Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 446, Issue 1, Pages 75-84Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stu2080
Keywords
cosmology: theory; dark energy; large-scale structure of Universe
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Funding
- University of Milano
- European Research Council [291521]
- European Research Council (ERC) [291521] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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As a step towards a more accurate modelling of redshift-space distortions (RSD) in galaxy surveys, we develop a general description of the probability distribution function of galaxy pairwise velocities within the framework of the so-called streaming model. For a given galaxy separation r, such function can be described as a superposition of virtually infinite local distributions. We characterize these in terms of their moments and then consider the specific case in which they are Gaussian functions, each with its own mean mu and dispersion sigma. Based on physical considerations, we make the further crucial assumption that these two parameters are in turn distributed according to a bivariate Gaussian, with its own mean and covariance matrix. Tests using numerical simulations explicitly show that with this compact description one can correctly model redshift-space distortions on all scales, fully capturing the overall linear and non-linear dynamics of the galaxy flow at different separations. In particular, we naturally obtain Gaussian/exponential, skewed/unskewed distribution functions, depending on separation as observed in simulations and data. Also, the recently proposed single-Gaussian description of RSD is included in this model as a limiting case, when the bivariate Gaussian is collapsed to a two-dimensional Dirac delta function. We also show how this description naturally allows for the Taylor expansion of 1 + xi(S)(s) around 1 + xi(R)(r), which leads to the Kaiser linear formula when truncated to second order, explicating its connection with the moments of the velocity distribution functions. More work is needed, but these results indicate a very promising path to make definitive progress in our programme to improve RSD estimators.
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