Redshifting Rings of Power
Abstract
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) has provided a precise template for features in the linear power spectrum: the matter-radiation turnover, sound horizon drop, and acoustic oscillations. In a two dimensional power spectrum in redshift and angular space, the features appear as distorted rings, and yield simultaneous, purely geometric, measures of the Hubble parameter H(z) and angular diameter distance DA(z) via an absolute version of the Alcock-Paczynski test. Employing a simple Fisher matrix tool, we explore how future surveys can exploit these rings of power for dark energy studies. High-z CMB determinations of H and DA are best complemented at moderate to low redshift (z < 0.5) with a population of objects that are at least as abundant as clusters of galaxies. We find that a sample similar to that of the ongoing SDSS Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) survey can achieve statistical errors at the ~5% level for DA(z) and H(z) in several redshift bins. This, in turn, implies errors of sigma(w)=0.03-0.05 for a constant dark energy equation of state in a flat universe. Deep galaxy cluster surveys such as the planned South Pole Telescope (SPT) survey, can extend this test out to z~1 or as far as redshift followup is available. We find that the expected constraints are at the sigma(w)=0.04-0.08 level, comparable to galaxies and complementary in redshift coverage.
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