English

Cluster-Void Degeneracy Breaking: Dark Energy, Planck and the Largest Cluster & Void

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2016-03-17 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Combining galaxy cluster and void abundances breaks the degeneracy between mean matter density Ωm\Omega_{\rm m} and power spectrum normalization σ8\sigma_8. In a first for voids, we constrain Ωm=0.21±0.10\Omega_{\rm m} = 0.21 \pm 0.10 and σ8=0.95±0.21\sigma_8 = 0.95 \pm 0.21 for a flat Λ\LambdaCDM universe, using extreme-value statistics on the claimed largest cluster and void. The Planck-consistent results detect dark energy with two objects, independently of other dark energy probes. Cluster-void studies also offer complementarity in scale, density, and non-linearity - of particular interest for testing modified-gravity models.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1511.04075,
  title  = {Cluster-Void Degeneracy Breaking: Dark Energy, Planck and the Largest Cluster & Void},
  author = {Martin Sahlén and Íñigo Zubeldía and Joseph Silk},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1511.04075},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

13 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. ApJL accepted, revised version. Minor changes: added clarifying remarks, discussion on redshift sensitivity and more general models. Results and conclusions unchanged