Full-Shape Galaxy Power Spectra and the Curvature Tension

TL;DR

This paper uses Effective Field Theories of Large Scale Structure to analyze galaxy power spectra, providing new constraints on the universe's curvature and exploring its tension with CMB measurements.

Contribution

It presents the most comprehensive full-shape analysis of galaxy data for curvature constraints, independent of CMB assumptions, and investigates the curvature tension with Planck data.

Findings

Full-shape data suggests a ~2 sigma preference for curvature.

Combined analysis with Planck data tightens constraints on _k.

Moderate tension identified between galaxy data and Planck measurements.

Abstract

With recent evidence for a possible "curvature tension" among early and late universe cosmological probes, Effective Field Theories of Large Scale Structure (EFTofLSS) have emerged as a promising new framework to generate constraints on $\Omega_k$ that are independent of both CMB measurements, and some of the assumptions of flatness that enter into other large-scale structure analyses. In this work we use EFTofLSS to simultaneously constrain measurements from the 6dFGS, BOSS, and eBOSS catalogues, representing the most expansive full-shape investigation of curvature to date. Fitting the full-shape data with a BBN prior on $\Omega_b h^2$ and fixed $n_s$, we measure $\Omega_k = -0.089^{+0.049}_{-0.046}$, corresponding to a $\sim 2 \sigma$ preference for curvature. We argue that this result cannot be biased towards flatness by assumptions in the fitting methodology. Using the Bayesian evidence ratio our full-shape data assigns betting odds of 2:1 in favour of curvature, indicating present measurements remain broadly compatible with both flat and curved cosmological models. When our full-shape sample is combined with Planck 2018 CMB measurements, we break the geometric degeneracy and recover a joint fit on $\Omega_k$ of $-0.0041^{+0.0026}_{-0.0021}$. Using the suspiciousness statistic (built on the standard Bayes factor), we find evidence for a moderate tension between Planck 2018 and our suite of full-shape measurements, at a significance of $1.76 ^{+0.14}_{-0.11} \sigma$ ($p \sim 0.08 \pm 0.02$). These results demonstrate the usefulness of full-shape clustering measurements as a CMB independent probe of curvature in the ongoing curvature tension debate.