The dipole of the galaxy bispectrum

Abstract

The bispectrum will play an important role in future galaxy surveys. On large scales it is a key probe for measuring primordial non-Gaussianity which can help differentiate between different inflationary models and other theories of the early universe. On these scales a variety of relativistic effects come into play once the galaxy number-count fluctuation is projected on to our past light-cone. We show for the first time that the leading relativistic correction from these distortions in the galaxy bispectrum generates a significant dipole, mainly from relativistic redshift space distortions. The amplitude of the dipole can be more than 10 per cent of the monopole even on equality scales. Such a dipole is absent in the Newtonian approximation to the redshift space bispectrum, so it offers a clear signature of relativistic effects on cosmological scales in large-scale structure.