Forecasts and analyses of cosmological observations often rely on the assumption of a perfect theoretical model over a defined range of scales. We explore how model uncertainties and nuisance parameters in perturbative models of the matter and galaxy spectra affect constraints on neutrino mass and primordial non-Gaussianities. We provide a consistent treatment of theoretical errors and argue that their inclusion is a necessary step to obtain realistic cosmological constraints. We find that galaxy surveys up to high redshifts will allow a detection of the minimal neutrino mass and local non-Gaussianity of order unity, but improving the constraints on equilateral non-Gaussianity beyond the CMB limits will be challenging. We argue that similar considerations apply to analyses where theoretical models are based on simulations.
@article{arxiv.1602.00674,
title = {LSS constraints with controlled theoretical uncertainties},
author = {Tobias Baldauf and Mehrdad Mirbabayi and Marko Simonović and Matias Zaldarriaga},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.00674},
year = {2016}
}