Rescuing constraints on modified gravity using gravitational redshift in large-scale structure

The distribution of galaxies provides an ideal laboratory to test for deviations from General Relativity. In particular, redshift-space distortions are commonly used to constrain modifications to the Poisson equation, which governs the strength of dark matter clustering. Here, we show that these constraints rely on the validity of the weak equivalence principle, which has never been tested for the dark matter component. Relaxing this restrictive assumption leads to modifications in the growth of structure that are fully degenerate with modifications induced by the Poisson equation. This in turns strongly degrades the constraining power of redshift-space distortions. Such degeneracies can, however, be broken, and tight constraints on modified gravity can be recovered by measuring gravitational redshift from the galaxy distribution, an effect that will be detectable by the coming generation of large-scale structure surveys.

Automated summary

The distribution of galaxies provides a platform to test deviations from General Relativity. By measuring the gravitational redshift from galaxy distribution, tight constraints on modified gravity can be recovered.