The first constraint from SDSS galaxy-galaxy weak lensing measurements on interacting dark energy models

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new simulation pipeline to analyze nonlinear structure formation in interacting dark energy models and uses SDSS weak lensing data to place constraints on dark matter-dark energy interactions.

Contribution

It presents the first combined linear and nonlinear analysis of dark sector interactions using a novel self-consistent N-body simulation pipeline.

Findings

Improved constraints on dark energy-dark matter interaction strength.

Demonstrated the importance of small-scale weak lensing data.

Highlighted potential signatures of dark sector interactions.

Abstract

We combine constraints from linear and nonlinear scales, for the first time, to study the interaction between dark matter and dark energy. We devise a novel N-body simulation pipeline for cosmological models beyond $\Lambda$CDM. This pipeline is fully self-consistent and opens a new window to study the nonlinear structure formation in general phenomenological interacting dark energy models. By comparing our simulation results with the SDSS galaxy-galaxy weak lensing measurements, we are able to constrain the strength of interaction between dark energy and dark matter. Compared with the previous studies using linear examinations, we point to plausible improvements on the constraints of interaction strength by using small scale information from weak lensing. This improvement is mostly due to the sensitivity of weak lensing measurements on nonlinear structure formation at low redshift. With this new pipeline, it is possible to look for smoking gun signatures of dark matter-dark energy interaction.