New Approach to Gravitational Clustering and Improved Cosmological Parameter Estimation

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AST-0607747ScoccimarroThis project focuses on two areas: a new analytic approach to gravitational clustering that can probe the nonlinear regime, and improving the determination of cosmological parameters from galaxy surveys. Part one will use renormalized perturbation theory, firstly, to understand the nonlinear evolution of baryon acoustic oscillations and their impact on galaxy surveys, and secondly, to describe the dark matter power spectrum at small scales, and thence to differentiate between modifications of general relativity and the presence of a dark energy, as the cause of cosmic acceleration. The second part involves improvements in cosmological parameter estimation by using the galaxy bispectrum and other higher-order statistics, and by improving the accuracy, efficiency and usefulness of the publicly available halo modeling program called PTHalos.The research collaboration includes a postdoctoral fellow and graduate students, and aspects of the results will be integrated into graduate and undergraduate instruction. The public release of PTHalos will be of wide utility to the astronomical community.