() Cosmology & Astrophysics

Publication: arxiv:2011.01719

Abstract

The generalised Proca (GP) theory is a modified gravity model in which the acceleration of the cosmic expansion rate can be explained by self interactions of a cosmological vector field. In this paper we study a particular sub-class of the GP theory, with up to cubic order Lagrangian, known as the cubic vector Galileon (cvG) model. This model is similar to the cubic scalar Galileon (csG) in many aspects, including a fifth force and the Vainshtein screening mechanism, but with the additional flexibility that the strength of the fifth force depends on an extra parameter – interpolating between zero and the full strength of the csG model – while the background expansion history is independent of this parameter. It offers an interesting alternative to \(\Lambda\)CDM in explaining the cosmic acceleration, as well as a solution to the tension between early- and late-time measurements of the Hubble constant \(H_0\). To identify the best ways to test this model, in this paper we conduct a comprehensive study of the phenomenology of this model in the nonlinear regime of large-scale structure formation, using a suite of N-body simulations run with the modified gravity code ECOSMOG. By inspecting thirteen statistics of the dark matter field, dark matter haloes and weak lensing maps, we find that the fifth force in this model can have particularly significant effects on the large-scale velocity field and lensing potential at late times, which suggest that redshift-space distortions and weak lensing can place strong constraints on it.

Publication: arxiv:2007.03042
Code: ECOSMOG-cvG

Abstract

We investigate the nonlinear growth of large-scale structure in the generalised Proca theory, in which a self-interacting massive vector field plays the role of driving the acceleration of the cosmic expansion. Focusing to the Proca Lagrangian at cubic order – the cubic vector Galileon model – we derive the simplified equations for gravity as well as the longitudinal and transverse modes of the vector field under the weak-field and quasi-static approximations, and implement them in a modified version of the ECOSMOG \(N\)-body code. Our simulations incorporate the Vainshtein screening effect, which reconciles the fifth force propagated by the longitudinal mode of the cubic vector Galileon model with local tests of gravity. The results confirm that for all scales probed by the simulation, the transverse mode has a negligible impact on structure formation in a realistic cosmological setup. It is well known that in this model the strength of the fifth force is controlled by a free model parameter, which we denote as \(\tilde{\beta}_3\). By running a suite of cosmological simulations for different values of \(\tilde{\beta}_3\), we show that this parameter also determines the effectiveness of the Vainshtein screening. The model behaves identically to the cubic scalar Galileon for \(\tilde{\beta}_3 \to 0\), in which the fifth force is strong in unscreened regions but is efficiently screened in high-density regions. In the opposite limit, \(\tilde{\beta}_3 \to \infty\), the model approaches its `quintessence’ counterpart, which has a vanishing fifth force but a modified expansion history compared to \(\Lambda\)CDM. This endows the model with rich phenomenology, which will be investigated in future works.

Publication: arxiv:2006.08540
Code: H0-from-catalogued-strong-lensing

Abstract

Measurements of the Hubble-Lemaitre constant from early- and local-universe observations show a significant discrepancy. In an attempt to understand the origin of this mismatch, independent techniques to measure \(H_0\) are required. One such technique, strong lensing time delays, is set to become a leading contender amongst the myriad methods due to forthcoming large strong lens samples. It is therefore critical to understand the systematic effects inherent in this method. In this paper, we quantify the influence of additional structures along the line-of-sight by adopting realistic lightcones derived from the \textit{CosmoDC2} semi-analytical extra-galactic catalogue. Using multiple lens plane ray-tracing to create a set of simulated strong lensing systems, we have investigated the impact of line-of-sight structures on time-delay measurements and in turn, on the inferred value of \(H_0\). We have also tested the reliability of existing procedures for correcting for line-of-sight effects. We find that if the integrated contribution of the of line-of-sight structures is close to a uniform mass sheet, the bias in \(H_0\) can be adequately corrected by including a constant external convergence \(\kappa_{\rm ext}\) in the lens model. However, for realistic line-of-sight structures comprising many galaxies at different redshifts, this simple correction over-estimates the bias by a factor of approximately three. We therefore conclude that lens modelling must incorporate multiple lens planes to account for line-of-sight structures for accurate and precise inference of \(H_0\).

Publication: arxiv:2006.08540