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We forecast constraints on minimal model-independent parametrisations of several Modified Gravity theories using mock Stage-IV cosmic shear data. We include nonlinear effects and screening, which ensures recovery of General Relativity on small scales. We introduce a power spectrum emulator to accelerate our analysis and evaluate the robustness of the growth index parametrisation with respect to two cosmologies: $\Lambda$CDM and the normal branch of the DGP model. We forecast the uncertainties on the growth index $\gamma$ to be of the order $\sim 10\%$. We find that our halo-model based screening approach demonstrates excellent performance, meeting the precision requirements of Stage-IV surveys. However, neglecting the screening transition results in biased predictions for cosmological parameters. We find that the screening transition shows significant degeneracy with baryonic feedback, requiring a much better understanding of baryonic physics for its detection. Massive neutrinos effects are less prominent and challenging to detect solely with cosmic shear data., Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures, 2 tables plus Appendices. Our power spectrum boost emulators for extended cosmologies are publicly available at https://github.com/nebblu/ReACT-emus/tree/main/emulators

The Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) is proposed as a new facility dedicated to the efficient delivery of spectroscopic surveys. This white paper summarises the initial concept as well as the corresponding science cases. WST will feature simultaneous operation of a large field-of-view (3 sq. degree), a high multiplex (20,000) multi-object spectrograph (MOS) and a giant 3x3 sq. arcmin integral field spectrograph (IFS). In scientific capability these requirements place WST far ahead of existing and planned facilities. Given the current investment in deep imaging surveys and noting the diagnostic power of spectroscopy, WST will fill a crucial gap in astronomical capability and work synergistically with future ground and space-based facilities. This white paper shows that WST can address outstanding scientific questions in the areas of cosmology; galaxy assembly, evolution, and enrichment, including our own Milky Way; origin of stars and planets; time domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. WST's uniquely rich dataset will deliver unforeseen discoveries in many of these areas. The WST Science Team (already including more than 500 scientists worldwide) is open to the all astronomical community. To register in the WST Science Team please visit https://www.wstelescope.com/for-scientists/participate, Comment: 194 pages, 66 figures. Comments are welcome (wstelescope@gmail.com)

The current discrepancy between the CMB and weak lensing measurements of the amplitude of matter fluctuations, the so-called $S_8$ tension, has attracted a great deal of recent attention, as it may show a crack in the $\Lambda$CDM model of cosmology. We review the evidence for this tension and describe potential solutions, focusing on extensions of the standard cosmological model, including interacting dark energy and modified gravity. We present a likelihood analysis of the BOSS DR12 data, probing these alternative models as well as $\Lambda$CDM. From this analysis, we show hints of non-standard cosmology compatible with those seen in weak lensing observations, demonstrating that interacting dark energy or modified gravity can explain them successfully. We then discuss the robustness of these results to analysis choices, as well as future paths to confirm them with additional data and further distinguish between models., Comment: Contribution to the 34th Rencontres de Blois on Particle Physics and Cosmology (Blois 2023)

We constrain the growth index $\gamma$ by performing a full-shape analysis of the power spectrum multipoles measured from the BOSS DR12 data. We adopt a theoretical model based on the Effective Field theory of the Large Scale Structure (EFTofLSS) and focus on two different cosmologies: $\gamma$CDM and $\gamma \nu$CDM, where we also vary the total neutrino mass. We explore different choices for the priors on the primordial amplitude $A_s$ and spectral index $n_s$, finding that informative priors are necessary to alleviate degeneracies between the parameters and avoid strong projection effects in the posterior distributions. Our tightest constraints are obtained with 3$\sigma$ Planck priors on $A_s$ and $n_s$: we obtain $\gamma = 0.647 \pm 0.085$ for $\gamma$CDM and $\gamma = 0.612^{+0.075}_{-0.090}$, $M_\nu < 0.30$ for $\gamma \nu$CDM at 68\% c.l., in both cases $\sim 1\sigma$ consistent with the $\Lambda$CDM prediction $\gamma \simeq 0.55$. Additionally, we produce forecasts for a Stage-IV spectroscopic galaxy survey, focusing on a DESI-like sample. We fit synthetic data-vectors for three different galaxy samples generated at three different redshift bins, both individually and jointly. Focusing on the constraining power of the Large Scale Structure alone, we find that forthcoming data can give an improvement of up to $\sim 85\%$ in the measurement of $\gamma$ with respect to the BOSS dataset when no CMB priors are imposed. On the other hand, we find the neutrino mass constraints to be only marginally better than the current ones, with future data able to put an upper limit of $M_\nu < 0.27~{\rm eV}$. This result can be improved with the inclusion of Planck priors on the primordial parameters, which yield $M_\nu < 0.18~{\rm eV}$., Comment: updated with accepted version

Interacting dark energy models have been suggested as alternatives to the standard cosmological model, $\Lambda$CDM. We focus on a phenomenologically interesting class of dark scattering models that is characterised by pure momentum exchange between dark energy and dark matter. This model extends the parameter space with respect to $\Lambda$CDM by two parameters, $w$ and $A$, which define the dark energy equation of state and the strength of the coupling between dark energy and dark matter, respectively. In order to test non-standard cosmologies with Stage-IV galaxy clustering surveys, it is crucial to model mildly nonlinear scales and perform precision vs accuracy tests. We use the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure, and we perform validation tests by means of an MCMC analysis using a large set of N-body simulations. We find that adding the bispectrum monopole to the power spectrum multipoles improves the constraints on the dark energy parameters by $\sim 30 \%$ for $k_{\mathrm{max}, B}^{l=0} = 0.11$ $h$ Mpc$^{-1}$ without introducing biases in the parameter estimation. We also find that the same improvement can be achieved with more moderate scale cuts and the use of bias relations, or with the addition of the bispectrum quadrupole. Finally, we study degeneracies between the dark energy parameters and the scalar amplitude $A_\mathrm{s}$ and discuss the corresponding projection effects, as well as degeneracies with other cosmological parameters., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures; V2: Matches version accepted for publication in MNRAS, includes a new analysis of degeneracies with cosmological parameters