Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Articles 12-11-2006 Cosmological Constraints from the SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies Max Tegmark Massachusetts nI stitute of Technology Daniel J. Eisenstein University of Arizona Michael Strauss Princeton University Observatory David H. Weinberg Ohio State University Michael R. Blanton New York University See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.rit.edu/article Recommended Citation M. Tegmark et al. (SDSS Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 74, 123507 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.74.123507 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Max Tegmark, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Michael Strauss, David H. Weinberg, Michael R. Blanton, Joshua A. Frieman, Masataka Fukugita, James E. Gunn, Andrew J. S. Hamilton, Gillian R. Knapp, Robert C. Nichol, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Nikhil Padmanabhan, Will J. Percival, David J. Schlegel, Donald P. Schneider, Roman Scoccimarro, Uroš Seljak, Hee-Jong Seo, Molly Swanson, Alexander S. Szalay, Michael S. Vogeley, Jaiyul Yoo, Idit Zehavi, Kevork Abazajian, Scott .F Anderson, James Annis, Neta A. Bahcall, Bruce Bassett, Andreas Berlind, John Brinkman, Tamás Budavari, Francisco Castander, Andrew Connolly, Istvan Csabai, Mamoru Doi, Douglas P. Finkbeiner, Bruce Gillespie, Karl Glazebrook, Gregory S. Hennessy, David W. Hogg, Željko Ivezić, Bhuvnesh Jain, David Johnston, Stephen Kent, Donald Q. Lamb, Brian C. Lee, Huan Lin, Jon Loveday, Robert H. Lupton, Jeffrey A. Munn, Kaike Pan, Changbom Park, John Peoples, Jeffrey R. Pier, Adrian Pope, Michael Richmond, Constance Rockosi, Ryan Scranton, Ravi K. Sheth, Albert Stebbins, Christopher Stoughton, István Szapudi, Douglas L. Tucker, Daniel E. Vanden Berk, Brian Yanny, and Donald G. York This article is available at RIT Scholar Works: http://scholarworks.rit.edu/article/1184 Cosmological Constraints from the SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies Max Tegmark1, Daniel J. Eisenstein2, Michael A. Strauss3, David H. Weinberg4, Michael R. Blanton5, Joshua A. Frieman6,7, Masataka Fukugita8, James E. Gunn3, Andrew J. S. Hamilton9, Gillian R. Knapp3, Robert C. Nichol10, Jeremiah P. Ostriker3, Nikhil Padmanabhan11, Will J. Percival10, David J. Schlegel12, Donald P. Schneider13, Roman Scoccimarro5, UroˇsSeljak14,11, Hee-Jong Seo2, Molly Swanson1, Alexander S. Szalay15, Michael S. Vogeley16, Jaiyul Yoo4, Idit Zehavi17, Kevork Abazajian18, Scott F. Anderson19, James Annis7, Neta A. Bahcall3, Bruce Bassett20,21, Andreas Berlind5, Jon Brinkmann22, Tam´as Budavari15, Francisco Castander23, Andrew Connolly24, Istvan Csabai15, Mamoru Doi25, Douglas P. Finkbeiner3,26, Bruce Gillespie22, Karl Glazebrook15, Gregory S. Hennessy27, David W. Hogg5, Zeljkoˇ Ivezi´c19,3, Bhuvnesh Jain28, David Johnston29,30, Stephen Kent7, Donald Q. Lamb6,31, Brian C. Lee32,12, Huan Lin7, Jon Loveday33, Robert H. Lupton3, Jeffrey A. Munn27, Kaike Pan22, Changbom Park34, John Peoples7, Jeffrey R. Pier27, Adrian Pope15, Michael Richmond35, Constance Rockosi6, Ryan Scranton24, Ravi K. Sheth28, Albert Stebbins7, Christopher Stoughton7, Istv´an Szapudi36, Douglas L. Tucker7, Daniel E. Vanden Berk24, Brian Yanny7, Donald G. York6,31 1Dept. of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; 2Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; 3Princeton University Observatory, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; 4Dept. of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; 5Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Dept. of Physics, New York University, 4 Washington Pl., New York, NY 10003, USA; 6Center for Cosmological Physics and Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; 7Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510, USA; 8Inst. for Cosmic Ray Research, Univ. of Tokyo, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8582, Japan; 9JILA and Dept. of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; 10Inst. of Cosmology & Gravitation, Univ. of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, P01 2EG, United Kingdom; 11Dept. of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; 12Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; 13Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA; 14International Center for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italy; 15Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; 16Dept. of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; 17Dept. of Astronomy, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106-7215; 18Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA; 19Dept. of Astronomy, Univ. of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195; 20South African Astronomical Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa; 21Applied Mathematics Dept., Univ. of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; 22Apache Point Observatory, 2001 Apache Point Rd, Sunspot, NM 88349-0059, USA; 23Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya/CSIC, Campus UAB, 08034 Barcelona, Spain; 24University of Pittsburgh, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 3941 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; 25Inst. of Astronomy, Univ. of Tokyo, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo, 181-0015, Japan; 26Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS46, Cambridge, MA 02138; 27U.S. Naval Observatory, Flagstaff Station, 10391 W. Naval Obs. Rd., Flagstaff, AZ 86001-8521, USA; 28Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; 29Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena CA, 91109, USA; 30California Inst. of Technology, 1200 East California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; 31Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; 32Gatan Inc., Pleasanton, CA 94588; 33Sussex Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QJ, UK; 34Department of Astronomy, Seoul National University, 151-742, 35 arXiv:astro-ph/0608632v2 30 Oct 2006 Korea; Physics Dept., Rochester Inst. of Technology, 1 Lomb Memorial Dr, Rochester, NY 14623, USA; 36Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680, Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA; (Dated: Submitted to Phys. Rev. D. August 22 2006, revised October 10, accepted October 26) 2 We measure the large-scale real-space power spectrum P (k) using luminous red galaxies (LRGs) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and use this measurement to sharpen constraints on cos- mological parameters from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). We employ a matrix-based power spectrum estimation method using Pseudo-Karhunen-Lo`eve eigenmodes, pro- ducing uncorrelated minimum-variance measurements in 20 k-bands of both the clustering power and its anisotropy due to redshift-space distortions, with narrow and well-behaved window functions in the range 0.01 h/Mpc <k< 0.2 h/Mpc. Results from the LRG and main galaxy samples are con- sistent, with the former providing higher signal-to-noise. Our results are robust to omitting angular and radial density fluctuations and are consistent between different parts of the sky. They provide a striking confirmation of the predicted large-scale ΛCDM power spectrum. Combining only SDSS LRG and WMAP data places robust constraints on many cosmological parameters that complement prior analyses of multiple data sets. The LRGs provide independent cross-checks on Ωm and the baryon fraction in good agreement with WMAP. Within the context of flat ΛCDM models, our LRG measurements complement WMAP by sharpening the constraints on the matter density, the neutrino density and the tensor amplitude by about a factor of two, giving Ωm = 0.24±0.02 (1σ), mν ∼< 0.9 eV (95%) and r < 0.3 (95%). Baryon oscillations are clearly detected and provide a robust measure- ment of the comoving distance to the median survey redshift z = 0.35 independent of curvatureP and dark energy properties. Within the ΛCDM framework, our power spectrum measurement improves the evidence for spatial flatness, sharpening the curvature constraint Ωtot = 1.05±0.05 from WMAP alone to Ωtot = 1.003 ± 0.010. Assuming Ωtot = 1, the equation of state parameter is constrained to w = −0.94 ± 0.09, indicating the potential for more ambitious future LRG measurements to provide precision tests of the nature of dark energy. All these constraints are essentially independent of scales k > 0.1h/Mpc and associated nonlinear complications, yet agree well with more aggressive published analyses where nonlinear modeling is crucial. I. INTRODUCTION on large scales using the SDSS galaxy redshift survey in a way that is maximally useful for cosmological param- eter estimation, and to explore the resulting constraints The dramatic recent progress by the Wilkinson Mi- on cosmological models. The emphasis of our cosmo- crowave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and other experi- logical analysis will be on elucidating the links between ments [1–4] measuring the cosmic microwave background cosmological parameters and observable features of the (CMB) has made non-CMB experiments even more im- WMAP and SDSS power spectra, and on how these two portant in the quest to constrain cosmological models and data sets alone provide tight and robust constraints on their free parameters. These non-CMB constraints