Will multiple probes of dark energy find modified gravity?

Charles Shapiro, Scott Dodelson, Ben Hoyle, Lado Samushia, and Brenna Flaugher
Phys. Rev. D 82, 043520 – Published 17 August 2010

Abstract

One of the most pressing issues in cosmology is whether general relativity (GR) plus a dark sector is the underlying physical theory or whether a modified gravity model is needed. Upcoming dark energy experiments designed to probe dark energy with multiple methods can address this question by comparing the results of the different methods in constraining dark energy parameters. Disagreement would signal the breakdown of the assumed model (GR plus dark energy). We study the power of this consistency test by projecting constraints in the w0wa plane from the four different techniques of the Dark Energy Survey in the event that the underlying true model is modified gravity. We find that the standard technique of looking for overlap has some shortcomings, and we propose an alternative, more powerful Multidimensional Consistency Test. We introduce the methodology for projecting whether a given experiment will be able to use this test to distinguish a modified gravity model from GR.

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  • Received 28 April 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.043520

© 2010 The American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Charles Shapiro1, Scott Dodelson2,3,4, Ben Hoyle5, Lado Samushia1,6, and Brenna Flaugher2

  • 1Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Portsmouth, PO1 3FX, United Kingdom
  • 2Center for Particle Astrophysics, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
  • 3Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 4Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 5Institut de Ciencies del Cosmos, Barcelona, Spain
  • 6National Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory, Ilia State University, 2A Kazbegi Ave, GE-0160 Tbilisi, Georgia

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Issue

Vol. 82, Iss. 4 — 15 August 2010

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