Research

Physical Sciences

Title :

Extracting cosmological information beyond 2-point correlations: application of k-Nearest Neighbor distributions to nonlinear structure formation.

Area of research :

Physical Sciences

Focus area :

Cosmology, Data Science

Principal Investigator :

Dr. Arka Banerjee, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, Maharashtra

Timeline Start Year :

2024

Timeline End Year :

2026

Contact info :

Details

Executive Summary :

"Cosmological structure formation is a crucial tool for understanding fundamental physics, complementing terrestrial experiments. Cosmological surveys map out the Universe's structures in detail, with the clustering and distribution of these structures influenced by fundamental physics processes. Most cosmology analyses focus on the two-point function, but non-Gaussian clustering offers more information on smaller scales. To optimize the use of vast cosmological datasets and achieve critical science objectives, summary statistics sensitive to beyond-Gaussian clustering are needed. The k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN) summary statistics have been developed, sensitive to all N-point functions of clustering, both auto and cross-correlations. These summary statistics have been shown to be highly effective in extracting more information about cosmological parameters from the same data compared to two-point functions. The proposal aims to apply these summary statistics to three science cases: searching for primordial non-Gaussianities (PNG) in matter fluctuations in the Universe, detecting cosmological 21cm clustering signals through cross-correlations with galaxy positions, and building models to predict these statistics as a function of cosmological and galaxy formation parameters. This is essential for a full analysis of all cosmological data and improving constraints on cosmological and galaxy formation models."

Total Budget (INR):

17,06,496

Organizations involved