Constraints on the dark energy equation of state from the imprint of baryons on the power spectrum of clusters

• Published in: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
• Main Authors: Angulo, R., Baugh, C. M., Frenk, C. S., Bower, R. G., Jenkins, A., Morris, S. L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2005
• Subjects: Hubble; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-3933.2005.00067.x; https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article-pdf/362/1/L25/54692195/mnrasl_362_1_l25.pdf

Abstract Acoustic oscillations in the baryon–photon fluid leave a signature in the matter power spectrum. The overall shape of the spectrum and the wavelength of the oscillations depend upon the sound horizon scale at recombination. Using the Λ cold dark matter Hubble Volume simulation, we show that the imprint of baryons is visible in the power spectrum of cluster-mass dark matter haloes, in spite of significant differences between the halo power spectrum and the prediction of linear perturbation theory. A measurement of the sound horizon scale can constrain the dark energy equation of state. We show that a survey of clusters at intermediate redshift (z∼ 1), like the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich survey proposed by the South Pole Telescope or a red sequence photometric survey with VISTA or the Dark Energy Survey, could potentially constrain the sound horizon scale to an accuracy of ∼2 per cent, in turn fixing the ratio of the pressure of the dark energy to its density (w) to better than ∼10 per cent. Our approach does not require knowledge of the cluster mass, unlike those that depend upon the abundance of clusters.