Cosmology from large scale galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing with Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data

TL;DR

This paper presents cosmological constraints derived from large scale galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing data from DES Science Verification, providing measurements of matter density and clustering amplitude consistent with previous studies.

Contribution

First combined analysis of galaxy clustering and lensing from DES SV data, constraining cosmological parameters with systematic robustness checks.

Findings

Omega_m = 0.31 +/- 0.09

sigma_8 = 0.74 +/- 0.13

S_8 = 0.74 +/- 0.12

Abstract

We present cosmological constraints from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) using a combined analysis of angular clustering of red galaxies and their cross-correlation with weak gravitational lensing of background galaxies. We use a 139 square degree contiguous patch of DES data from the Science Verification (SV) period of observations. Using large scale measurements, we constrain the matter density of the Universe as Omega_m = 0.31 +/- 0.09 and the clustering amplitude of the matter power spectrum as sigma_8 = 0.74 +/- 0.13 after marginalizing over seven nuisance parameters and three additional cosmological parameters. This translates into S_8 = sigma_8(Omega_m/0.3)^{0.16} = 0.74 +/- 0.12 for our fiducial lens redshift bin at 0.35 <z< 0.5, while S_8 = 0.78 +/- 0.09 using two bins over the range 0.2 <z< 0.5. We study the robustness of the results under changes in the data vectors, modelling and systematics treatment, including photometric redshift and shear calibration uncertainties, and find consistency in the derived cosmological parameters. We show that our results are consistent with previous cosmological analyses from DES and other data sets and conclude with a joint analysis of DES angular clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing with Planck CMB data, Baryon Accoustic Oscillations and Supernova type Ia measurements.