skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Cosmological constraints from galaxy–lensing cross-correlations using BOSS galaxies with SDSS and CMB lensing
ABSTRACT We present cosmological parameter constraints based on a joint modelling of galaxy–lensing cross-correlations and galaxy clustering measurements in the SDSS, marginalizing over small-scale modelling uncertainties using mock galaxy catalogues, without explicit modelling of galaxy bias. We show that our modelling method is robust to the impact of different choices for how galaxies occupy dark matter haloes and to the impact of baryonic physics (at the $$\sim 2{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ level in cosmological parameters) and test for the impact of covariance on the likelihood analysis and of the survey window function on the theory computations. Applying our results to the measurements using galaxy samples from BOSS and lensing measurements using shear from SDSS galaxies and CMB lensing from Planck, with conservative scale cuts, we obtain $$S_8\equiv \left(\frac{\sigma _8}{0.8228}\right)^{0.8}\left(\frac{\Omega _\mathrm{ m}}{0.307}\right)^{0.6}=0.85\pm 0.05$$ (stat.) using LOWZ × SDSS galaxy lensing, and S8 = 0.91 ± 0.1 (stat.) using combination of LOWZ and CMASS × Planck CMB lensing. We estimate the systematic uncertainty in the galaxy–galaxy lensing measurements to be $$\sim 6{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ (dominated by photometric redshift uncertainties) and in the galaxy–CMB lensing measurements to be $$\sim 3{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$, from small-scale modelling uncertainties including baryonic physics.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1814370
PAR ID:
10124578
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Oxford University Press
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume:
491
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0035-8711
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 51-68
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ABSTRACT The canonical Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmological model makes precise predictions for the clustering and lensing properties of galaxies. It has been shown that the lensing amplitude of galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) is lower than expected given their clustering properties. We present new measurements and modelling of galaxies in the BOSS LOWZ sample. We focus on the radial and stellar mass dependence of the lensing amplitude mismatch. We find an amplitude mismatch of around $$35{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ when assuming ΛCDM with Planck Cosmological Microwave Background (CMB) constraints. This offset is independent of halo mass and radial scale in the range Mhalo ∼ 1013.3−1013.9h−1 M⊙ and $$r=0.1\!-\!60 \, h^{-1} \mathrm{Mpc}$$ ($$k \approx 0.05\!-\!20 \, h \, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$$). The observation that the offset is both mass and scale independent places important constraints on the degree to which astrophysical processes (baryonic effects, assembly bias) can fully explain the effect. This scale independence also suggests that the ‘lensing is low’ effect on small and large radial scales probably have the same physical origin. Resolutions based on new physics require a nearly uniform suppression, relative to ΛCDM predictions, of the amplitude of matter fluctuations on these scales. The possible causes of this are tightly constrained by measurements of the CMB and of the low-redshift expansion history. 
    more » « less
  2. ABSTRACT The combination of galaxy–galaxy lensing (GGL) and galaxy clustering is a powerful probe of low-redshift matter clustering, especially if it is extended to the non-linear regime. To this end, we use an N-body and halo occupation distribution (HOD) emulator method to model the redMaGiC sample of colour-selected passive galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey (DES), adding parameters that describe central galaxy incompleteness, galaxy assembly bias, and a scale-independent multiplicative lensing bias Alens. We use this emulator to forecast cosmological constraints attainable from the GGL surface density profile ΔΣ(rp) and the projected galaxy correlation function wp, gg(rp) in the final (Year 6) DES data set over scales $$r_p=0.3\!-\!30.0\, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc}$$. For a $$3{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ prior on Alens we forecast precisions of $$1.9{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$, $$2.0{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$, and $$1.9{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ on Ωm, σ8, and $$S_8 \equiv \sigma _8\Omega _m^{0.5}$$, marginalized over all halo occupation distribution (HOD) parameters as well as Alens. Adding scales $$r_p=0.3\!-\!3.0\, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc}$$ improves the S8 precision by a factor of ∼1.6 relative to a large scale ($$3.0\!-\!30.0\, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc}$$) analysis, equivalent to increasing the survey area by a factor of ∼2.6. Sharpening the Alens prior to $$1{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ further improves the S8 precision to $$1.1{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$, and it amplifies the gain from including non-linear scales. Our emulator achieves per cent-level accuracy similar to the projected DES statistical uncertainties, demonstrating the feasibility of a fully non-linear analysis. Obtaining precise parameter constraints from multiple galaxy types and from measurements that span linear and non-linear clustering offers many opportunities for internal cross-checks, which can diagnose systematics and demonstrate the robustness of cosmological results. 
    more » « less
  3. ABSTRACT Galaxy–galaxy lensing is a powerful probe of the connection between galaxies and their host dark matter haloes, which is important both for galaxy evolution and cosmology. We extend the measurement and modelling of the galaxy–galaxy lensing signal in the recent Dark Energy Survey Year 3 cosmology analysis to the highly non-linear scales (∼100 kpc). This extension enables us to study the galaxy–halo connection via a Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) framework for the two lens samples used in the cosmology analysis: a luminous red galaxy sample (redmagic) and a magnitude-limited galaxy sample (maglim). We find that redmagic (maglim) galaxies typically live in dark matter haloes of mass log10(Mh/M⊙) ≈ 13.7 which is roughly constant over redshift (13.3−13.5 depending on redshift). We constrain these masses to $${\sim}15{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$, approximately 1.5 times improvement over the previous work. We also constrain the linear galaxy bias more than five times better than what is inferred by the cosmological scales only. We find the satellite fraction for redmagic (maglim) to be ∼0.1−0.2 (0.1−0.3) with no clear trend in redshift. Our constraints on these halo properties are broadly consistent with other available estimates from previous work, large-scale constraints, and simulations. The framework built in this paper will be used for future HOD studies with other galaxy samples and extensions for cosmological analyses. 
    more » « less
  4. null (Ed.)
    ABSTRACT Galaxy intrinsic alignments (IAs) have long been recognized as a significant contaminant to weak lensing-based cosmological inference. In this paper we seek to quantify the impact of a common modelling assumption in analytic descriptions of IAs: that of spherically symmetric dark matter haloes. Understanding such effects is important as the current generation of IA models are known to be limited, particularly on small scales, and building an accurate theoretical description will be essential for fully exploiting the information in future lensing data. Our analysis is based on a catalogue of 113 560 galaxies between z = 0.06 and 1.00 from massiveblack-ii, a hydrodynamical simulation of box length $$100 \, h^{-1}$$ Mpc. We find satellite anisotropy contributes at the level of $$\ge 30\!-\!40{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ to the small-scale alignment correlation functions. At separations larger than $$1 \, h^{-1}$$ Mpc the impact is roughly scale independent, inducing a shift in the amplitude of the IA power spectra of $$\sim 20{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$. These conclusions are consistent across the redshift range and between the massiveblack-ii and the illustris simulations. The cosmological implications of these results are tested using a simulated likelihood analysis. Synthetic cosmic shear data are constructed with the expected characteristics (depth, area, and number density) of a future LSST-like survey. Our results suggest that modelling alignments using a halo model based upon spherical symmetry could potentially induce cosmological parameter biases at the ∼1.5σ level for S8 and w. 
    more » « less
  5. ABSTRACT We use a simulation-based modelling approach to analyse the anisotropic clustering of the BOSS LOWZ sample over the radial range $$0.4 \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc}$$ to $$63 \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc}$$, significantly extending what is possible with a purely analytic modelling framework. Our full-scale analysis yields constraints on the growth of structure that are a factor of two more stringent than any other study on large scales at similar redshifts. We infer fσ8 = 0.471 ± 0.024 at $$z$$ ≈ 0.25, and fσ8 = 0.430 ± 0.025 at $$z$$ ≈ 0.40; the corresponding ΛCDM predictions of the Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) analysis are 0.470 ± 0.006 and 0.476 ± 0.005, respectively. Our results are thus consistent with Planck, but also follow the trend seen in previous low-redshift measurements of fσ8 falling slightly below the ΛCDM + CMB prediction. We find that small- and large-radial scales yield mutually consistent values of fσ8, but there are 1−2.5σ hints of small scales ($$\lt 10 \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc}$$) preferring lower values for fσ8 relative to larger scales. We analyse the constraining power of the full range of radial scales, finding that most of the multipole information about fσ8 is contained in the scales $$2 \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc}\lesssim s \lesssim 20 \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc}$$. Evidently, once the cosmological information of the quasi-to-nonlinear regime has been harvested, large-scale modes contain only modest additional information about structure growth. Finally, we compare predictions for the galaxy–galaxy lensing amplitude of the two samples against measurements from SDSS and assess the lensing-is-low effect in light of our findings. 
    more » « less