Cosmology from clustering of lyα galaxies: Breaking non-gravitational lyα radiative transfer degeneracies using the bispectrum

Abstract

Large surveys for Lyα emitting (LAE) galaxies have been proposed as a new method for measuring clustering of the galaxy population at high redshift with the goal of determining cosmological parameters. However, Lyα radiative transfer effects may modify the observed clustering of LAE galaxies in a way that mimics gravitational effects, potentially reducing the precision of cosmological constraints. We investigate the impact of Lyα radiative transfer effects on the observed clustering of LAE galaxies. In particular, we focus on the effects of the intergalactic medium velocity gradients, local density within the environment of an LAE galaxy and ionizing background fluctuations. For example, the effect of the linear redshift-space distortion on the power spectrum of LAE galaxies is potentially degenerate with Lyα radiative transfer effects owing to the dependence of observed flux on intergalactic medium velocity gradients. In this paper, we show that the three-point function (bispectrum) can distinguish between gravitational and non-gravitational effects, and thus breaks these degeneracies, making it possible to recover cosmological parameters from LAE galaxy surveys. Constraints on the angular diameter distance and Hubble expansion rate are independent of Lyα radiative transfer degeneracies; however, they incur slight reductions in their constraining power resulting from the overall reduction of the signal-to-noise due to the Lyα radiative transfer effects. Combining the power spectrum and bispectrum measurements provides improved constraints on the angular diameter distance and Hubble expansion rate. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.