The Effect of Covariance Estimator Error on Cosmological Parameter Constraints

2013/04/30 by Scott Dodelson, Michael D. Schneider · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.CO

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.88.063537

published as Phys. Rev. D 88, 063537 (2013) · 5 pages, 1 figure. Matches version accepted for publication in PRD

arxiv created 2013/09/13 · arxiv updated 2013/10/30

Abstract

Extracting parameter constraints from cosmological observations requires accurate determination of the covariance matrix for use in the likelihood function. We show here that uncertainties in the elements of the covariance matrix propagate directly to increased uncertainties in cosmological parameters. When the covariance matrix is determined by simulations, the resulting variance of the each parameter increases by a factor of order 1+N_b/N_s where N_b is the number of bands in the measurement and N_s is the number of simulations.

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