Cosmology with power spectrum measurements from galaxy surveys

Thesis

The nature of dark matter and dark energy are currently two of the most important questions in cosmology. In this thesis, we consider studying the dark universe with the redshifts and peculiar velocities of galaxies. In the first half of the thesis, we analyse current peculiar velocity measurements of the bulk flow of our local volume to estimate the underlying dark matter power spectrum. In the second half of the thesis, we consider the prospects for measuring dark matter and dark energy with future galaxy redshift surveys, particularly via redshift space distortions. Fundamentally, bulk flow measurements and redshift space distortions are both sensitive probes of the power spectrum and growth rate of cosmic structure. In the final chapter, we directly compare power spectrum measurements with both methods.

Authors: Macaulay, ERM

• Publication date: 2012
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: peculiar velocities; dark matter; galaxies; cosmology; dark energy
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Astrophysics (theoretical)