Inclusive Constraints on Unified Dark Matter Models from Future Large-Scale Surveys

TL;DR

This paper assesses how future large-scale surveys, especially Euclid and Planck, can distinguish unified dark matter models from the standard LCDM cosmology by analyzing their impact on structure formation and cosmic shear.

Contribution

It demonstrates the potential of upcoming surveys to constrain and differentiate UDM models from LCDM, including the effects of non-linear dynamics.

Findings

Euclid will provide precise galaxy clustering and weak lensing data.

Future surveys can effectively discriminate between UDM and LCDM models.

Including non-linear information enhances model constraints.

Abstract

In the very last years, cosmological models where the properties of the dark components of the Universe - dark matter and dark energy - are accounted for by a single "dark fluid" have drawn increasing attention and interest. Amongst many proposals, Unified Dark Matter (UDM) cosmologies are promising candidates as effective theories. In these models, a scalar field with a non-canonical kinetic term in its Lagrangian mimics both the accelerated expansion of the Universe at late times and the clustering properties of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. However, UDM models also present peculiar behaviours, the most interesting one being the fact that the perturbations in the dark-matter component of the scalar field do have a non-negligible speed of sound. This gives rise to an effective Jeans scale for the Newtonian potential, below which the dark fluid does not cluster any more. This implies a growth of structures fairly different from that of the concordance LCDM model. In this paper, we demonstrate that forthcoming large-scale surveys will be able to discriminate between viable UDM models and LCDM to a good degree of accuracy. To this purpose, the planned Euclid satellite will be a powerful tool, since it will provide very accurate data on galaxy clustering and the weak lensing effect of cosmic shear. Finally, we also exploit the constraining power of the ongoing CMB Planck experiment. Although our approach is the most conservative, with the inclusion of only well-understood, linear dynamics, in the end we also show what could be done if some amount of non-linear information were included.