How to falsify the GR+{Lambda}CDM model with galaxy redshift surveys

Journal Article · Fri Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.82.082001· OSTI ID:21432996

Acquaviva, Viviana; Gawiser, Eric ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854 (United States)

A wide range of models describing modifications to general relativity have been proposed, but no fundamental parameter set exists to describe them. Similarly, no fundamental theory exists for dark energy to parametrize its potential deviation from a cosmological constant. This motivates a model-independent search for deviations from the concordance GR+{Lambda}CDM cosmological model in large galaxy redshift surveys. We describe two model-independent tests of the growth of cosmological structure, in the form of quantities that must equal one if GR+{Lambda}CDM is correct. The first, {epsilon}, was introduced previously as a scale-independent consistency check between the expansion history and structure growth. The second, {upsilon}, is introduced here as a test of scale-dependence in the linear evolution of matter density perturbations. We show that the ongoing and near-future galaxy redshift surveys WiggleZ, BOSS, and HETDEX will constrain these quantities at the 5-10% level, representing a stringent test of concordance cosmology at different redshifts. When redshift space distortions are used to probe the growth of cosmological structure, galaxies at higher redshift with lower bias are found to be most powerful in detecting the presence of deviations from the GR+{Lambda}CDM model. However, because many dark energy or modified gravity models predict consistency with GR+{Lambda}CDM at high redshift, it is desirable to apply this approach to surveys covering a wide range of redshifts and spatial scales.

• OSTI ID: 21432996
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 82, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.82.082001; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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