The large-scale monopole of the power spectrum in a Euclid-like survey: wide-angle effects, lensing, and the `finger of the observer'

TL;DR

This study investigates how wide-angle effects, lensing, and observer motion influence the monopole of the galaxy power spectrum in large surveys, revealing detectable signals that could inform cosmological parameters and galaxy properties.

Contribution

The paper introduces an upgraded numerical method to quantify the impact of light-cone effects on the monopole power spectrum using realistic mock surveys.

Findings

Wide-angle effects generate excess power detectable at low k.

Weak-lensing magnification adds large-scale power, marginally detectable.

Observer's motion creates a detectable dipole-like oscillatory pattern.

Abstract

Radial redshift-space distortions due to peculiar velocities and other light-cone effects shape the maps we build of the Universe. We address the open question of their impact onto the monopole moment of the galaxy power spectrum, $P_0(k)$. Specifically, we use an upgraded numerical implementation of the LIGER method to generate $140$ mock galaxy density fields for a full Euclid-like survey and we measure $P_0(k)$ in each of them utilising a standard estimator. We compare the spectra obtained by turning on and off different effects. Our results show that wide-angle effects due to radial peculiar velocities generate excess power above the level expected within the plane-parallel approximation. They are detectable with a signal-to-noise ratio of 2.7 for $k<0.02\,h$ Mpc$^{-1}$. Weak-lensing magnification also produces additional power on large scales which, if the current favourite model for the luminosity function of H$\alpha$ emitters turns out to be realistic, can only be detected with a signal-to-noise ratio of 1.3 at best. Finally, we demonstrate that measuring $P_0(k)$ in the standard of rest of the observer generates an additive component reflecting the kinematic dipole overdensity caused by the peculiar velocity. This component is characterised by a damped oscillatory pattern on large scales. We show that this `finger of the observer' effect is detectable in some redshift bins and suggest that its measurement could possibly open new research directions in connection with the determination of the cosmological parameters, the properties of the galaxy population under study, and the dipole itself.