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K Glazebrook (Johns Hopkins University), C Blake (University of New South Wales)
A precision measurement of the galaxy power spectrum would reveal the acoustic oscillations imprinted at recombination, corresponding to the peaks in the CMB power spectrum. The positions of these peaks in Fourier space, fixed by fundamental linear physics in the early Universe and mapped accurately by CMB measurements, may be used as a "standard cosmological ruler" to facilitate accurate measurement of the dark energy that dominates in the late Universe. Such power spectrum measurements must be performed at high redshift, where the linear regime of galaxy clustering extends to small scales and the pattern of acoustic peaks is preserved.
We have quantified the ability of future galaxy redshift surveys with mean redshifts z=1 and z=3 to delineate the baryonic peaks, and have derived corresponding constraints on the parameter w describing the equation of state of dark energy. A survey of a million galaxies at z=1, covering three times the Sloan volume, can produce a measurement with accuracy dw=0.1. This method of measuring dark energy powerfully complements other probes such as Type Ia supernovae, suffering from very different (and arguably less serious) systematic uncertainties. Moreover, the new generation of wide-field multi-object spectographs on large telescopes makes such a survey very feasible.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.