Clustering of DESI galaxies split by thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect

The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect is associated with galaxy clusters - extremely large and dense structures tracing the dark matter with a higher bias than isolated galaxies. We propose to use the tSZ data to separate galaxies from redshift surveys into distinct subpopulations corresponding to different densities and biases independently of the redshift survey systematics. Leveraging the information from different environments, as in density-split and density-marked clustering, is known to tighten the constraints on cosmological parameters, like <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>Ω</mml:mi> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:math> , <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>σ</mml:mi> <mml:mn>8</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:math> and neutrino mass. We use data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in their region of overlap to demonstrate informative tSZ splitting of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). We discover a significant increase in the large-scale clustering of DESI LRGs corresponding to detections starting from 1-2 sigma in the ACT DR6 + Planck tSZ Compton- <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>y</mml:mi> </mml:math> map, below the cluster candidate threshold (4 sigma). We also find that such galaxies have higher line-of-sight coordinate (and velocity) dispersions and a higher number of close neighbors than both the full sample and near-zero tSZ regions. We produce simple simulations of tSZ maps that are intrinsically consistent with galaxy catalogs and do not include systematic effects, and find a similar pattern of large-scale clustering enhancement with tSZ effect significance. Moreover, we observe that this relative bias pattern remains largely unchanged with variations in the galaxy-halo connection model in our simulations. This is promising for future cosmological inference from tSZ-split clustering with semi-analytical models. Thus, we demonstrate that valuable cosmological information is present in the lower signal-to-noise regions of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich map, extending far beyond the individual cluster candidates.

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Journal
The Open Journal of Astrophysics
Published
2025-10-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.33232/001c.146033
Primary Topic
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
Type
article
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0.00

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article

Clustering of DESI galaxies split by thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect

Will J. Percival, O. Lahav, Andrew Lambert, R. R. Joyce et al.
The Open Journal of Astrophysics
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
article

Clustering of DESI galaxies split by thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect

Will J. Percival, O. Lahav, Andrew Lambert, R. R. Joyce, Abhijeet Anand, Rongpu Zhou, Michael S. Schubnell, David Brooks, Francisco Javier Castander, Eva-Maria Mueller, N. Palanque‐Delabrouille, S. Nadathur, H. K. Herrera-Alcantar, Gregory Tarlé, Kyle Dawson, Andreu Font-Ribera, David Sprayberry, D. Bianchi, David J. Schlegel, Ignasi Pérez-Ràfols, Axel de la Macorra, Martin Landriau, Simone Ferraro, Marc Manera, Gaston Gutierrez, J. Aguilar, Eusebio Sanchez, Ashley J. Ross, ENRIQUE GAZTAÑAGA, K. Honscheid, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Andrei Cuceu, Joseph Harry Silber, Cullan Howlett, Arjun T. Dey, J. E. Forero-Romero, Steven P. Ahlen, R. Miquel, Theodore S. Kisner, M. Rashkovetskyi, R. Kehoe, Mustapha Ishak, Hu Zou, T. Claybaugh, Graziano Rossi, Benjamin A. Weaver, Francisco Prada, Peter Doel
article en

Abstract

The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect is associated with galaxy clusters - extremely large and dense structures tracing the dark matter with a higher bias than isolated galaxies. We propose to use the tSZ data to separate galaxies from redshift surveys into distinct subpopulations corresponding to different densities and biases independently of the redshift survey systematics. Leveraging the information from different environments, as in density-split and density-marked clustering, is known to tighten the constraints on cosmological parameters, like <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>Ω</mml:mi> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:math> , <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>σ</mml:mi> <mml:mn>8</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:math> and neutrino mass. We use data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in their region of overlap to demonstrate informative tSZ splitting of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). We discover a significant increase in the large-scale clustering of DESI LRGs corresponding to detections starting from 1-2 sigma in the ACT DR6 + Planck tSZ Compton- <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>y</mml:mi> </mml:math> map, below the cluster candidate threshold (4 sigma). We also find that such galaxies have higher line-of-sight coordinate (and velocity) dispersions and a higher number of close neighbors than both the full sample and near-zero tSZ regions. We produce simple simulations of tSZ maps that are intrinsically consistent with galaxy catalogs and do not include systematic effects, and find a similar pattern of large-scale clustering enhancement with tSZ effect significance. Moreover, we observe that this relative bias pattern remains largely unchanged with variations in the galaxy-halo connection model in our simulations. This is promising for future cosmological inference from tSZ-split clustering with semi-analytical models. Thus, we demonstrate that valuable cosmological information is present in the lower signal-to-noise regions of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich map, extending far beyond the individual cluster candidates.

The Open Journal of AstrophysicsVol. 8
Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), University of Waterloo (CA), The University of Texas at Dallas (US), University of Sussex (GB), The University of Queensland (AU), Southern Methodist University (US), Perimeter Institute (CA), University of Milan (IT), University of Utah (US), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), University of Michigan (US), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (FR), Brera Astronomical Observatory (IT), Sejong University (KR), Shanghai Institute for Science of Science (CN), Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (ES), Institute of Space Sciences (ES), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), CEA Paris-Saclay (FR), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (ES), Universidad de Los Andes (BO), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (ES), National Astronomical Observatories (CN), Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers (FR), Institute of Science and Technology, University College London (GB), The Ohio State University (US), University of Portsmouth (GB), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX), University of California, Berkeley (US), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES)
National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Office of Science, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Division of Astronomical Sciences
Openalex Percentile: Top 67%
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
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