Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth

About: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Galaxy & Redshift. The organization has 297 authors who have published 1207 publications receiving 76919 citations.

Missing link: A nonlinear post-Friedmann framework for small and large scales

Abstract: We present a nonlinear post-Friedmann framework for structure formation, generalizing to cosmology the weak-field (post-Minkowskian) approximation, unifying the treatment of small and large scales. We consider a universe filled with a pressureless fluid and a cosmological constant $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$, the theory of gravity is Einstein's general relativity and the background is the standard flat $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ cosmological model. We expand the metric and the energy-momentum tensor in powers of $1/c$, keeping the matter density and peculiar velocity as exact fundamental variables. We assume the Poisson gauge, including scalar and tensor modes up to $1/{c}^{4}$ order and vector modes up to $1/{c}^{5}$ terms. Through a redefinition of the scalar potentials as a resummation of the metric contributions at different orders, we obtain a complete set of nonlinear equations, providing a unified framework to study structure formation from small to superhorizon scales, from the nonlinear Newtonian to the linear relativistic regime. We explicitly show the validity of our scheme in the two limits: at leading order we recover the fully nonlinear equations of Newtonian cosmology; when linearized, our equations become those for scalar and vector modes of first-order relativistic perturbation theory in the Poisson gauge. Tensor modes are nondynamical at the $1/{c}^{4}$ order we consider (gravitational waves only appear at higher order): they are purely nonlinear and describe a distortion of the spatial slices determined at this order by a constraint, quadratic in the scalar and vector variables. The main results of our analysis are as follows: (a) at leading order a purely Newtonian nonlinear energy current sources a frame-dragging gravitomagnetic vector potential, and (b) in the leading-order Newtonian regime and in the linear relativistic regime, the two scalar metric potentials are the same, while the nonlinearity of general relativity makes them different. Possible applications of our formalism include the calculations of the vector potential [1,2] and the difference between the two scalar potentials from Newtonian N-body simulations, and the extension of Newtonian approximations used in structure formation studies, to include relativistic effects.

Constraints on braneworld inflation from CMB anisotropies

Abstract: We obtain observational constraints on Randall–Sundrum type II braneworld inflation using a compilation of data including WMAP, the 2dF and latest SDSS galaxy redshift surveys. We place constraints on three classes of inflation models (large-field, small-field and hybrid models) in the high-energy regime, which exhibit different behaviour compared to the low-energy case. The quartic potential is outside the 2σ observational contour bound for a number of e-folds less than 60, and steep inflation driven by an exponential potential is excluded because of its high tensor-to-scalar ratio. It is more difficult to strongly constrain small-field and hybrid models due to additional freedoms associated with the potentials, but we obtain upper bounds for the energy scale of inflation and the model parameters in certain cases. We also discuss possible ways to break the degeneracy of consistency relations and inflationary observables.

Quintessence with quadratic coupling to dark matter

Abstract: We introduce a new form of coupling between dark energy and dark matter that is quadratic in their energy densities Then we investigate the background dynamics when dark energy is in the form of exponential quintessence The three types of quadratic coupling all admit late-time accelerating critical points, but these are not scaling solutions We also show that two types of coupling allow for a suitable matter era at early times and acceleration at late times, while the third type of coupling does not admit a suitable matter era

Constraining the halo bispectrum in real and redshift space from perturbation theory and non-linear stochastic bias

Abstract: We present a method to produce mock galaxy catalogues with efficient perturbation theory schemes, which match the number density, power spectra and bispectra in real and in redshift space from N-body simulations. The essential contribution of this work is the way in which we constrain the bias parameters in the PATCHY-code. In addition of aiming at reproducing the two-point statistics, we seek the set of bias parameters, which constrain the univariate halo probability distribution function (PDF) encoding higher-order correlation functions. We demonstrate that halo catalogues based on the same underlying dark matter field with a fix halo number density, and accurately matching the power spectrum (within 2%), can lead to very different bispectra depending on the adopted halo bias model. A model ignoring the shape of the halo PDF can lead to deviations up to factors of 2. The catalogues obtained additionally constraining the shape of the halo PDF can significantly lower the discrepancy in the three-point statistics, yielding closely unbiased bispectra both in real and in redshift space; which are in general compatible with those corresponding to an N-body simulation within 10% (deviating at most up to 20%). Our calculations show that the constant linear bias of ~2 for Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) like galaxies seen in the power spectrum, mainly comes from sampling halos in high density peaks, choosing a high density threshold rather than from a factor multiplying the dark matter density field. Our method contributes towards an efficient modelling of the halo/galaxy distribution required to estimate uncertainties in the clustering measurements from galaxy redshift surveys. We have also demonstrated that it represents a powerful tool to test various bias models.

Analogue models for frw cosmologies

Abstract: It is by now well known that various condensed matter systems may be used to mimic many of the kinematic aspects of general relativity, and in particular of curved-spacetime quantum field theory. In this essay we will take a look at what would be needed to mimic a cosmological spacetime — to be precise a spatially flat FRW cosmology — in one of these analogue models. In order to do this one needs to build and control suitable time dependent systems. We discuss here two quite different ways to achieve this goal. One might rely on an explosion, physically mimicking the big bang by an outflow of whatever medium is being used to carry the excitations of the analogue model, but this idea appears to encounter dynamical problems in practice. More subtly, one can avoid the need for any actual physical motion (and avoid the dynamical problems) by instead adjusting the propagation speed of the excitations of the analogue model. We shall focus on this more promising route and discuss its practicality.