Cosmic voids have been shown to be an effective probe of cosmology, complementary to galaxy clusters. In this work, we present a simple theoretical framework for predicting of the size of the largest voids expected within a given redshift and volume. Our model is based on the exact extreme-value statistics which has previously been successfully applied to massive galaxy clusters. We implement our formalism using the void-abundance models and compare the extreme-void predictions to simulations and observations. We find that the simplest void models can only explain the extreme-void abundance with ad hoc parameter adjustments. We argue that extreme-void distributions should be used as an additional test on theories of void abundance.
We present a sample of 66 galaxies belonging to the equatorial part (Dec.= -7$^o$, +7$^o$) of the large so called Eridanus void (after Fairall 1998). The void galaxies are selected as to be separated from the luminous galaxies ($M_{\rm B} < M_{\rm B}^{*} +1$), delineating the void, by more than 2 Mpc. Our main goal is to study systematically the evolutionary parameters of the void sample (metallicity and gas content) and to compare the void galaxy properties with their counterparts residing in denser environments. Besides the general galaxy parameters, compiled mainly from the literature, we p…
The abundance of cosmic voids can be described by an analogue of halo mass functions for galaxy clusters. In this work, we explore a number of void mass functions: from those based on excursion-set theory to new mass functions obtained by modifying halo mass functions. We show how different void mass functions vary in their predictions for the largest void expected in an observational volume, and compare those predictions to observational data. Our extreme-value formalism is shown to be a new practical tool for testing void theories against simulation and observation.
We use a spherical model and an extended excursion set formalism with drifting diffusive barriers to predict the abundance of cosmic voids in the context of general relativity as well as f(R) and symmetron models of modified gravity. We detect spherical voids from a suite of N-body simulations of these gravity theories and compare the measured void abundance to theory predictions. We find that our model correctly describes the abundance of both dark matter and galaxy voids, providing a better fit than previous proposals in the literature based on static barriers. We use the simulation abundanc…
We present measurements of the number density of voids in the dark matter distribution from a series of N-body simulations of a ΛCDM cosmology. We define voids as spherical regions of ρ_v = 0.2ρ_m around density minima in order to relate our results to the predicted abundances using the excursion set formalism. Using a linear underdensity of δ_v = -2.7, from a spherical evolution model, we find that a volume conserving model, which does not conserve number density in the mapping from the linear to nonlinear regime, matches the measured abundance to within 16% for a range of void radii 1< r(Mpc…
We study the formation of voids in a modified gravity model in which gravity is generically stronger or weaker on large scales. We show that void abundances provide complementary information to halo abundances: if normalized to the CMB, models with weaker large-scale gravity have smaller large scale power, fewer massive halos and fewer large voids, although the scalings are not completely degenerate with $σ_8$. Our results suggest that, in addition to their abundances, halo and void density profiles may also provide interesting constraints on such models: stronger large scale gravity produces …
We revisit the excursion set approach to calculate void abundances in chameleon-type modified gravity theories, which was previously studied by Clampitt, Cai and Li (2013). We focus on properly accounting for the void-in-cloud effect, i.e., the growth of those voids sitting in over-dense regions may be restricted by the evolution of their surroundings. This effect may change the distribution function of voids hence affect predictions on the differences between modified gravity and GR. We show that the thin-shell approximation usually used to calculate the fifth force is qualitatively good but …
We generalize Doroshkevich's celebrated formulae for the eigenvalues of the initial shear field associated with Gaussian statistics to the local non-Gaussian f_{nl} model. This is possible because, to at least second order in f_{nl}, distributions at fixed overdensity are unchanged from the case f_{nl}=0. We use this generalization to estimate the effect of f_{nl}\ne 0 on the abundance of virialized halos. Halo abundances are expected to be related to the probability that a certain quantity in the initial fluctuation field exceeds a threshold value, and we study two choices for this variable: …
We compare analytical predictions of void volume functions to those measured from N-body simulations, detecting voids with the zobov void finder. We push to very small, nonlinear voids, below few Mpc radius, by considering the unsampled DM density field. We also study the case where voids are identified using halos. We develop analytical formula for the void abundance of both the excursion set approach and the peaks formalism. These formula are valid for random walks smoothed with a top-hat filter in real space, with a large class of realistic barrier models. We test the extent to which the sp…
We study the non-linear gravitational collapse of dark matter into halos through numerical N-body simulations of Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi void models. We extend the halo mass function formalism to these models in a consistent way. This extension not only compares well with the simulated data at all times and radii, but it also gives interesting clues about the impact of the background shear on the growth of perturbations. Our results give hints about the possibility of constraining the background shear via cluster number counts, which could then give rise to strong constraints on general inhomoge…
We extend earlier work on the problem of estimating the void-volume function -- the abundance and evolution of large voids which grow gravitationally in an expanding universe -- in two ways. The first removes an ambiguity about how the void-in-cloud process, which erases small voids, should be incorporated into the excursion set approach. The main technical change here is to think of voids within a fully Eulerian, rather than purely Lagrangian, framework. The second accounts for correlations between different spatial scales in the initial conditions. We provide numerical and analytical argumen…
We explore voids in dark matter and halo fields from simulations of $Λ$CDM and Hu-Sawicki $f(R)$ models. In $f(R)$ gravity, dark matter void abundances are greater than that of general relativity (GR). However, when using haloes to identify voids, the differences of void abundances become much smaller, but can still be told apart, in principle, at the 2, 6 and 14 $σ$ level for the $f(R)$ model parameter amplitudes of $|f_{R0}|=10^{-6}$, $10^{-5}$ and $10^{-4}$. In contrast, the abundance of large voids found using haloes in $f(R)$ gravity is lower than in GR. The more efficient halo formation …
Cosmic voids are becoming key players in testing the physics of our Universe. Here we concentrate on the abundances and the dynamics of voids as these are among the best candidates to provide information on cosmological parameters. Cai, Padilla \& Li (2014) use the abundance of voids to tell apart Hu \& Sawicki $f(R)$ models from General Relativity. An interesting result is that even though, as expected, voids in the dark matter field are emptier in $f(R)$ gravity due to the fifth force expelling away from the void centres, this result is reversed when haloes are used to find voids. The abunda…
We show that the number of observed voids in galaxy redshift surveys is a sensitive function of the equation of state of dark energy. Using the Fisher matrix formalism we find the error ellipses in the $w_0-w_a$ plane when the equation of state of dark energy is assumed to be of the form $w_{CPL}(z)=w_0 +w_a z/(1+z)$. We forecast the number of voids to be observed with the ESA Euclid satellite and the NASA WFIRST mission, taking into account updated details of the surveys to reach accurate estimates of their power. The theoretical model for the forecast of the number of voids is based on match…
In the framework of the study of the evolutionary status of galaxies in the nearby Lynx-Cancer void, we present the results of the SAO RAS 6-m telescope spectroscopy for 20 objects in this region. The principal faint line [OIII]4363A, used to determine the electron temperature and oxygen abundance (O/H) by the classical method, is clearly detected in only about 2/3 of the studied objects. For the remaining galaxies this line is either faint or undetected. To obtain the oxygen abundances in these galaxies we as well apply the semi-empirical method by Izotov and Thuan, and/or the empirical metho…
Combining galaxy cluster and void abundances is a novel, powerful way to constrain deviations from General Relativity and the $Λ$CDM model. For a flat $w$CDM model with growth of large-scale structure parameterized by the redshift-dependent growth index $γ(z) = γ_0 + γ_1 z/(1+z)$ of linear matter perturbations, combining void and cluster abundances in future surveys with Euclid and the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) could improve the Figure of Merit for ($w, γ_0, γ_1$) by a factor of 20 compared to individual abundances. In an ideal case, improvement on current cosmologic…
Primordial non-Gaussianity (NG) affects the large scale structure (LSS) of the universe by leaving an imprint on the distribution of matter at late times. Much attention has been focused on using the distribution of collapsed objects (i.e. dark matter halos and the galaxies and galaxy clusters that reside in them) to probe primordial NG. An equally interesting and complementary probe however is the abundance of extended underdense regions or voids in the LSS. The calculation of the abundance of voids using the excursion set formalism in the presence of primordial NG is subject to the same tech…
Does the void environment have a sizable effect on the evolution of dwarf galaxies? If yes, the best probes should be the most fragile least massive dwarfs. We compiled a sample of about one hundred dwarfs with M_B in the range -12 to -18 mag, falling within the nearby Lynx-Cancer void. The goal is to study their evolutionary parameters -- gas metallicity and gas mass-fraction, and to address the epoch of the first substantial episode of Star Formation. Here we present and discuss the results of O/H measurements in 38 void galaxies, among which several the most metal-poor galaxies are found wi…
Modifications to General Relativity (GR) often incorporate screening mechanisms in order to remain compatible with existing tests of gravity. The screening is less efficient in underdense regions, which suggests that cosmic voids can be a useful cosmological probe for constraining modified gravity models. In particular, weak lensing by voids has been proposed as a promising test of such theories. Usually, voids are identified from galaxy distributions, making them biased tracers of the underlying matter field. An alternative approach is to study voids identified in weak lensing maps -- weak le…
Cosmic voids are progressively emerging as a new viable cosmological probe. Their abundance and density profiles are sensitive to modifications of gravity, as well as to dark energy and neutrinos. The main goal of this work is to investigate the possibility of exploiting cosmic void statistics to disentangle the degeneracies resulting from a proper combination of $f(R)$ modified gravity and neutrino mass. We use N-body simulations to analyse the density profiles and size function of voids traced by both dark matter particles and haloes. We find clear evidence of the enhancement of gravity in $…
Voids are promising cosmological probes. Nevertheless, every cosmological test based on voids must necessarily employ methods to identify them in redshift space. Therefore, redshift-space distortions (RSD) and the Alcock-Paczynski effect (AP) have an impact on the void identification process itself generating distortion patterns in observations. Using a spherical void finder, we developed a statistical and theoretical framework to describe physically the connection between the identification in real and redshift space. We found that redshift-space voids above the shot noise level have a unique…
Cosmic voids provide a unique environment to study galaxy formation and evolution. In this paper, we analyse a set of hydrodynamic zoom-in simulations of voids, to analyse in detail their inner structures. These voids were identified in a cosmological simulation and classified according to their surrounding dynamics at very large scales: whether they are in expansion or contraction at their outskirts. We study how these environments and the dynamics of voids impact the baryonic processes inside haloes and their mechanisms of formation and evolution. We find an under-abundance of processed gas …
Cosmic voids are an important probe of large-scale structure that can constrain cosmological parameters and test cosmological models. We present a new paradigm for void studies: void detection in weak lensing convergence maps. This approach identifies objects that relate directly to our theoretical understanding of voids as underdensities in the total matter field and presents several advantages compared to the customary method of finding voids in the galaxy distribution. We exemplify this approach by identifying voids using the weak lensing peaks as tracers of the large-scale structure. We fi…
The statistical meaning of the local non-Gaussianity parameters f_NL and g_NL is examined in detail. Their relations to the skewness and the kurtosis of the probability distribution of density fluctuations are shown to obey simple fitting formulae, accurate on galaxy-cluster scales. We argue that the knowledge of f_NL and g_NL is insufficient for reconstructing a well-defined distribution of density fluctuations. However, by weakening the statistical significance of f_NL and g_NL, it is possible to reconstruct a well-defined pdf by using a truncated Edgeworth series. We give some general guide…
We use properties of void populations identified in N-body simulations to forecast the ability of upcoming galaxy surveys to differentiate models of f(R) gravity from ΛCDM cosmology. We analyze simulations designed to mimic the densities, volumes, and clustering statistics of upcoming surveys, using the public VIDE toolkit. We examine void abundances as a basic probe at redshifts 1.0 and 0.4. We find that stronger f(R) coupling strengths produce voids up to ~20% larger in radius, leading to a significant shift in the void number function. As an initial estimate of the constraining power of voi…
Combining galaxy cluster and void abundances breaks the degeneracy between mean matter density $Ω_{\rm m}$ and power spectrum normalization $σ_8$. In a first for voids, we constrain $Ω_{\rm m} = 0.21 \pm 0.10$ and $σ_8 = 0.95 \pm 0.21$ for a flat $Λ$CDM universe, using extreme-value statistics on the claimed largest cluster and void. The Planck-consistent results detect dark energy with two objects, independently of other dark energy probes. Cluster-void studies also offer complementarity in scale, density, and non-linearity - of particular interest for testing modified-gravity models.
We measure the void probability function (VPF) of galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The VPF provides complementary information to standard two-point statistics in that it is sensitive to galaxy bias in the most extreme underdensities in the cosmic web. Thus the VPF is ideal for testing whether halo occupation of galaxies depends on large-scale density, an effect known as galaxy assembly bias. We find that standard HOD model---one parameterized by halo mass only---fit only to the two-point function, accurately predicts the VPF. Additionally, for HOD models where de…
We use properties of void populations identified in $N$-body simulations to forecast the ability of upcoming galaxy surveys to differentiate models of f(R) gravity from \lcdm~cosmology. We analyze multiple simulation realizations, which were designed to mimic the expected number densities, volumes, and redshifts of the upcoming Euclid satellite and a lower-redshift ground-based counterpart survey, using the public {\tt VIDE} toolkit. We examine void abundances, ellipicities, radial density profiles, and radial velocity profiles at redshifts 1.0 and 0.43. We find that stronger f(R) coupling str…
Do void statistics contain information beyond the tracer 2-point correlation function? Yes! As we vary the sum of the neutrino masses, we find void statistics contain information absent when using just tracer 2-point statistics. Massive neutrinos uniquely affect cosmic voids. We explore their impact on void clustering using both the DEMNUni and MassiveNuS simulations. For voids, neutrino effects depend on the observed void tracers. As the neutrino mass increases, the number of small voids traced by cold dark matter particles increases and the number of large voids decreases. Surprisingly, when…
We study the clustering of voids using $N$-body simulations and simple theoretical models. The excursion-set formalism describes fairly well the abundance of voids identified with the watershed algorithm, although the void formation threshold required is quite different from the spherical collapse value. The void cross bias $b_{\rm c} $ is measured and its large-scale value is found to be consistent with the peak background split results. A simple fitting formula for $b_{\rm c} $ is found. We model the void auto-power spectrum taking into account the void biasing and exclusion effect. A good f…
How do peculiar velocities affect observed voids? To answer this question we use the VIDE toolkit to identify voids in mock galaxy populations embedded within an N-body simulation both with and without peculiar velocities included. We compare the resulting void populations to assess the impact on void properties. We find that void abundances and spherically-averaged radial density profiles are mildly affected by peculiar velocities. However, peculiar velocities can distort by up to 10% the shapes for a particular subset of voids depending on the void size and density contrast, which can lead t…
We stack maps of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect produced by the Planck Collaboration around the centers of cosmic voids defined by the distribution of galaxies in the CMASS sample of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, scaled by the void effective radii. We report a first detection of the associated cross-correlation at the $3.4σ$ level: voids are under-pressured relative to the cosmic mean. We compare the measured Compton-$y$ profile around voids with a model based solely on the spatial modulation of halo abundance with environmental density. The amplitude of the detected sign…
We explore fundamental properties of the distribution of low mass dark matter halos within the cosmic web using warm dark matter (WDM) and cold dark matter (CDM) cosmological simulations. Using self abundance-matched mock galaxy catalogs, we show that the distribution of dwarf galaxies in a WDM universe, wherein low mass halo formation is heavily suppressed, is nearly indistinguishable to that of a CDM universe whose low mass halos are not seen because galaxy formation is suppressed below some threshold halo mass. However, if the scatter between dwarf galaxy luminosity and halo properties is l…
We present a new method to find voids in cosmological simulations based on the tidal and the velocity shear tensors definitions of the cosmic web. We use the fractional anisotropy (FA) computed from the eigenvalues of each web scheme as a void tracer. We identify voids using a watershed transform based on the local minima of the FA field without making any assumption on the shape or structure of the voids. We test the method on the Bolshoi simulation and report on the abundance and radial averaged profiles for the density, velocity and fractional anisotropy. We find that voids in the velocity …
Recent works have shown that the properties of galaxy populations in dark matter halos vary with large-scale environments. These results suggest a variation in the halo occupation distribution (HOD) in extreme density environments. To analyse these effects, we identify cosmic voids and future virialised structures (FVS) in the SDSS-DR12 and estimate the HOD within these superstructures using group catalogues as dark matter halo proxies. Our goal is to use observational galaxy data to characterise the HOD within voids and FVS, explore the different properties of these galaxies populations and c…
We study how the properties of cosmic voids depend on those of the tracer galaxy populations in which they are identified. We use a suite of halo occupation distribution (HOD) mocks in a simulation, identify voids in these populations using the ZOBOV void finder and measure their abundances, sizes, tracer densities, and dark matter content. To separate the effects of bias from those of sampling density, we do the same for voids traced by randomly down-sampled subsets of the simulation dark matter particles. At the same sampling density, galaxy bias reduces the total number of voids by ~50% and…
Cosmic voids offer an extraordinary opportunity to study the effects of massive neutrinos on cosmological scales. Because they are freely streaming, neutrinos can penetrate the interior of voids more easily than cold dark matter or baryons, which makes their relative contribution to the mass budget in voids much higher than elsewhere in the Universe. In simulations it has recently been shown how various characteristics of voids in the matter distribution are affected by neutrinos, such as their abundance, density profiles, dynamics, and clustering properties. However, the tracers used to ident…
In this paper, we present the effects of dark energy perturbation on the formation and abundance of cosmic voids. We consider dark energy to be a fluid with a negative pressure characterised by a constant equation of state w and speed of sound $c^2_s$. By solving fluid equations for two components, namely, dark matter and dark energy fluids, we quantify the effects of dark energy perturbation on the sizes of top-hat voids. We also explore the effects on the size distribution of voids based on the excursion set theory. We confirm that dark energy perturbation negligibly affects the size evoluti…
(Abridged) We present the results of the complex study of the low surface brightness dwarf (LSBD) gas-rich galaxies J0723+3621, J0737+4724 and J0852+1350, which reside in the nearby Lynx-Cancer void. Their ratios M(HI)/L_B, according to HI data obtained with the NRT, are respectively ~3.9, ~2, ~2.6. For the two latter galaxies, we derived oxygen abundance corresponding to the value of 12+log(O/H) <~7.3, using spectra from the Russian 6m telescope and from the SDSS database. We found two additional blue LSB dwarfs, J0723+3622 and J0852+1351, which appear to be physical companions of J0723+3621 …
We have found that KK 246, the only confirmed galaxy located within the nearby Tully Void, is a dwarf galaxy with an extremely extended H I disk and signs of an H I cloud with anomalous velocity. It also exhibits clear misalignment between the kinematical major and minor axes, indicative of an oval distortion, and a general misalignment between the H I and optical major axes. We measure a H I mass of 1.05 +- 0.08 x 10^8 M_sun, and a H I extent 5 times that of the stellar disk, one of the most extended H I disks known. We estimate a dynamical mass of 4.1 x 10^9 M_sun, making this also one of th…
We present a systematic comparison of several existing and new void finding algorithms, focusing on their potential power to test a particular class of modified gravity models - chameleon $f(R)$ gravity. These models deviate from standard General Relativity (GR) more strongly in low-density regions and thus voids are a promising venue to test them. We use Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) prescriptions to populate haloes with galaxies, and tune the HOD parameters such that the galaxy two-point correlation functions are the same in both f(R) and GR models. We identify both 3D voids as well as …
We have searched for the signature of cosmic voids in the CMB, in both the Planck temperature and lensing-convergence maps; voids should give decrements in both. We use zobov voids from the DR12 SDSS CMASS galaxy sample. We base our analysis on N-body simulations, to avoid a posteriori bias. For the first time, we detect the signature of voids in CMB lensing: the significance is $3.2σ$, close to $Λ$CDM in both amplitude and projected density-profile shape. A temperature dip is also seen, at modest significance ($2.3σ$), with amplitude about 6 times the prediction. This temperature signal is in…
Modified gravity (MG) theories aim to reproduce the observed acceleration of the Universe by reducing the dark sector while simultaneously recovering General Relativity (GR) within dense environments. Void studies appear to be a suitable scenario to search for imprints of alternative gravity models on cosmological scales. Voids cover an interesting range of density scales where screening mechanisms fade out, which reaches from a density contrast $δ\approx -1$ close to their centers to $δ\approx 0$ close to their boundaries. We present an analysis of the level of distinction between GR and two …
The Back-in-time Void Finder: dynamical identification of cosmic voids through optimal transport reconstruction
Aix Marseille Université（艾克斯-马赛大学）；CNRS/IN2P3, CPPM（法国国家科学研究中心/欧洲粒子物理研究所，普罗旺斯宇宙、粒子与物质物理中心）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Augusto Righi” - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学物理与天文学系）；Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics（马克斯·普朗克地外物理研究所）；SISSA, International School for Advanced Studies（国际高等研究院）；ICSC - Centro Nazionale di Ricerca in High Performance Computing, Big Data e Quantum Computing（高性能计算、大数据与量子计算国家研究中心）；INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste（意大利国家天体物理研究所的里雅斯特天文台）；INAF - Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna（意大利国家天体物理研究所博洛尼亚空间科学与天体物理观测站）；INFN - Sezione di Bologna（意大利国家核物理研究所博洛尼亚分部）
Multi-tracer mass bias in matched cosmic voids from SDSS DR7 and the ELUCID constrained simulation
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory（上海天文台）；Tsung-Dao Lee Institute & School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院、汤忠道研究院）；Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, and Key Laboratory for Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学粒子物理与宇宙学上海市重点实验室、粒子物理、天体物理与宇宙学教育部重点实验室）
SDSS J0015+0104 is the lowest metallicity low surface brightness dwarf (LSBD) galaxy known. The oxygen abundance in its HII region SDSS J001520.70+010436.9 (at ~1.5 kpc from the galaxy centre) is 12+log(O/H)=7.07 (Guseva et al.). This galaxy, at the distance of 28.4 Mpc, appears to reside deeply in the volume devoid of luminous massive galaxies, known as the Eridanus void. SDSS J235437.29-000501.6 is another Eridanus void LSBD galaxy, with parameter 12+log(O/H)=7.36 (also Guseva et al.). We present the results of their HI observations with the Nancay Radio Telescope revealing their high ratios…
The spreads in chemical abundances inferred by recent precision observations suggest that some or possibly all globular clusters can no longer be considered as simple stellar populations. The most striking case is omega Cen in the sense that its bluest main-sequence despite its high metallicity demands an extreme helium abundance of Y > 0.4. I focus on this issue of "the extreme helium population problem" in this review.
We present a simple gravitational lens model to illustrate the ease of using the embedded lensing theory when studying cosmic voids. It confirms the previously used repulsive lensing models for deep voids. We start by estimating magnitude fluctuations and weak lensing shears of background sources lensed by large voids. We find that sources behind large ($\sim$$90\,\rm Mpc$) and deep voids (density contrast about $-0.9$) can be magnified or demagnified with magnitude fluctuations of up to $\sim$$0.05\,\rm mag$ and that the weak-lensing shear can be up to the $\sim$$10^{-2}$ level in the outer r…
VGS31b is a highly-inclined ring galaxy found along a filament in a void (Kreckel et al. 2012). Detailed photometry, by using u, g, r, i, z SDSS images, has shown that the overall morphology of VGS31b is very tricky, due to (i) the presence of a highly inclined (72 deg) ring-like structure, which reaches the galaxy center tracing a "spiral-like" pattern, (ii) a one sided tail towards North-East and (iii) a bar in the central regions (Beygu et al. 2013). Such structure is reasonably the result of a "second event" in the evolution history of this galaxy, which could be a gravitational interactio…
Redshift space distortions (RSD) in the void-galaxy correlation $ξ^s$ provide information on the linear growth rate of structure in low density environments. Accurate modelling of these RSD effects can also allow the use of voids in competitive Alcock-Paczynski measurements. Linear theory models of $ξ^s$ are able to provide extremely good descriptions of simulation data on all scales provided the real space void positions are known. However, by reference to simulation data we demonstrate the failure of the assumptions implicit in current models of $ξ^s$ for voids identified directly in redshif…
Cosmic voids are promising cosmological laboratories for studying the dark energy phenomenon and alternative gravity theories. They are receiving special attention nowadays in view of the new generation of galaxy spectroscopic surveys, which are covering an unprecedented volume and redshift range. There are two primary statistics in void studies: (i) the void size function, which characterises the abundance of voids, and (ii) the void-galaxy cross-correlation function, which contains information about the density and velocity fields in these regions. However, it is necessary a complete descrip…
We measure the topology of the main galaxy distribution using the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, examining the dependence of galaxy clustering topology on galaxy properties. The observational results are used to test galaxy formation models. A volume-limited sample defined by $M_r<-20.19$ enables us to measure the genus curve with amplitude of $G=378$ at $6h^{-1}$Mpc smoothing scale, with 4.8\% uncertainty including all systematics and cosmic variance. The clustering topology over the smoothing length interval from 6 to $10 h^{-1}$Mpc reveals a mild scale-dependence for …
Large deviations for halos and voids: beyond perturbative non-gaussianities
Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie（亚原子物理与宇宙学实验室）；Département de Physique Théorique, Université de Genève（日内瓦大学理论物理系）；Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale（巴黎-萨克雷大学，法国国家科学研究中心，空间天体物理研究所）
Evidence shows properties of dark matter haloes may vary with large-scale environment. By studying the halo occupation distribution in cosmic voids it is possible to obtain useful information that can shed light on the subject. The history of the formation of the haloes and galaxies residing in these regions is likely to differ from the global behaviour given their extreme environment. We use two public access simulated galaxy catalogues constructed with different methods: a semi-analytical model and a hydrodynamic simulation. In both, we identify cosmic voids and we measure the halo occupatio…
