CFHTLenS: Testing the Laws of Gravity with Tomographic Weak Lensing and Redshift Space Distortions

Dark energy may be the first sign of new fundamental physics in the Universe, taking either a physical form or revealing a correction to Einsteinian gravity. Weak gravitational lensing and galaxy peculiar velocities provide complementary probes of General Relativity, and in combination allow us to t...

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Dades bibliogràfiques
Autors principals: Simpson, F, Heymans, C, Parkinson, D, Blake, C, Kilbinger, M, Benjamin, J, Erben, T, Hildebrandt, H, Hoekstra, H, Kitching, T, Mellier, Y, Miller, L, Waerbeke, L, Coupon, J, Fu, L, Harnois-Déraps, J, Hudson, M, Kuijken, K, Rowe, B, Schrabback, T, Semboloni, E, Vafaei, S, Velander, M
Format: Journal article
Idioma:English
Publicat: 2012
Descripció
Sumari:Dark energy may be the first sign of new fundamental physics in the Universe, taking either a physical form or revealing a correction to Einsteinian gravity. Weak gravitational lensing and galaxy peculiar velocities provide complementary probes of General Relativity, and in combination allow us to test modified theories of gravity in a unique way. We perform such an analysis by combining measurements of cosmic shear tomography from the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) with the growth of structure from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey and the Six-degree-Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS), producing the strongest existing joint constraints on the metric potentials that describe general theories of gravity. For scale-independent modifications to the metric potentials which evolve linearly with the effective dark energy density, we find present-day cosmological deviations in the Newtonian potential and curvature potential from the prediction of General Relativity to be (Delta Psi)/Psi = 0.05 \pm 0.25 and (Delta Phi)/Phi = -0.05 \pm 0.3 respectively (68 per cent CL).