Issue |
A&A
Volume 630, October 2019
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A151 | |
Number of page(s) | 19 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936245 | |
Published online | 09 October 2019 |
Inferring high-redshift large-scale structure dynamics from the Lyman-α forest
1
Max-Planck-Institute für Astrophysik (MPA), Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 1, 85741 Garching, Germany
e-mail: natalia@MPA-Garching.MPG.DE
2
Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstrasse 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
3
The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, Albanova University Center, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
4
Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP), Sorbonne Universités, 98bis Boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
5
Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP), UMR 7095, CNRS – UPMC Université Paris 6, Sorbonne Universités, 98bis Boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
6
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 München, Germany
Received:
5
July
2019
Accepted:
13
September
2019
One of the major science goals over the coming decade is to test fundamental physics with probes of the cosmic large-scale structure out to high redshift. Here we present a fully Bayesian approach to infer the three-dimensional cosmic matter distribution and its dynamics at z > 2 from observations of the Lyman-α forest. We demonstrate that the method recovers the unbiased mass distribution and the correct matter power spectrum at all scales. Our method infers the three-dimensional density field from a set of one-dimensional spectra, interpolating the information between the lines of sight. We show that our algorithm provides unbiased mass profiles of clusters, becoming an alternative for estimating cluster masses complementary to weak lensing or X-ray observations. The algorithm employs a Hamiltonian Monte Carlo method to generate realizations of initial and evolved density fields and the three-dimensional large-scale flow, revealing the cosmic dynamics at high redshift. The method correctly handles multi-modal parameter distributions, which allow constraining the physics of the intergalactic medium with high accuracy. We performed several tests using realistic simulated quasar spectra to test and validate our method. Our results show that detailed and physically plausible inference of three-dimensional large-scale structures at high redshift has become feasible.
Key words: large-scale structure of Universe / dark matter
© N. Porqueres et al. 2019
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Open Access funding provided by Max Planck Society.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.