Improving Geometric and Dynamical Constraints on Cosmology with Intrinsic Alignments of Galaxies

Abstract

We show that the spatial correlation of the intrinsic alignments (IAs) of galaxies, measured in galaxy redshift surveys, offers a precision route to improve the geometrical and dynamical constraints on cosmology. The IA has been treated as a contaminant against cosmological probes such as weak gravitational lensing experiments. However, the large-scale correlation of IAs is expected to follow the coherent large-scale matter inhomogeneities. Here, making use of its anisotropic nature, we show that the large-scale IA correlations help to improve the measurements of the geometric distances and growth of structure. In combination with the conventional galaxy clustering statistics, we find that constraints on equation-of-state parameter for dark energy and Hubble parameter can be tighter than those from the clustering statistics alone by a factor of more than 1.5.