5–10 Jul 2021
Europe/Rome timezone

Let us bury the prehistoric h: arguments against using Mpc/h units in observational cosmology

5 Jul 2021, 17:58
22m
Invited talk in the parallel session Status of the H_0 and sigma_8 tensions: theoretical models and model-independent constraints Status of the H_0 and Sigma_8 Tensions: Theoretical Models and Model-Independent Constraints

Speaker

Ariel G. Sanchez (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics)

Description

It is common to express cosmological measurements in units of Mpc/h. Here, I review some of the complications that originate from this practice. A crucial problem caused by these units is related to the normalization of the matter power spectrum, which is commonly characterized in terms of the linear-theory rms mass fluctuation in spheres of radius 8 Mpc/h, σ8. This parameter does not correctly capture the impact of h on the amplitude of density fluctuations. I show how the use of σ8 has caused critical misconceptions for both the so-called σ8 tension regarding the consistency between low-redshift probes and cosmic microwave background data and the way in which growth-rate estimates inferred from redshift-space distortions are commonly expressed. We propose to abandon the use of Mpc/h units in cosmology and to characterize the amplitude of the matter power spectrum in terms of σ12, defined as the mass fluctuation in spheres of radius 12 Mpc, whose value is similar to the standard σ8 for h ~ 0.67.

Primary author

Ariel G. Sanchez (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics)

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