Will multiple probes of dark energy find modified gravity?

Charles Shapiro, S. Dodelson, B. Hoyle, Lado Samushia, B. Flaugher

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Abstract

One of the most pressing issues in cosmology is whether general relativity (GR) plus a dark sector is the underlying physical theory or whether a modified gravity model is needed. Upcoming dark energy experiments designed to probe dark energy with multiple methods can address this question by comparing the results of the different methods in constraining dark energy parameters. Disagreement would signal the breakdown of the assumed model (GR plus dark energy). We study the power of this consistency test by projecting constraints in the w0-wa plane from the four different techniques of the Dark Energy Survey in the event that the underlying true model is modified gravity. We find that the standard technique of looking for overlap has some shortcomings, and we propose an alternative, more powerful Multidimensional Consistency Test. We introduce the methodology for projecting whether a given experiment will be able to use this test to distinguish a modified gravity model from GR
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)043520
Number of pages1
JournalPhysical Review D
Volume82
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Aug 2010

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