Galaxy sizes as complementary (zero-)bias tracers of local primordial non-Gaussianity

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Hauptverfasser: Nguyen, Nhat-Minh, Akitsu, Kazuyuki, Taruya, Atsushi
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Nguyen, Nhat-Minh
Akitsu, Kazuyuki
Taruya, Atsushi
author_facet Nguyen, Nhat-Minh
Akitsu, Kazuyuki
Taruya, Atsushi
contents The scale-dependent bias in halo and galaxy power spectra is a key signature of local primordial non-Gaussianity (local PNG), with PNG sensitivity scaling as $b_ϕ/b_1$ -- the ratio of their responses to long-wavelength primordial potential $b_ϕ$ and late-time density fluctuations $b_1$. For number density fluctuations, these responses are closely tied by the universality relation, limiting the achievable ratio. We show that size density fluctuations strongly violate this relation, thus evading the limit. For galaxy-mass halos, sizes have a vanishingly small density response but a sizable, negative local PNG response, implying an effective $b_ϕ/b_1$ that is large in magnitude and opposite in sign to that of number counts. This makes galaxy sizes complementary probes of local PNG from the same galaxy sample, without any sample split. For a DESI-like survey, a multi-tracer analysis combining galaxy numbers and sizes improves the local-PNG detection significance by a factor of $\sim\!3.6$. Due to the sign flip, the number-size cross power spectrum further provides a handle on systematics in the event of a detection.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_20196
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Galaxy sizes as complementary (zero-)bias tracers of local primordial non-Gaussianity
Nguyen, Nhat-Minh
Akitsu, Kazuyuki
Taruya, Atsushi
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The scale-dependent bias in halo and galaxy power spectra is a key signature of local primordial non-Gaussianity (local PNG), with PNG sensitivity scaling as $b_ϕ/b_1$ -- the ratio of their responses to long-wavelength primordial potential $b_ϕ$ and late-time density fluctuations $b_1$. For number density fluctuations, these responses are closely tied by the universality relation, limiting the achievable ratio. We show that size density fluctuations strongly violate this relation, thus evading the limit. For galaxy-mass halos, sizes have a vanishingly small density response but a sizable, negative local PNG response, implying an effective $b_ϕ/b_1$ that is large in magnitude and opposite in sign to that of number counts. This makes galaxy sizes complementary probes of local PNG from the same galaxy sample, without any sample split. For a DESI-like survey, a multi-tracer analysis combining galaxy numbers and sizes improves the local-PNG detection significance by a factor of $\sim\!3.6$. Due to the sign flip, the number-size cross power spectrum further provides a handle on systematics in the event of a detection.
title Galaxy sizes as complementary (zero-)bias tracers of local primordial non-Gaussianity
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20196