Impact of Relativistic Effects on the Primordial Non-Gaussianity Signature in the Large-Scale Clustering of Quasars

TL;DR

This paper investigates how relativistic effects influence the detection of primordial non-Gaussianity in quasar clustering, emphasizing the need to model these effects accurately in future large-volume surveys like DESI.

Contribution

It provides a method to constrain relativistic corrections using luminosity function data and highlights their significance for upcoming cosmological measurements.

Findings

Relativistic corrections can dominate the large-scale quasar power spectrum.

Adjusting redshift or luminosity thresholds can reduce but not eliminate these effects.

Future surveys must incorporate relativistic modeling to accurately measure primordial non-Gaussianity.

Abstract

Relativistic effects in clustering observations have been shown to introduce scale-dependent corrections to the galaxy over-density field on large scales, which may hamper the detection of primordial non-Gaussianity $f_\textrm{NL}$ through the scale-dependent halo bias. The amplitude of relativistic corrections depends not only on the cosmological background expansion, but also on the redshift evolution and sensitivity to the luminosity threshold of the tracer population being examined, as parametrised by the evolution bias $b_\textrm{e}$ and magnification bias $s$. In this work, we propagate luminosity function measurements from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) to $b_\textrm{e}$ and $s$ for the quasar (QSO) sample, and thereby derive constraints on relativistic corrections to its power spectrum multipoles. Although one could mitigate the impact on the $f_\textrm{NL}$ signature by adjusting the redshift range or the luminosity threshold of the tracer sample being considered, we suggest that, for future surveys probing large cosmic volumes, relativistic corrections should be forward modelled from the tracer luminosity function including its uncertainties. This will be important to quasar clustering measurements on scales $k \sim 10^{-3} h \, \textrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ in upcoming surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), where relativistic corrections can overwhelm the expected $f_\textrm{NL}$ signature at low redshifts $z \lesssim 1$ and become comparable to $f_\textrm{NL} \simeq 1$ in the power spectrum quadrupole at redshifts $z \gtrsim 2.5$.