Prof. David Alonso

Abstract:

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>We present <jats:monospace>CoLoRe</jats:monospace>, a public software package to efficiently generate synthetic realisations of multiple cosmological surveys. <jats:monospace>CoLoRe</jats:monospace> can simulate the growth of structure with different degrees of accuracy, with the current implementation supporting lognormal fields, first, and second order Lagrangian perturbation theory. <jats:monospace>CoLoRe</jats:monospace> simulates the density field on an all-sky light-cone up to a desired maximum redshift, and uses it to generate multiple 2D and 3D maps: galaxy positions and velocities, lensing (shear, magnification, convergence), integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, line intensity mapping, and line of sight skewers for simulations of the Lyman-<jats:italic>α</jats:italic> forest. We test the accuracy of the simulated maps against analytical theoretical predictions, and showcase its performance with a multi-survey simulation including DESI galaxies and quasars, LSST galaxies and lensing, and SKA intensity mapping and radio galaxies. We expect <jats:monospace>CoLoRe</jats:monospace> to be particularly useful in studies aiming to characterise the impact of systematics in multi-experiment analyses, quantify the covariance between different datasets, and test cross-correlation pipelines for near-future surveys.</jats:p>

Abstract:

Recent works have shown that weak lensing magnification must be included in upcoming large-scale structure analyses, such as for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), to avoid biasing the cosmological results. In this work, we investigate whether including magnification has a positive impact on the precision of the cosmological constraints, as well as being necessary to avoid bias. We forecast this using an LSST mock catalogue and a halo model to calculate the galaxy power spectra. We find that including magnification has little effect on the precision of the cosmological parameter constraints for an LSST galaxy clustering analysis, where the halo model parameters are additionally constrained by the galaxy luminosity function. In particular, we find that for the LSST gold sample (i < 25.3) including weak lensing magnification only improves the galaxy clustering constraint on.

Abstract:

We constrain the expansion history of the Universe and the cosmological matter density fraction in a model-independent way by exclusively making use of the relationship between background and perturbations under a minimal set of assumptions. We do so by employing a Gaussian process to model the expansion history of the Universe from present time to the recombination era. The expansion history and the cosmological matter density are then constrained using recent measurements from cosmic chronometers, Type-Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, and redshift-space distortion data. Our results show that the evolution in the reconstructed expansion history is compatible with the Planck 2018 prediction at all redshifts. The current data considered in this study can constrain a Gaussian process on H(z) to an average 9.4 per cent precision across redshift. We find Ω_m = 0.224 ± 0.066, lower but statistically compatible with the Planck 2018 cosmology. Finally, the combination of future DESI measurements with the CMB measurement considered in this work holds the promise of 8 per cent average constraints on a model-independent expansion history as well as a five-fold tighter Ω_m constraint using the methodology developed in this work.

Abstract:

CMB-S4—the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment—is set to significantly advance the sensitivity of CMB measurements and enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe. Among the science cases pursued with CMB-S4, the quest for detecting primordial gravitational waves is a central driver of the experimental design. This work details the development of a forecasting framework that includes a power-spectrum-based semianalytic projection tool, targeted explicitly toward optimizing constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, in the presence of Galactic foregrounds and gravitational lensing of the CMB. This framework is unique in its direct use of information from the achieved performance of current Stage 2–3 CMB experiments to robustly forecast the science reach of upcoming CMB-polarization endeavors. The methodology allows for rapid iteration over experimental configurations and offers a flexible way to optimize the design of future experiments, given a desired scientific goal. To form a closed-loop process, we couple this semianalytic tool with map-based validation studies, which allow for the injection of additional complexity and verification of our forecasts with several independent analysis methods. We document multiple rounds of forecasts for CMB-S4 using this process and the resulting establishment of the current reference design of the primordial gravitational-wave component of the Stage-4 experiment, optimized to achieve our science goals of detecting primordial gravitational waves for r > 0.003 at greater than 5σ, or in the absence of a detection, of reaching an upper limit of r < 0.001 at 95% CL.