Fundamental physics with the Lyman-alpha forest: constraints on the growth of structure and neutrino masses from SDSS with effective field theory

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Main Authors: Ivanov, Mikhail M., Toomey, Michael W., Karaçaylı, Naim Göksel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Ivanov, Mikhail M.
Toomey, Michael W.
Karaçaylı, Naim Göksel
author_facet Ivanov, Mikhail M.
Toomey, Michael W.
Karaçaylı, Naim Göksel
contents We present an effective field theory (EFT) approach to extract fundamental cosmological parameters from the Lyman-alpha forest flux fluctuations as an alternative to the standard simulation-based techniques. As a first application, we re-analyze the publicly available one-dimensional Lyman-alpha flux power spectrum data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our analysis relies on informative priors on EFT parameters which we extract from a combination of public hydrodynamic simulation and emulator data. Assuming the concordance cosmological model, our one-parameter analysis yields a $2\%$ measurement of the late time mass fluctuation amplitude $σ_8 = 0.841\pm 0.017$, or equivalently, the structure growth parameter $S_8 = 0.852\pm 0.017$, consistent with the standard cosmology. This result is obtained assuming that non-linear EFT parameters are cosmology-independent functions of the linear bias parameter. When this assumption is loosened, the limit degrades by a factor of 3, suggesting that informative priors are necessary for competitive constraints. Combining our EFT likelihood with Planck + baryon acoustic oscillation data, we find a new constraint on the total neutrino mass, $\sum m_ν<$ 0.08 eV (at 95\% CL). Our study defines priorities for the development of EFT methods and sets the benchmark for cosmological analyses of the Lyman-alpha forest data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_13208
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fundamental physics with the Lyman-alpha forest: constraints on the growth of structure and neutrino masses from SDSS with effective field theory
Ivanov, Mikhail M.
Toomey, Michael W.
Karaçaylı, Naim Göksel
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
We present an effective field theory (EFT) approach to extract fundamental cosmological parameters from the Lyman-alpha forest flux fluctuations as an alternative to the standard simulation-based techniques. As a first application, we re-analyze the publicly available one-dimensional Lyman-alpha flux power spectrum data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our analysis relies on informative priors on EFT parameters which we extract from a combination of public hydrodynamic simulation and emulator data. Assuming the concordance cosmological model, our one-parameter analysis yields a $2\%$ measurement of the late time mass fluctuation amplitude $σ_8 = 0.841\pm 0.017$, or equivalently, the structure growth parameter $S_8 = 0.852\pm 0.017$, consistent with the standard cosmology. This result is obtained assuming that non-linear EFT parameters are cosmology-independent functions of the linear bias parameter. When this assumption is loosened, the limit degrades by a factor of 3, suggesting that informative priors are necessary for competitive constraints. Combining our EFT likelihood with Planck + baryon acoustic oscillation data, we find a new constraint on the total neutrino mass, $\sum m_ν<$ 0.08 eV (at 95\% CL). Our study defines priorities for the development of EFT methods and sets the benchmark for cosmological analyses of the Lyman-alpha forest data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.
title Fundamental physics with the Lyman-alpha forest: constraints on the growth of structure and neutrino masses from SDSS with effective field theory
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.13208