The Nodal Line of the Galaxy Correlation Function as a Geometric Cosmological Probe

2026/07/27 by Lado Samushia
#astro-ph.CO

paper · pdf

Abstract

We propose a geometric cosmological probe: the nodal line of the anisotropic galaxy correlation function --- the locus in the plane where the function changes sign. Because the nodal line depends only on this sign, it is invariant under any amplitude rescaling, and its information is mostly independent of and complementary to BAO. In a proof-of-concept analysis of DESI DR1 galaxies, the nodal line constrains Ω_m h^3/2 to 3% at fixed galaxy bias, degrading to 4.8% under a 10% prior. Combined with BAO, it yields a 4.45% sound-horizon-free constraint on H₀.

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