[en] The light rays from distant galaxies are deflected by massive structures along the line of sight, causing the galaxy images to be distorted. Measurements of these distortions, known as weak lensing, provide a way of measuring the distribution of dark matter as well as the spatial geometry of the universe. I will describe the ideas underlying this approach to cosmology. With planned large imaging surveys, weak lensing is a powerful probe of dark energy. I will discuss the observational challenges ahead and recent progress in developing multiple, complementary approaches to lensing measurements.

[en] Modifications of general relativity provide an alternative explanation to dark energy for the observed acceleration of the universe. We calculate quasilinear effects in the growth of structure in f(R) models of gravity using perturbation theory. We find significant deviations in the bispectrum that depend on cosmic time, length scale and triangle shape. However the deviations in the reduced bispectrum Q for f(R) models are at the percent level, much smaller than the deviations in the bispectrum itself. This implies that three-point correlations can be predicted to a good approximation simply by using the modified linear growth factor in the standard gravity formalism. Our results suggest that gravitational clustering in the weakly nonlinear regime is not fundamentally altered, at least for a class of gravity theories that are well described in the Newtonian regime by the parameters G_eff and Φ/Ψ. This approximate universality was also seen in the N-body simulation measurements of the power spectrum by Stabenau and Jain (2006), and in other recent studies based on simulations. Thus predictions for such modified gravity models in the regime relevant to large-scale structure observations may be less daunting than expected on first principles. We discuss the many caveats that apply to such predictions.

[en] Theories in which gravity is weaker on cosmological scales have been proposed to explain the observed acceleration of the universe. The nonlinear regime in such theories is not well studied, though it is likely that observational tests of structure formation will lie in this regime. A class of alternative gravity theories may be approximated by modifying Poisson's equation. We have run N-body simulations of a set of such models to study the nonlinear clustering of matter on 1-100 Mpc scales. We find that nonlinear gravity enhances the deviations of the power spectrum of these models from standard gravity. This occurs due to mode coupling, so that models with an excess or deficit of large-scale power (at k<0.2 Mpc^-1) lead to deviations in the power spectrum at smaller scales as well (up to k∼1 Mpc^-1), even though the linear spectra match very closely on the smaller scales. This makes it easier to distinguish such models from general relativity using the three-dimensional power spectrum probed by galaxy surveys and the weak lensing power spectrum. If the potential for light deflection is modified in the same way as the potential that affects the dark matter, then weak lensing constrains deviations from gravity even more strongly. Our simulations show that, even with a modified potential, gravitational evolution is approximately universal. Based on this, the Peacock-Dodds approach can be adapted to get an analytical fit for the nonlinear power spectra of alternative gravity models, though the recent Smith et al. formula is less successful. Our conclusions extend to models with modifications of gravity on scales of 1-20 Mpc. We also use a way of measuring projected power spectra from simulations that lowers the sample variance, so that fewer realizations are needed to reach a desired level of accuracy

[en] We consider the possible gain in the measurement of lensing shear from imaging data in multiple filters. Galaxy shapes may differ significantly across filters, so that the same galaxy offers multiple samples of the shear. At the other extreme, if galaxy shapes are identical in different filters, one can combine them to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and thus increase the effective number density of faint, high redshift galaxies. We use the GOODS dataset to test these scenarios by calculating the covariance matrix of galaxy ellipticities in four visual filters (B,V,i,z). We find that galaxy shapes are highly correlated, and estimate the gain in galaxy number density by combining their shapes

[en] We present an analytical model that reproduces measured galaxy number counts from surveys in the wavelength range of 500 μm-2 mm. The model involves a single high-redshift galaxy population with a Schechter luminosity function that has been gravitationally lensed by galaxy clusters in the mass range 10¹³-10¹⁵ M_sun. This simple model reproduces both the low-flux and the high-flux end of the number counts reported by the BLAST, SCUBA, AzTEC, and South Pole Telescope (SPT) surveys. In particular, our model accounts for the most luminous galaxies detected by SPT as the result of high magnifications by galaxy clusters (magnification factors of 10-30). This interpretation implies that submillimeter (submm) and millimeter surveys of this population may prove to be a useful addition to ongoing cluster detection surveys. The model also implies that the bulk of submm galaxies detected at wavelengths larger than 500 μm lie at redshifts greater than 2.

[en] Thermal emission from debris disks around stars has been measured using targeted and resolved observations. We present an alternative likelihood-based approach in which temperature maps from the Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) survey at 857 and 545 GHz are analyzed in conjunction with stellar positions from Gaia to estimate the fraction of stars hosting disks and the thermal emission from the disks. The debris disks are not resolved (or even necessarily detected individually), but their statistical properties and the correlations with stellar properties are measured for several thousand stars. We compare our findings with higher sensitivity surveys of smaller samples of stars. For dimmer stars, in particular K and M dwarfs, we find that about 10% of stars within 80 pc have emission consistent with debris disks. We also report on 80 candidate disks, the majority of which are not previously identified. We have previously constrained the properties of Exo-Oort clouds using Planck data—with future CMB surveys, both components can be measured for different stellar types, providing a new avenue to study the outer parts of planetary systems.

[en] Cosmic shear measurements have now improved to the point where they deserve to be treated on par with cosmic microwave background (CMB) and galaxy clustering data for cosmological parameter analysis, using the full measured aperture mass variance curve rather than a mere phenomenological parametrization thereof. We perform a detailed 9-parameter analysis of recent lensing [the Red Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS)], CMB (up to Archeops) and galaxy clustering (2dF Collaboration) data, both separately and jointly. CMB and 2dF data are consistent with a simple flat adiabatic scale-invariant model with Ω_Λ=0.72±0.09, h²Ω_cdm=0.115±0.013, h²Ω_b=0.024±0.003, and a hint of reionization around z∼8. Lensing helps further tighten these constraints, but reveals tension regarding the power spectrum normalization: including the RCS survey results raises σ₈ significantly and forces other parameters to uncomfortable values. Indeed, σ₈ is emerging as the currently most controversial cosmological parameter, and we discuss possible resolutions of this σ₈ problem. We also comment on the disturbing fact that many recent analyses (including this one) obtain error bars smaller than the Fisher matrix bound. We produce a CMB power spectrum combining all existing experiments, useful for a 'WMAP versus world' comparison to test how realistic the error estimates have been in the cosmology community. Comparing with the WMAP results shows remarkably good agreement both on the power spectrum and on cosmological parameters, which means that precision cosmology has passed an important test

[en] We use distance measurements in the nearby universe to carry out new tests of gravity, surpassing other astrophysical tests by over two orders of magnitude for chameleon theories. The three nearby distance indicators—cepheids, tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) stars, and water masers—operate in gravitational fields of widely different strengths. This enables tests of scalar-tensor gravity theories because they are screened from enhanced forces to different extents. Inferred distances from cepheids and TRGB stars are altered (in opposite directions) over a range of chameleon gravity theory parameters well below the sensitivity of cosmological probes. Using published data, we have compared cepheid and TRGB distances in a sample of unscreened dwarf galaxies within 10 Mpc. We use a comparable set of screened galaxies as a control sample. We find no evidence for the order unity force enhancements expected in these theories. Using a two-parameter description of the models (the coupling strength and background field value), we obtain constraints on both the chameleon and symmetron screening scenarios. In particular we show that f(R) models with background field values f _R0 above 5 × 10^–7 are ruled out at the 95% confidence level. We also compare TRGB and maser distances to the galaxy NGC 4258 as a second test for larger field values. While there are several approximations and caveats in our study, our analysis demonstrates the power of gravity tests in the local universe. We discuss the prospects for additional improved tests with future observations.

[en] In modified gravity theories that seek to explain cosmic acceleration, dwarf galaxies in low density environments can be subject to enhanced forces. The class of scalar-tensor theories, which includes f(R) gravity, predict such a force enhancement (massive galaxies like the Milky Way can evade it through a screening mechanism that protects the interior of the galaxy from this ''fifth'' force). We study observable deviations from GR in the disks of late-type dwarf galaxies moving under gravity. The fifth-force acts on the dark matter and HI gas disk, but not on the stellar disk owing to the self-screening of main sequence stars. We find four distinct observable effects in such disk galaxies: 1. A displacement of the stellar disk from the HI disk. 2. Warping of the stellar disk along the direction of the external force. 3. Enhancement of the rotation curve measured from the HI gas compared to that of the stellar disk. 4. Asymmetry in the rotation curve of the stellar disk. We estimate that the spatial effects can be up to 1 kpc and the rotation velocity effects about 10 km/s in infalling dwarf galaxies. Such deviations are measurable: we expect that with a careful analysis of a sample of nearby dwarf galaxies one can improve astrophysical constraints on gravity theories by over three orders of magnitude, and even solar system constraints by one order of magnitude. Thus effective tests of gravity along the lines suggested by Hui, Nicolis, and Stubbs (2009) and Jain (2011) can be carried out with low-redshift galaxies, though care must be exercised in understanding possible complications from astrophysical effects

[en] Deep multicolor galaxy surveys with photometric redshifts will provide a large number of two-point correlation observables: galaxy-galaxy angular correlations, galaxy-shear cross correlations, and shear-shear correlations between all redshifts. These observables can potentially enable a joint determination of the dark-energy-dependent evolution of the dark matter and distances as well as the relationship between galaxies and dark matter halos. With recent cosmic microwave background determinations of the initial power spectrum, a measurement of the mass clustering at even a single redshift will constrain a well-specified combination of dark energy (DE) parameters in a flat universe; we provide convenient fitting formulas for such studies. The combination of galaxy-shear and galaxy-galaxy correlations can determine this amplitude at multiple redshifts. We illustrate this ability in a description of the galaxy clustering with 5 free functions of redshift which can be fitted from the data. The galaxy modeling is based on a mapping onto halos of the same abundance that models a flux-limited selection. In this context and under a flat geometry, a 4000 deg² galaxy-lensing survey can achieve a statistical precision of σ(Ω_DE)=0.005 for the dark energy density, σ(w_DE)=0.02 and σ(w_a)=0.17 for its equation of state and evolution, evaluated at dark energy matter equality z≅0.4, as well as constraints on the 5 halo functions out to z=1. More importantly, a joint analysis can make dark energy constraints robust against systematic errors in the shear-shear correlation and halo modeling