Cosmology

Abstract:

Forthcoming large photometric surveys for cosmology require precise and accurate photometric redshift (photo-z) measurements for the success of their main science objectives. However, to date, no method has been able to produce photo-zs at the required accuracy using only the broad-band photometry that those surveys will provide. An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current methods is a crucial step in the eventual development of an approach to meet this challenge. We report on the performance of 13 photometric redshift code single value redshift estimates and redshift probability distributions (PDZs) on a common set of data, focusing particularly on the 0.2pdbl-pdbl2.6 redshift range that the Euclid mission will probe. We designed a challenge using emulated Euclid data drawn from three photometric surveys of the COSMOS field. The data was divided into two samples: one calibration sample for which photometry and redshifts were provided to the participants; and the validation sample, containing only the photometry to ensure a blinded test of the methods. Participants were invited to provide a redshift single value estimate and a PDZ for each source in the validation sample, along with a rejection flag that indicates the sources they consider unfit for use in cosmological analyses. The performance of each method was assessed through a set of informative metrics, using cross-matched spectroscopic and highly-accurate photometric redshifts as the ground truth. We show that the rejection criteria set by participants are efficient in removing strong outliers, that is to say sources for which the photo-z deviates by more than 0.15(1pdbl+pdblz) from the spectroscopic-redshift (spec-z). We also show that, while all methods are able to provide reliable single value estimates, several machine-learning methods do not manage to produce useful PDZs. We find that no machine-learning method provides good results in the regions of galaxy color-space that are sparsely populated by spectroscopic-redshifts, for example zpdbl> pdbl1. However they generally perform better than template-fitting methods at low redshift (zpdbl< pdbl0.7), indicating that template-fitting methods do not use all of the information contained in the photometry. We introduce metrics that quantify both photo-z precision and completeness of the samples (post-rejection), since both contribute to the final figure of merit of the science goals of the survey (e.g., cosmic shear from Euclid). Template-fitting methods provide the best results in these metrics, but we show that a combination of template-fitting results and machine-learning results with rejection criteria can outperform any individual method. On this basis, we argue that further work in identifying how to best select between machine-learning and template-fitting approaches for each individual galaxy should be pursued as a priority.

Abstract:

We investigate the inclusion of clustering maps in a weak lensing Minkowski functional (MF) analysis of DES-like and LSST-like simulations to constrain cosmological parameters. The standard 3x2pt approach to lensing and clustering data uses two-point correlations as its primary statistic; MFs, morphological statistics describing the shape of matter fields, provide additional information for non- Gaussian fields. Previous analyses have studied MFs of lensing convergence maps; in this project we explore their simultaneous application to clustering maps. We employ a simplified linear galaxy bias model, and using a lognormal curved sky measurement and Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) sampling process for parameter inference, we find that MFs do not yield any information in the Ωm – σ8 plane not already generated by a 3x2pt analysis. However, we expect that MFs should improve constraining power when nonlinear baryonic and other small-scale effects are taken into account. As with a 3x2pt analysis, we find a significant improvement to constraints when adding clustering data to MF-only and MF+C` shear measurements, and strongly recommend future higher order statistics be measured from both convergence and clustering maps.ISSN:2565-612

Abstract:

We explore the phase-space of homogeneous and anisotropic spacetimes within symmetric teleparallel $f(Q)$-gravity. Specifically, we consider the Kantowski-Sachs and locally rotational Bianchi III geometries to describe the physical space. By analyzing the phase-space, we reconstruct the cosmological history dictated by $f(Q)$-gravity and comment about the theory's viability. Our findings suggest that the free parameters of the connection must be constrained to eliminate nonlinear terms in the field equations. Consequently, new stationary points emerge, rendering the theory cosmologically viable. We identify the existence of anisotropic accelerated universes, which may correspond to the pre-inflationary epoch.Comment: 23 pages, 2 compound figure