC subset are within ≲ 5% of those obtained with the full G+SSC+cNG matrix for a Euclid-like survey. This result also holds for the shear two-point correlation function, variations in survey specifications and for different analytical prescriptions of the cNG term. The cNG term is that which is often tackled using numerically expensive ensembles of survey realizations. Our results suggest however that the accuracy of analytical or approximate numerical methods to compute the cNG term is likely to be sufficient for cosmic shear inference from the next generation of surveys.

KiDS-i-800: comparing weak gravitational lensing measurements from same-sky surveys

We present a weak gravitational lensing analysis of 815 square degree of $i$-band imaging from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS-$i$-800). In contrast to the deep $r$-band observations, which take priority during excellent seeing conditions and form the primary KiDS dataset (KiDS-$r$-450), the complementary yet shallower KiDS-$i$-800 spans a wide range of observing conditions. The overlapping KiDS-$i$-800 and KiDS-$r$-450 imaging therefore provides a unique opportunity to assess the robustness of weak lensing measurements. In our analysis, we introduce two new `null' tests. The `nulled' two-point shear correlation function uses a matched catalogue to show that the calibrated KiDS-$i$-800 and KiDS-$r$-450 shear measurements agree at the level of $1 \pm 4$\%. We use five galaxy lens samples to determine a `nulled' galaxy-galaxy lensing signal from the full KiDS-$i$-800 and KiDS-$r$-450 surveys and find that the measurements agree to $7 \pm 5$\% when the KiDS-$i$-800 source redshift distribution is calibrated using either spectroscopic redshifts, or the 30-band photometric redshifts from the COSMOS survey.

KiDS-450: cosmological constraints from weak-lensing peak statistics – II: Inference from shear peaks using N-body simulations

We study the statistics of peaks in a weak lensing reconstructed mass map of the first 450 square degrees of the Kilo Degree Survey. The map is computed with aperture masses directly applied to the shear field with an NFW-like compensated filter. We compare the peak statistics in the observations with that of simulations for various cosmologies to constrain the cosmological parameter $S_8 = \sigma_8 \sqrt{\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3}$, which probes the ($\Omega_{\rm m}, \sigma_8$) plane perpendicularly to its main degeneracy. We estimate $S_8=0.750\pm0.059$, using peaks in the signal-to-noise range $0 \leq {\rm S/N} \leq 4$, and accounting for various systematics, such as multiplicative shear bias, mean redshift bias, baryon feedback, intrinsic alignment, and shear-position coupling. These constraints are $\sim25\%$ tighter than the constraints from the high significance peaks alone ($3 \leq {\rm S/N} \leq 4$) which typically trace single-massive halos. This demonstrates the gain of information from low-S/N peaks. However we find that including ${\rm S/N} < 0$ peaks does not add further information. Our results are in good agreement with the tomographic shear two-point correlation function measurement in KiDS-450. Combining shear peaks with non-tomographic measurements of the shear two-point correlation functions yields a $\sim20\%$ improvement in the uncertainty on $S_8$ compared to the shear two-point correlation functions alone, highlighting the great potential of peaks as a cosmological probe.

Precision calculations of the cosmic shear power spectrum projection

We compute the spherical-sky weak-lensing power spectrum of the shear and convergence. We discuss various approximations, such as flat-sky, and first- and second- order Limber equations for the projection. We find that the impact of adopting these approximations is negligible when constraining cosmological parameters from current weak lensing surveys. This is demonstrated using data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). We find that the reported tension with Planck Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropy results cannot be alleviated. For future large-scale surveys with unprecedented precision, we show that the spherical second-order Limber approximation will provide sufficient accuracy. In this case, the cosmic-shear power spectrum is shown to be in agreement with the full projection at the sub-percent level for l > 3, with the corresponding errors an order of magnitude below cosmic variance for all l. When computing the two-point shear correlation function, we show that the flat-sky fast Hankel transformation results in errors below two percent compared to the full spherical transformation. In the spirit of reproducible research, our numerical implementation of all approximations and the full projection are publicly available within the package nicaea at http://www.cosmostat.org/software/nicaea.