Probing theories of gravity with phase space-inferred potentials of galaxy clusters

Alejo Stark, Christopher J. Miller, Nicholas Kern, Daniel Gifford, Gong-Bo Zhao, Baojiu Li, Kazuya Koyama, and Robert C. Nichol
Phys. Rev. D 93, 084036 – Published 20 April 2016

Abstract

Modified theories of gravity provide us with a unique opportunity to generate innovative tests of gravity. In Chameleon f(R) gravity, the gravitational potential differs from the weak-field limit of general relativity (GR) in a mass dependent way. We develop a probe of gravity which compares high mass clusters, where Chameleon effects are weak, to low mass clusters, where the effects can be strong. We utilize the escape velocity edges in the radius/velocity phase space to infer the gravitational potential profiles on scales of 0.3–1 virial radii. We show that the escape edges of low mass clusters are enhanced compared to GR, where the magnitude of the difference depends on the background field value |fR0¯|. We validate our probe using N-body simulations and simulated light cone galaxy data. For a Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Bright Galaxy Sample, including observational systematics, projection effects, and cosmic variance, our test can differentiate between GR and Chameleon f(R) gravity models, |fR0¯|=4×106 (2×106) at >5σ (>2σ), more than an order of magnitude better than current cluster-scale constraints.

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  • Received 8 May 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.93.084036

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Alejo Stark1, Christopher J. Miller1,2, Nicholas Kern3, Daniel Gifford1, Gong-Bo Zhao4,5, Baojiu Li6, Kazuya Koyama5, and Robert C. Nichol5

  • 1Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
  • 3Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 4National Astronomy Observatories, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100012, People’s Republic of China
  • 5Institute for Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, United Kingdom
  • 6Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom

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Issue

Vol. 93, Iss. 8 — 15 April 2016

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