2008

How to measure redshift-space distortions without sample variance

McDonald, Patrick, Seljak, Uros

Understand

We show how to use multiple tracers of large-scale density with different biases to measure the redshift-space distortion parameter beta=f/b=(dlnD/dlna)/b (where D is the growth rate and a the expansion factor), to a much better precision than one could achieve with a single tracer, to an arbitrary precision in the low noise limit.

  • In combination with the power spectrum of the tracers this allows a much more precise measurement of the bias-free velocity divergence power spectrum, f^2 P_m - in fact, in the low noise limit f^2 P_m can be measured as well as would be possible if velocity divergence was observed directly, with rms improvement factor ~[5.2(beta^2+2 beta+2)/beta^2]^0.5 (e.g., ~10 times better than a single tracer for beta=0.4).
  • This would allow a high precision determination of f D as a function of redshift with an error as low as 0.1%.
  • We find up to two orders of magnitude improvement in Figure of Merit for the Dark Energy equation of state relative to Stage II, a factor of several better than other proposed Stage IV Dark Energy surveys.

Reading the bibliography…