Can we actually constrain f<sub>NL</sub> using the scale-dependent bias effect? An illustration of the impact of galaxy bias uncertainties using the BOSS DR12 galaxy power spectrum

Barreira, Alexandre

doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2022/11/013

Cited by 41 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…Informative b f priors allow strong f NL inferences, but care must be taken to avoid biased results (Moradinezhad Dizgah et al 2021). This issue is discussed in more depth in Barreira (2022b). In this work, we have also neglected relativistic effects, which can introduce similar features (Bruni et al 2012;Jeong et al 2012;Camera et al 2015;Castorina & Dio 2022), though these can be differentiated via the different redshift evolution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is one complication with using measurements of scaledependent bias to constrain PNG: the analytic form for the scale-dependent bias coefficient, b f in Equation (11), is only valid for biased tracers with universal mass functions. This is not true for observables such as quasars or galaxies, as has been explicitly explored in, e.g., Slosar et al (2008), Reid et al (2010), and Barreira (2020Barreira ( , 2022b. A conservative approach to this issue would be to marginalize over this parameter, as is discussed in Cabass et al (2022a) and Barreira (2022b), however the prior is very important and is currently poorly understood.…”

Section: Primordial Non-gaussianity and Scale-dependent Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is not true for observables such as quasars or galaxies, as has been explicitly explored in, e.g., Slosar et al (2008), Reid et al (2010), and Barreira (2020Barreira ( , 2022b. A conservative approach to this issue would be to marginalize over this parameter, as is discussed in Cabass et al (2022a) and Barreira (2022b), however the prior is very important and is currently poorly understood. Note this marginalization is necessary as breaking this degeneracy from the data itself is very challenging, as is discussed in, e.g., Barreira (2022b).…”

Section: Primordial Non-gaussianity and Scale-dependent Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A conservative approach to this issue would be to marginalize over this parameter, as is discussed in Cabass et al (2022a) and Barreira (2022b), however the prior is very important and is currently poorly understood. Note this marginalization is necessary as breaking this degeneracy from the data itself is very challenging, as is discussed in, e.g., Barreira (2022b). In applying a simulationbased approach in a self-consistent way, we implicitly assume that we know the bias relation, Equation (11), perfectly.…”

Section: Primordial Non-gaussianity and Scale-dependent Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For local PNG, future possible detections will likely not be limited by sample variance but rather the shot noise of the samples and the difficulty of understanding large-scale systematic effects (Ross et al 2011;Pullen & Hirata 2013;Rezaie et al 2021). Note, however, that as has been highlighted in Barreira (2020Barreira ( , 2022aBarreira ( , 2022b, converting any detection of PNG to a specific amplitude of the primordial bispectrum may be challenging without advances in our understanding of galaxy formation. The importance of this in ruling out single field inflationary models depends on the exact value predicted by single field inflation; whether it is zero or slow-roll suppressed continues to be subject to a theoretical discussion (Pajer et al 2013;Matarrese et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quijote-PNG: The Information Content of the Halo Power Spectrum and Bispectrum

Coulton

Villaescusa-Navarro

Jamieson

et al. 2023

ApJ

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We investigate how much can be learnt about four types of primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) from small-scale measurements of the halo field. Using the quijote-png simulations, we quantify the information content accessible with measurements of the halo power spectrum monopole and quadrupole, the matter power spectrum, the halo–matter cross spectrum, and the halo bispectrum monopole. This analysis is the first to include small, nonlinear scales, up to k max = 0.5 h Mpc − 1 , and to explore whether these scales can break degeneracies with cosmological and nuisance parameters making use of thousands of N-body simulations. We perform all the halo measurements in redshift space with a single sample comprised of all halos with mass >3.2 × 1013 h −1 M ⊙. For local PNG, measurements of the scale-dependent bias effect from the power spectrum using sample variance cancellation provide significantly tighter constraints than measurements of the halo bispectrum. In this case measurements of the small scales add minimal additional constraining power. In contrast, the information on equilateral and orthogonal PNG is primarily accessible through the bispectrum. For these shapes, small-scale measurements increase the constraining power of the halo bispectrum by up to 4×, though the addition of scales beyond k ≈ 0.3 h Mpc−1 improves constraints largely through reducing degeneracies between PNG and the other parameters. These degeneracies are even more powerfully mitigated through combining power spectrum and bispectrum measurements. However, even with combined measurements and small-scale information, equilateral non-Gaussianity remains highly degenerate with σ 8 and our bias model.

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