Precision cosmology with voids: definition, methods, dynamics

2009/06/30 by Guilhem Lavaux, Benjamin D. Wandelt, B. D. Wandelt · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #COSMIC cancer database #Classical mechanics #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark energy #Eulerian path #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Lagrangian #Measure (data warehouse) #Phenomenology (philosophy) #Physics #Scientific Research and Discoveries #Statistical physics #Theoretical physics #Void (composites) #astro-ph.CO

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16197.x

published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.403:1392-1408,2010 · 19 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted by MNRAS

arxiv created 2010/01/07 · openalex publication_date 2010/01/29 · arxiv updated 2014/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We propose a new definition of cosmic voids based on methods of Lagrangian orbit reconstruction as well as an algorithm to find them in actual data called DynamIcal Void Analysis. Our technique is intended to yield results which can be modelled sufficiently accurately to create a new probe of precision cosmology. We then develop an analytical model of the ellipticity of voids found by our method based on the Zel'dovich approximation. We measure in N-body simulation that this model is precise at the ∼0.1 per cent level for the mean ellipticity of voids of size greater than ∼4 h−1 Mpc. We estimate that at this scale we are able to predict the ellipticity with an accuracy of σɛ∼ 0.02. Finally, we compare the distribution of void shapes in N-body simulation for two different equations of state w of the dark energy. We conclude that our method is far more accurate than Eulerian methods and is therefore promising as a precision probe of dark energy phenomenology.

Citations

• Observational biases in Lagrangian reconstructions of cosmic velocity fields
• The 6dF Galaxy Survey: final redshift release (DR3) and southern large-scale structures
• Cosmic velocity-gravity relation in redshift space
• Minivoids in the Local Volume
• A million cubic megaparsec void in Bootes
• The Shape of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 Galaxy Power Spectrum
• zobov: a parameter-free void-finding algorithm
• The Luminosity Function of Void Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Reconstruction of the early Universe as a convex optimization problem
• Properties of dark matter haloes in clusters, filaments, sheets and voids
• Cosmological constraints from the SDSS luminous red galaxies
• The Aspen–Amsterdam void finder comparison project
• The Size and Shape of Local Voids
• Riemannian Geometry and Geometric Analysis

Cited by

• Cosmic voids and void lensing in the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data
• Density Profiles of TNG300 Voids across Cosmic Time
• Voids as a precision probe of dark energy
• Flaglets for studying the large-scale structure of the Universe