Mapping growth and gravity with robust redshift space distortions

Abstract

Redshift space distortions (RSDs) caused by galaxy peculiar velocities provide a window onto the growth rate of large-scale structure and a method for testing general relativity. We investigate through a comparison of N-body simulations to various extensions of perturbation theory beyond the linear regime, the robustness of cosmological parameter extraction, including the gravitational growth index γ. We find that the Kaiser formula and some perturbation theory approaches bias the growth rate by 1σ or more relative to the fiducial at scales as large as k > 0.07 h Mpc -1. This bias propagates to estimates of the gravitational growth index as well as Ω m and the equation-of-state parameter and presents a significant challenge to modeling RSDs. We also determine an accurate fitting function for a combination of line-of-sight damping and higher order angular dependence that allows robust modeling of the redshift space power spectrum to substantially higher k. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..