Related papers: Toward High-Precision Measures of Large-Scale Stru…
We study the prospects for measuring the cosmological distribution and abundance of ionized electrons in the intergalactic medium using galaxy surveys. Optical light from distant galaxies is subject to Thomson screening by intervening…
We assess the accuracy with which future galaxy surveys can measure cosmological parameters by deriving a handy approximation that we validate numerically. We find that galaxy surveys are quite complementary to future Cosmic Microwave…
The power spectrum of mass density fluctuations is evaluated from the Mark III and the SFI catalogs of peculiar velocities by a maximum likelihood analysis, using parametric models for the power spectrum and for the errors. The applications…
Breakthroughs in physics and astrophysics are often driven by technological advances, with the recent detection of gravitational waves being one such example. This white paper focuses upon how improved astrometric and spectroscopic…
The ability to test the nature of dark mass-energy components in the universe through large-scale structure studies hinges on accurate predictions of sky survey expectations within a given world model. Numerical simulations predict key…
Survey observations of the three-dimensional locations of galaxies are a powerful approach to measure the distribution of matter in the universe, which can be used to learn about the nature of dark energy, physics of inflation, neutrino…
We summarize the plans for and the current status of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a digital imaging and spectroscopic survey of $\pi$ steradians in the northern Galactic cap. The CCD photometric survey will produce images in five bands to…
We develop a cosmological parameter estimation code for (tomographic) angular power spectra analyses of galaxy number counts, for which we include, for the first time, redshift-space distortions (RSD) in the Limber approximation. This…
Distances in cosmology are usually inferred from observed redshifts - an estimate that is dependent on the local peculiar motion - giving a distorted view of the three dimensional structure and affecting basic observables such as the…
We study the power of upcoming weak lensing surveys to probe dark energy. Dark energy modifies the distance-redshift relation as well as the matter power spectrum, both of which affect the weak lensing convergence power spectrum. Some…
The growth rate of large scale structure can probe whether dark matter clusters at gravitational strength or deviates from this, e.g. due to self interactions. Measurement of the growth rate through redshift space distortions in galaxy…
We discuss the estimation of galaxy correlation properties in several volume limited samples, in different sky regions, obtained from the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The small scale properties are characterized…
We propose a new strategy to probe the power spectrum on large scales using galaxy peculiar velocities. We explore the properties of surveys that cover only two small fields in opposing directions on the sky. Surveys of this type have…
The luminosity functions of galaxies and quasars provide invaluable information about galaxy and quasar formation. Estimating the luminosity function from magnitude limited samples is relatively straightforward, provided that the distances…
Weak gravitational lensing on a cosmological scales can provide strong constraints both on the nature of dark matter and the dark energy equation of state. Most current weak lensing studies are restricted to (two-dimensional) projections,…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will carry out a digital photometric and spectroscopic survey over pi steradians in the northern Galactic cap. An array of CCD detectors used in drift-scan mode will image the sky in five passbands to a…
Galaxies form and evolve in the context of their local and large-scale environments. Their baryonic content that we observe with imaging and spectroscopy is intimately connected to the properties of their dark matter halos, and to their…
The true nature of dark energy remains unclear: It is either a strange fluid in the Universe, with a negative effective pressure, or a breakdown in General Relativity on large scales. This question can only be answered through a suite of…
The observed density field in redshift space is directly affected by the radial motions generated from mass fluctuations outside the volume occupied by a given galaxy redshift survey. These motions introduce redshift space anisotropies…
Redshift surveys are a powerful tool of modern cosmology. We discuss two aspects of their power to map the distribution of mass and light in the universe: (1) measuring the mass distribution extending into the infall regions of rich…