One problem of the $Λ$CDM model is the tension between the $S_8$ found in Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments and the smaller one obtained from large-scale observations in the late Universe. The $σ_8$ quantifies the relatively high level of clustering. Bayesian Analysis of the Redshift Space Distortion (RSD) selected data set yields: $S_8 = 0.700^{+0.038}_{-0.037}$. The fit has $3σ$ tension with the Planck 2018 results. With Gaussian processes method a model-independent reconstructions of the growth history of matter in-homogeneity is studied. The fit yields $S_8 = 0.707^{+0.085}_{-0.085}, 0.701^{+0.089}_{-0.089}$, and $ 0.731^{+0.063}_{-0.062}$ for different kernels. The tension reduces and being smaller then $1.5\, σ$. With future measurements the tension may be reduced, but the possibility the tension is real is a plausible situation.
The overall cosmological parameter tension between the Atacama Cosmology Telescope 2020 (ACT) and Planck 2018 data within the concordance cosmological model is quantified using the suspiciousness statistic to be 2.6$σ$. Between ACT and the South Pole Telescope (SPT) we find a tension of 2.4$σ$, and 2.8$σ$ between ACT and Planck+SPT combined. While it is unclear whether the tension is caused by statistical fluctuations, systematic effects or new physics, caution should be exercised in combining these cosmic microwave background datasets in the context of the $Λ$CDM standard model of the univers…
Although both early and late-time modifications of the $Λ$CDM model have been proposed to address the Hubble tension, compelling arguments suggest that for a solution to be successful it needs to modify the expansion history of the universe prior to recombination. This greatly increases the importance of precise CMB observations, and in this letter we make the argument for CMB spectral distortions, highlighting their potential role in constraining models that introduce significant shifts in the standard $Λ$CDM parameters, such as the scalar spectral index, in attempt to solve the Hubble tensio…
We study the global agreement between the most recent observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature and polarization anisotropies angular power spectra released by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Planck satellite in various cosmological models that differ by the inclusion of different combinations of additional parameters. By using the Suspiciousness statistic, we show that the global "CMB tension" between the two experiments, quantified at the Gaussian equivalent level of $\sim 2.5\,σ$ within the baseline $Λ$CDM, is reduced at the level of $1.8σ$ when the effective numbe…
To investigate whether $f(R)$ gravity can relieve current $H_0$ and $σ_8$ tensions, we constrain the Hu-Sawicki $f(R)$ gravity with Planck-2018 cosmic microwave background and redshift space distortions observations. We find that this model fails to relieve both $H_0$ and $σ_8$ tensions, and that its two typical parameters $\log_{10}f_{R0}$ and $n$ are insensitive to other cosmological parameters. Combining the cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillations, Type Ia supernovae, cosmic chronometers with redshift space distortions observations, we give our best constraint $\log_{10}f_…
One of the most prominent challenges to the standard Lambda cold dark matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmology is the tension between the structure growth parameter $S_8$ constrained by the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data and the smaller one suggested by the cosmic shear data. Recent studies show that, for $Λ$CDM cosmology, redshift-space distortion (RSD) data also prefers a smaller $S_8$ that is $\sim 2$-$3σ$ lower than the CMB value, but the result is sensitive to the cosmological model. In the present work we update the RSD constraint on $S_8$ with the most up-to-date RSD data set where the correla…
Recent measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) by the Planck Collaboration have produced arguably the most powerful observational evidence in support of the standard model of cosmology, i.e. the spatially flat $Λ$CDM paradigm. In this work, we perform model selection tests to examine whether the base CMB temperature and large scale polarization anisotropy data from Planck 2015 (P15) prefer any of eight commonly used one-parameter model extensions with respect to flat $Λ$CDM. We find a clear preference for models with free curvature, $Ω_\mathrm{K}$, or free amplitude of the CMB le…
The anisotropy of the redshift space bispectrum contains a wealth of cosmological information. This anisotropy depends on the orientation of three vectors ${\bf k_1,k_2,k_3}$ with respect to the line of sight. Here we have decomposed the redshift space bispectrum in spherical harmonics which completely quantify this anisotropy. To illustrate this we consider linear redshift space distortion of the bispectrum arising from primordial non-Gaussianity. In the plane parallel approximation only the first four even $\ell$ multipoles have non-zero values, and we present explicit analytical expressions…
We provide a new interpretation for the Bayes factor combination used in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) first year analysis to quantify the tension between the DES and Planck datasets. The ratio quantifies a Bayesian confidence in our ability to combine the datasets. This interpretation is prior-dependent, with wider prior widths boosting the confidence. We therefore propose that if there are any reasonable priors which reduce the confidence to below unity, then we cannot assert that the datasets are compatible. Computing the evidence ratios for the DES first year analysis and Planck, given that…
We propose a principled Bayesian method for quantifying tension between correlated datasets with wide uninformative parameter priors. This is achieved by extending the Suspiciousness statistic, which is insensitive to priors. Our method uses global summary statistics, and as such it can be used as a diagnostic for internal consistency. We show how our approach can be combined with methods that use parameter space and data space to identify the existing internal discrepancies. As an example, we use it to test the internal consistency of the KiDS-450 data in 4 photometric redshift bins, and to r…
The redshift space anisotropy of the bispectrum is generally quantified using multipole moments. The possibility of measuring these multipoles in any survey depends on the level of statistical fluctuations. We present a formalism to compute the statistical fluctuations in the measurement of bispectrum multipoles for galaxy surveys. We consider specifications of a {\it Euclid} like galaxy survey and present two quantities: the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) which quantifies the detectability of a multipole, and the rank correlation which quantifies the correlation in measurement errors between any…
This study is devoted to the implications of scale-dependent gravity in Cosmology. Redshift-space distortion data indicate that there is a tension between $Λ$CDM and available observations as far as the value of the rms density fluctuation, $σ_8$, is concerned. It has been pointed out that this tension may be alleviated in alternative theories in which gravity is weaker at red-shift $z \sim 1$. We study the evolution of density perturbations for non-relativistic matter on top of a spatially flat FLRW Universe, and we compute the combination $A=f σ_8$ in the framework of scale-dependent gravity…
We examine the internal consistency of the Planck 2015 cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropy power spectrum. We show that tension exists between cosmological constant cold dark matter (LCDM) model parameters inferred from multipoles l<1000 (roughly those accessible to Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe), and from l>=1000, particularly the CDM density, Omega_ch^2, which is discrepant at 2.5 sigma for a Planck-motivated prior on the optical depth, tau=0.07+/-0.02. We find some parameter tensions to be larger than previously reported because of inaccuracy in the code used by …
A Bayesian statistical analysis using redshift space distortions data is performed to test a model of Symmetric Teleparallel Gravity where gravity is non-metrical. The cosmological background mimics a $Λ$CDM evolution but differences arise in the perturbations. The linear matter fluctuations are numerically evolved and the study of the growth rate of structures is analysed in this cosmological setting. The best fit parameters reveal that the $σ_8$ tension between Planck and Large Scale Structure data can be alleviated within this framework.
To reconcile the current tensions between high and low redshift observations, we perform the first constraints on the Finslerian cosmological models including the effective dark matter and dark energy components. We find that all the four Finslerian models could alleviate effectively the Hubble constant ($H_0$) tension and the amplitude of the root-mean-square density fluctuations ($σ_8$) tension between the Planck measurements and the local Universe observations at the 68$\%$ confidence level. The addition of a massless sterile neutrino and a varying total mass of active neutrinos to the base…
The anisotrpy of the redshift space bispectrum $B^s(\mathbf{k_1},\mathbf{k_2},\mathbf{k_3})$, which contains a wealth of cosmological information, is completely quantified using multipole moments $\bar{B}^m_{\ell}(k_1,μ,t)$ where $k_1$, the length of the largest side, and $(μ,t)$ respectively quantify the size and shape of the triangle $(\mathbf{k_1},\mathbf{k_2},\mathbf{k_3})$. We present analytical expressions for all the multipoles which are predicted to be non-zero ($\ell \le 8, m \le 6$ ) at second order perturbation theory. The multipoles also depend on $β_1,b_1$ and $γ_2$, which quantif…
We study a quintessence model for which the scalar field is disformally coupled to dark matter. The background mimics the LCDM cosmological evolution and the quintessence potential is not specified. A disformal effect due to the quintessential mass is seen in the growth rate of the cosmological structure on large scales. The disformal parameter renders no appreciable effect on the evolution of the total matter perturbation. An analysis of the conformal parameter and quintessential mass is investigated using the Redshift Space Distortion data to find the best-fit values that might explain the w…
Phantom dark energy as a natural selection of evolutionary processes $\hat{\rm a}$ $\textit{la}$ $\textit{genetic algorithm}$ and cosmological tensions
We explore the bounds that can be placed on interactions between cold dark matter and vacuum energy, with equation of state $w=-1$, using state-of-the-art cosmological observations. We consider linear perturbations about a simple background model where the energy transfer per Hubble time, $Q/H$, is a general linear function of the dark matter density, $ρ_c$, and vacuum energy, $V$. We explain the parameter degeneracies found when fitting cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies alone, and show how these are broken by the addition of supernovae data, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and…
We develop estimators of agreement and disagreement between correlated cosmological data sets. These account for data correlations when computing the significance of both tensions and excess confirmation while remaining statistically optimal. We discuss and thoroughly characterize different approaches commenting on the ones that have the best behavior in practical applications. We complement the calculation of their statistical distribution within the Gaussian model with one estimator that takes non-Gaussianities fully into account. To illustrate the use of our techniques, we apply these estim…
Weak galaxy lensing surveys have consistently reported a lower amplitude for the matter fluctuation spectrum, as measured by the $S_8$ parameter, than expected in the $Λ{\rm CDM}$ cosmology favoured by $Planck$. However, the expansion history follows the predictions of the $Planck$ $Λ{\rm CDM}$ cosmology to high accuracy, as do measurements of lensing of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies. Redshift space distortion measurements also appear to be consistent with $Planck$ $Λ{\rm CDM}$. In this paper, we argue that these observations can be reconciled with the $Planck$ $Λ{\rm CDM}$ cosm…
The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Testing gravity with redshift-space distortions using the power spectrum multipoles
The $E_G$ statistic is a powerful probe for detecting deviations from GR by combining weak lensing (WL), real-space clustering and redshift space distortion (RSD) measurements thus probing both the lensing and the growth effective Newton constants ($G_L$ and $G_{eff}$). We construct an up to date compilation of $E_G$ statistic data including both redshift and scale dependence ($E_G(R,z)$). We combine this $E_G$ data compilation with an up to date compilation of $fσ_8$ data from RSD observations to identify the current level of tension between the Planck/$Λ$CDM standard model based on general r…
We present a weak-lensing study of SPT-CLJ2040-4451 and IDCSJ1426+3508 at z=1.48 and 1.75, respectively. The two clusters were observed in our "See Change" program, a HST survey of 12 massive high-redshift clusters aimed at high-z supernova measurements and weak-lensing estimation of accurate cluster masses. We detect weak but significant galaxy shape distortions using IR images from the WFC3, which has not yet been used for weak-lensing studies. Both clusters appear to possess relaxed morphology in projected mass distribution, and their mass centroids agree nicely with those defined by both t…
We study if the discrepancy between the local and cosmological measurements of the Hubble constant $H_0$ can be reformulated as a tension in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) monopole temperature $T_0$. The latter is customarily fixed to the FIRAS best-fit value in CMB data analyses. Although this value was confirmed by several independent experiments, it is interesting to see how much parameter constraints depend on this prior. We first provide a detailed pedagogical description of the $T_0$ effects on cosmological observables. We show that the recombination history and transfer functions…
There is a tension between measurements of the amplitude of the power spectrum of density perturbations inferred using the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and directly measured by Large-Scale Structure (LSS) on smaller scales. We show that this tension exists, and is robust, for a range of LSS indicators including clusters, lensing and redshift space distortions and using CMB data from either $Planck$ or WMAP+SPT/ACT. One obvious way to try to reconcile this is the inclusion of a massive neutrino which could be either active or sterile. Using $Planck$ and a combination of all the LSS data we…
Quantifying the concordance between different cosmological experiments is important for testing the validity of theoretical models and systematics in the observations. In earlier work, we thus proposed the Surprise, a concordance measure derived from the relative entropy between posterior distributions. We revisit the properties of the Surprise and describe how it provides a general, versatile, and robust measure for the agreement between datasets. We also compare it to other measures of concordance that have been proposed for cosmology. As an application, we extend our earlier analysis and us…
We investigate the Minimal Theory of Massive Gravity (MTMG) in the light of different observational data sets which are in tension within the $Λ$CDM cosmology. In particular, we analyze MTMG model, for the first time, with the Planck-CMB data, and how these precise measurements affect the free parameters of the theory. The MTMG model can affect the CMB power spectrum at large angular scales and cause a suppression on the amplitude of the matter power spectrum. We find that on adding Planck-CMB data, the graviton has a small, positive, but non-zero mass at 68\% confidence level, and from this p…
In recent years discrepancies have emerged in measurements of the present-day rate of expansion of the universe $H_0$ and in estimates of the clustering of matter $S_8$. Using the most recent cosmological observations we reexamine a novel model proposed to address these tensions, in which cold dark matter disintegrates into dark radiation. The disintegration process is controlled by its rate $Q = α\mathcal{H} ρ_{\rm ddm}$, where $α$ is a (constant) dimensionless parameter quantifying the strength of the disintegration mechanism and $\mathcal{H}$ is the conformal Hubble rate in the spatially fl…
Using the $fσ_8(z)$ redshift space distortion (RSD) data, the $σ_8^0-Ω_m^0$ tension is studied utilizing a parameterization of growth rate $f(z) = Ω_m(z)^γ$. Here, $f(z)$ is derived from the expansion history $H(z)$ which is reconstructed from the observational Hubble data applying the Gaussian Process method. It is found that different priors of $H_0$ have great influences on the evolution curve of $H(z)$ and the constraint of $σ_8^0-Ω_m^0$. When using a larger $H_0$ prior, the low redshifts $H(z)$ deviate significantly from that of the $Λ$CDM model, which indicates that a dark energy model d…
We construct an updated extended compilation of distinct (but possibly correlated) $fσ_8(z)$ Redshift Space Distortion (RSD) data published between 2006 and 2018. It consists of 63 datapoints and is significantly larger than previously used similar datasets. After fiducial model correction we obtain the best fit $Ω_{0m}-σ_8$ $Λ$CDM parameters and show that they are at a $5σ$ tension with the corresponding Planck15/$Λ$CDM values. Introducing a nontrivial covariance matrix correlating randomly $20\%$ of the RSD datapoints has no significant effect on the above tension level. We show that the ten…
The dependence of the bispectrum on the size and shape of the triangle contains a wealth of cosmological information. Here we consider a triangle parameterization which allows us to separate the size and shape dependence. We have implemented an FFT based fast estimator for the three dimensional (3D) bin averaged bispectrum, and we demonstrate that it allows us to study the variation of the bispectrum across triangles of all possible shapes (and also sizes). The computational requirement is shown to scale as $\sim N_{\rm g}^3~\log{N_{\rm g}^3}$ where $N_g$ is the number of grid points along eac…
The Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) has been used in several recent papers to infer constraints on the amplitude of the matter power spectrum and matter density at low redshift. Some of these analyses have claimed tension with the Planck $Λ\mathrm{CDM}$ cosmology at the $\sim 2-3σ$ level, perhaps indicative of new physics. However, Planck is consistent with other low redshift probes of the matter power spectrum such as redshift space distortions and the combined galaxy-mass and galaxy-galaxy power spectra. Here we perform consistency tests of the KiDS data, finding internal tensions for various cuts…
Large redshift surveys of galaxies and clusters are providing the first opportunities to search for distortions in the observed pattern of large-scale structure due to such effects as gravitational redshift. We focus on non-linear scales and apply a quasi-Newtonian approach using N-body simulations to predict the small asymmetries in the cross-correlation function of two galaxy different populations. Following recent work by Bonvin et al., Zhao and Peacock and Kaiser on galaxy clusters, we include effects which enter at the same order as gravitational redshift: the transverse Doppler effect, l…
Tensions between cosmic microwave background observations and the growth of the large-scale structure inferred from late-time probes pose a serious challenge to the concordance $Λ$CDM cosmological model. State-of-the-art data from the Planck satellite predicts a higher rate of structure growth than what preferred by low-redshift observables. Such tension has hitherto eluded conclusive explanations in terms of straightforward modifications to $Λ$CDM, e.g. the inclusion of massive neutrinos or a dynamical dark energy component. Here, we investigate models of 'quartessence' -- a single dark compo…
Currently, the standard cosmological model faces some tensions and discrepancies between observations at early and late cosmological time. One of them concerns the well-known $H_0$-tension problem, i.e., a $\sim4.4σ$-difference between the early-time estimate and late-time measurements of the Hubble constant, $H_0$. Another puzzling question rests in the cosmological lithium abundance, where again local measurements differ from the one predicted by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). In this work, we show that a mechanism of light dark matter production might hold the answer for these questions. I…
A well-known problem of the $Λ$CDM model is the tension between the relatively high level of clustering, as quantified by the parameter $σ_8$, found in cosmic microwave background experiments and the smaller one obtained from large-scale observations in the late Universe. In this paper we show that coupled quintessence, i.e. a single dark energy scalar field conformally coupled to dark matter through a constant coupling, can solve this problem if the background is taken to be identical to the $Λ$CDM one. We show that two competing effects arise. On one hand, the additional scalar force is attr…
The excellent measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations by Planck allow us to tightly constrain the amplitude of matter fluctuations at redshift $\sim 1100$ in the $Λ$-cold dark matter ($Λ$CDM) model. This amplitude can be extrapolated to the present epoch, yielding constraints on the value of the $σ_8$ parameter. On the other hand, the abundance of Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) clusters detected by Planck, with masses inferred using a hydrostatic equilibrium assumption, leads to a significantly lower value of the same parameter. This discrepancy is often dubbed the $σ_8$ ten…
The standard $Λ$-CDM predicts a growth of structures which tends to be higher than the values of redshift space distortion (RSD) measurements, if the cosmological parameters are fixed by the CMB data. In this paper we point out that this discrepancy can be resolved/understood if we assume that the graviton has a small but non-zero mass. In the context of the Minimal Theory of Massive Gravity (MTMG), due to infrared Lorentz violations measurable only at present cosmological scales, the graviton acquires a mass without being haunted by unwanted extra degrees of freedom. While the so-called self-…
