Testing General Relativity using Large Scale Structures Photometric Redshift Surveys and Cosmic Microwave Background Lensing Effect

TL;DR

This paper measures the $E_G$ statistic using DES photometric data and Planck CMB lensing to test General Relativity on large scales, employing neural networks and model-independent methods, and forecasts future constraints with upcoming surveys.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to constrain the $E_G$ statistic with photometric redshift data, combining neural network reconstruction and model-independent galaxy bias measurements.

Findings

Measured $E_G$ at four redshifts consistent with $ m extLambda$CDM.

Demonstrated the potential for 1% precision with future surveys.

Validated the use of neural networks for growth rate estimation.

Abstract

The $E_G$ statistic provides a valuable tool for evaluating predictions of General Relativity (GR) by probing the relationship between gravitational potential and galaxy clustering on cosmological scales within the observable universe. In this study, we constrain the $E_G$ statistic using photometric redshift data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) MagLim sample in combination with the Planck 2018 Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) lensing map. Unlike spectroscopic redshift surveys, photometric redshift measurements are subject to significant redshift uncertainties, making it challenging to constrain the redshift distortion parameter $\beta$ with high precision. We adopt a new definition for this parameter, $\beta(z) = {f\sigma_8(z)}/{b\sigma_8(z)}$. In this formulation, we reconstruct the growth rate of structure, $f\sigma_8(z)$, using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) method, while simultaneously utilizing model-independent constraints on the parameter $b\sigma_8(z)$, directly obtained from the DES collaboration. After obtaining the angular power spectra $C_\ell^{gg}$ (galaxy-galaxy) and $C_\ell^{g\kappa}$ (galaxy-CMB lensing) from the combination of DES photometric data and Planck lensing, we derive new measurements of the $E_G$ statistic: $E_G = 0.354 \pm 0.146$, $0.452 \pm 0.092$, $0.414 \pm 0.069$, and $0.296 \pm 0.069$ (68$\%$ C.L.) across four redshift bins: $z = 0.30, 0.47, 0.63$, and $0.80$, respectively, which are consistent with the predictions of the standard $\Lambda$CDM model. Finally, we forecast the $E_G$ statistic using future photometric redshift data from the China Space Station Telescope, combined with lensing measurements from the CMB-S4 project, indicating an achievable constraint on $E_G$ of approximately 1$\%$, improving the precision of tests for GR on cosmological scales.