Elise Jennings
Durham University
Abstract:
Forthcoming galaxy redshift surveys will make high precision measurements
of the clustering of galaxies on scales in excess of 100/h Mpc. In
particular, the distortion of clustering due to the peculiar motions of
galaxies and the apparent scale of characteristic features in the galaxy
distribution have been proposed as tests of the cosmic acceleration. To
obtain meaningful and robust constraints on dark energy, we need to
understand any systematics in these measurements. I will present the
predictions for redshift space distortions and the growth rate using the
first consistent simulation of quintessence dark energy. These
calculations demonstrate that despite the large scales considered, the
widely used linear theory is not up to the job of modelling clustering in
future surveys and, furthermore, its application can lead to catastrophic
errors.
I will describe a new procedure for analysing redshift-space distortions
which is a major improvement over linear theory and will allow us to make
better use of the next generation of surveys.
The talk will cover the material in the papers:
Jennings et al (arXiv:0908.1394, arXiv:1003.4282 & arXiv:1011.2842 )