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New Probe of Departures from General Relativity Using Minkowski Functionals

Fang, Wenjuan; Li, Baojiu; Zhao, Gong-Bo

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Authors

Wenjuan Fang

Gong-Bo Zhao



Abstract

The morphological properties of the large scale structure of the Universe can be fully described by four Minkowski functionals (MFs), which provide important complementary information to other statistical observables such as the widely used 2-point statistics in configuration and Fourier spaces. In this work, for the first time, we present the differences in the morphology of the large scale structure caused by modifications to general relativity (to address the cosmic acceleration problem), by measuring the MFs from N-body simulations of modified gravity and general relativity. We find strong statistical power when using the MFs to constrain modified theories of gravity: with a galaxy survey that has survey volume ∼0.125ðh−1 GpcÞ3 and galaxy number density ∼1=ðh−1 MpcÞ3 , the two normal-branch Dvali-GabadadzePorrati models and the F5 fðRÞ model that we simulated can be discriminated from the ΛCDM model at a significance level ≳5σ with an individual MF measurement. Therefore, the MF of the large scale structure is potentially a powerful probe of gravity, and its application to real data deserves active exploration.

Citation

Fang, W., Li, B., & Zhao, G. (2017). New Probe of Departures from General Relativity Using Minkowski Functionals. Physical Review Letters, 118(18), Article 181301. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.118.181301

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 7, 2017
Online Publication Date May 2, 2017
Publication Date May 2, 2017
Deposit Date Jul 6, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Physical Review Letters
Print ISSN 0031-9007
Electronic ISSN 1079-7114
Publisher American Physical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 118
Issue 18
Article Number 181301
DOI https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.118.181301

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Copyright Statement
Reprinted with permission from the American Physical Society: Physical Review Letters 118, 181301 © (2017) by the American Physical Society. Readers may view, browse, and/or download material for temporary copying purposes only, provided these uses are for noncommercial personal purposes. Except as provided by law, this material may not be further reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, adapted, performed, displayed, published, or sold in whole or part, without prior written permission from the American Physical Society.





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