Search

We present a novel analysis for cluster cosmology that fully forward models the abundances, weak lensing, and the clustering of galaxy clusters. Our analysis notably includes an empirical model for the anisotropic boosts impacting the lensing and clustering signals of optical clusters. These boosts arise from a preferential selection of clusters surrounded by anisotropic large scale structure, a consequence of the limited discrimination between line-of-sight interlopers and true cluster members offered by photometric surveys. We validate our analysis via a blind cosmology challenge on mocks, and find that we can obtain tight and unbiased cosmological constraints without informative priors or external calibrations on any of our model parameters. We then apply our analysis on the SDSS redMaPPer clusters, and find results favoring low $\Omega_\mathrm{m}$ and high $\sigma_8$, combining to yield the lensing strength constraint $S_8 = 0.718_{-0.021}^{+0.024}$. We investigate potential drivers behind these results through a series of post-unblinding tests, noting that our results are consistent with existing cluster cosmology constraints but clearly inconsistent with other CMB/LSS based cosmology results. From these tests, we find hints that a suppression in the cluster lensing signal may be driving our results., Comment: v1: 19 pages, 14 figures. Comments welcome. v2: Added clarifications in text and reflected a minor bug fix for Section 3; version submitted to MNRAS. v3: version accepted and published at MNRAS

We present cosmological parameter constraints from a blinded joint analysis of galaxy-galaxy weak lensing, $\Delta\!\Sigma(R)$, and projected correlation function, $w_\mathrm{p}(R)$, measured from the first-year HSC (HSC-Y1) data and SDSS spectroscopic galaxies over $0.150.75$ for the $\Delta\!\Sigma$ measurements, selected based on their photometric redshifts. For theoretical template, we use the "minimal bias" model for the cosmological clustering observables for the flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model. We compare the model predictions with the measurements in each redshift bin on large scales, $R>12$ and $8~h^{-1}\mathrm{Mpc}$ for $\Delta\!\Sigma(R)$ and $w_\mathrm{p}(R)$, respectively, where the perturbation theory-inspired model is valid. When we employ weak priors on cosmological parameters, without CMB information, we find $S_8=0.936^{+0.092}_{-0.086}$, $\sigma_8=0.85^{+0.16}_{-0.11}$, and $\Omega_\mathrm{m}=0.283^{+0.12}_{-0.035}$ for the flat $\Lambda$CDM model. Although the central value of $S_8$ appears to be larger than those inferred from other cosmological experiments, we find that the difference is consistent with expected differences due to sample variance, and our results are consistent with the other results to within the statistical uncertainties. (abriged), Comment: 24 pages, 19 figures, 4 tables, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. D

We present high-fidelity cosmology results from a blinded joint analysis of galaxy-galaxy weak lensing ($\Delta\!\Sigma$) and projected galaxy clustering ($w_{\rm p}$) measured from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Year-1 (HSC-Y1) data and spectroscopic Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxy catalogs in the redshift range $0.15

We study Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) in $\sim5000$ galaxy clusters from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program. The sample is selected over an area of 830 $\textrm{deg}^2$ and is uniformly distributed in redshift over the range $z=0.3-1.0$. The clusters have stellar masses in the range $10^{11.8} - 10^{12.9} M_{\odot}$. We compare the stellar mass of the BCGs in each cluster to what we would expect if their masses were drawn from the mass distribution of the other member galaxies of the clusters. The BCGs are found to be "special", in the sense that they are not consistent with being a statistical extreme of the mass distribution of other cluster galaxies. This result is robust over the full range of cluster stellar masses and redshifts in the sample, indicating that BCGs are special up to a redshift of $z=1.0$. However, BCGs with a large separation from the center of the cluster are found to be consistent with being statistical extremes of the cluster member mass distribution. We discuss the implications of these findings for BCG formation scenarios., Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in MNRAS following peer review. The version of record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab2363

We present validation tests of emulator-based halo model method for cosmological parameter inference, assuming hypothetical measurements of the projected correlation function of galaxies, $w_{\rm p}(R)$, and the galaxy-galaxy weak lensing, $\Delta\!\Sigma(R)$, from the spectroscopic SDSS galaxies and the Hyper Suprime-Cam Year1 (HSC-Y1) galaxies. To do this, we use \textsc{Dark Emulator} developed in Nishimichi et al. based on an ensemble of $N$-body simulations, which is an emulation package enabling a fast, accurate computation of halo clustering quantities for flat-geometry $w$CDM cosmologies. Adopting the halo occupation distribution, the emulator allows us to obtain model predictions of $\Delta\!\Sigma$ and $w_{\rm p}$ for the SDSS-like galaxies at a few CPU seconds for an input set of parameters. We present performance and validation of the method by carrying out Markov Chain Monte Carlo analyses of the mock signals measured from a variety of mock catalogs that mimic the SDSS and HSC-Y1 galaxies. We show that the halo model method can recover the underlying true cosmological parameters to within the 68\% credible interval, except for the mocks including the assembly bias effect (although we consider the unrealistically-large amplitude of assembly bias effect). Even for the assembly bias mock, we demonstrate that the cosmological parameters can be recovered {\it if} the analysis is restricted to scales $R\gtrsim 10~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$. We also show that, by using a single population of source galaxies to infer the relative strengths of $\Delta\!\Sigma$ for multiple lens samples at different redshifts, the joint probes method allows for self-calibration of photometric redshift errors and multiplicative shear bias. Thus we conclude that the emulator-based halo model method can be safely applied to the HSC-Y1 dataset, achieving a precision of $\sigma(S_8)\simeq 0.04$., Comment: 39 pages, 22 figures and 5 tables

We assess the performance of a perturbation theory inspired method for inferring cosmological parameters from the joint measurements of galaxy-galaxy weak lensing ($\Delta\Sigma$) and the projected galaxy clustering ($w_{\rm p}$). To do this, we use a wide variety of mock galaxy catalogs constructed based on a large set of $N$-body simulations that mimic the Subaru HSC-Y1 and SDSS galaxies, and apply the method to the mock signals to address whether to recover the underlying true cosmological parameters in the mocks. We find that, as long as the appropriate scale cuts, $12$ and $8~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$ for $\Delta\Sigma$ and $w_{\rm p}$ respectively, are adopted, a "minimal-bias" model using the linear bias parameter $b_1$ alone and the nonlinear matter power spectrum can recover the true cosmological parameters (here focused on $\Omega_{\rm m}$ and $\sigma_8$) to within the 68% credible interval, for all the mocks we study including one in which an assembly bias effect is implemented. This is as expected if physical processes inherent in galaxy formation/evolution are confined to local, small scales below the scale cut, and thus implies that real-space observables have an advantage in filtering out the impact of small-scale nonlinear effects in parameter estimation, compared to their Fourier-space counterparts. In addition, we find that a theoretical template including the higher-order bias contributions such as nonlinear bias parameter $(b_2)$ does not improve the cosmological constraints, but rather leads to a larger parameter bias compared to the baseline $b_1$-method., Comment: Submitted to PRD, A revised version in response to the referee's comments

Modern cosmological analyses of galaxy-galaxy lensing face a theoretical systematic effect arising from the non-locality of the observed galaxy-galaxy lensing signal. Because the predicted tangential shear signal at a given separation depends on the physical modeling on all scales internal to that separation, systematic uncertainties in the modeling of non-linear small scales are propagated outwards to larger scales. Even in the absence of other limiting factors, this systematic effect alone can necessitate conservative small-scale cuts, resulting in significant losses of information in the tangential shear data vector. We construct a simple linear transformation of the observable that removes this non-locality, enabling more aggressive small-scale cuts for a given theoretical model. Our modified galaxy-galaxy lensing observable makes it possible to include observations on significantly smaller scales than those under the standard approach in cosmological analyses. More importantly, it ensures that the cosmological signal contained within the observable is exclusively drawn from well-understood physical scales., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

An optical cluster finder inevitably suffers from projection effects, where it misidentifies a superposition of galaxies in multiple halos along the line-of-sight as a single cluster. Using mock cluster catalogs built from cosmological N-body simulations, we quantify the impact of these projection effects with a particular focus on the observables of interest for cluster cosmology, namely the cluster lensing and the cluster clustering signals. We find that "observed" clusters, i.e. clusters identified by our cluster finder algorithm, exhibit lensing and clustering signals that deviate from expectations based on a statistically isotropic halo model -- while both signals agree with halo model expectations on small scales, they show unexpected boosts on large scales, by up to a factor of 1.2 or 1.4 respectively. We identify the origin of these boosts as the inherent selection bias of optical cluster finders for clusters embedded within filaments aligned with the line-of-sight, and show that a minority ($\sim 30\%$) of such clusters within the entire sample is responsible for this observed boost. We discuss the implications of our results on previous studies of optical cluster, as well as prospects for identifying and mitigating projection effects in future cluster cosmology analyses., Comment: 23 pages, 20 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS

We propose a new intuitive metric for evaluating the tension between two experiments, and apply it to several data sets. While our metric is non-optimal, if evidence of tension is detected, this evidence is robust and easy to interpret. Assuming a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model, we find that there is a modest $2.2\sigma$ tension between the DES Year 1 results and the ${\it Planck}$ measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This tension is driven by the difference between the amount of structure observed in the late-time Universe and that predicted from fitting the ${\it Planck}$ data, and appears to be unrelated to the tension between ${\it Planck}$ and local esitmates of the Hubble rate. In particular, combining DES, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), and supernovae (SNe) measurements recovers a Hubble constant and sound horizon consistent with ${\it Planck}$, and in tension with local distance-ladder measurements. If the tension between these various data sets persists, it is likely that reconciling ${\it all}$ current data will require breaking the flat $\Lambda$CDM model in at least two different ways: one involving new physics in the early Universe, and one involving new late-time Universe physics., Comment: 8 pages. 5 figures

We present cosmological constraints from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) using a combined analysis of angular clustering of red galaxies and their cross-correlation with weak gravitational lensing of background galaxies. We use a 139 square degree contiguous patch of DES data from the Science Verification (SV) period of observations. Using large scale measurements, we constrain the matter density of the Universe as Omega_m = 0.31 +/- 0.09 and the clustering amplitude of the matter power spectrum as sigma_8 = 0.74 +/- 0.13 after marginalizing over seven nuisance parameters and three additional cosmological parameters. This translates into S_8 = sigma_8(Omega_m/0.3)^{0.16} = 0.74 +/- 0.12 for our fiducial lens redshift bin at 0.35

Planned cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments can dramatically improve what we know about neutrino physics, inflation, and dark energy. The low level of noise, together with improved angular resolution, will increase the signal to noise of the CMB polarized signal as well as the reconstructed lensing potential of high redshift large scale structure. Projected constraints on cosmological parameters are extremely tight, but these can be improved even further with information from external experiments. Here, we examine quantitatively the extent to which external priors can lead to improvement in projected constraints from a CMB-Stage IV (S4) experiment on neutrino and dark energy properties. We find that CMB S4 constraints on neutrino mass could be strongly enhanced by external constraints on the cold dark matter density $\Omega_{c}h^{2}$ and the Hubble constant $H_{0}$. If polarization on the largest scales ($\ell<50$) will not be measured, an external prior on the primordial amplitude $A_{s}$ or the optical depth $\tau$ will also be important. A CMB constraint on the number of relativistic degrees of freedom, $N_{\rm eff}$, will benefit from an external prior on the spectral index $n_{s}$ and the baryon energy density $\Omega_{b}h^{2}$. Finally, an external prior on $H_{0}$ will help constrain the dark energy equation of state ($w$)., Comment: Revised version, new x-axis in the figures. Accepted in Phys. Rev. D

Theories of modified gravity attempt to reconcile physics at the largest and the smallest scales by explaining the accelerated expansion of our universe without introducing the cosmological constant. One class of such theories, known as Galileon theories, predict lensing potentials of spherically symmetric bodies, such as dark matter halos, to receive a feature-like modification at the 5% level. With the advent of next-generation photometric surveys, such modifications can serve as novel probes of modified gravity. Assuming an LSST-like fiducial dataset, we produce halo-shear power spectra for LCDM and Galileon scenarios, and perform a Fisher analysis including cosmological, nuisance, and Galileon parameters to study the detectability of the aforementioned modifications. With the LCDM scenario as our null hypothesis, we conclude that it is possible to detect the Galileon modifications at up to 4-{\sigma} if present, or strongly exclude the model in a non-detection, with a tomography of four redshift bins and four mass bins, an LSST-like set of survey parameters, and Planck priors on cosmological parameters., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures