Scientific Seminars

Non-Gaussianity in Photometric Redshift Surveys

A. Hawken
INAF-OABrera

2012-11-27    11.00    Merate - POE

I will show how galaxy counts-in-cells can be used to quantify the observed non-Gaussianity in photometric redshift surveys. This non-Gaussianity is largely a natural consequence of the non-linear nature of gravitational evolution, which can be understood through the analysis of N-body simulations. Systematic errors in the way photometric redshift surveys are analysed have the potential to be confused with a signal of scale dependant halo bias induced by primordial non-Gaussianity. I will demonstrate that the counts-in-cells technique allows us to assess the impact of these systematics and thus place constraints on the degree of non-Gaussianity in the primordial matter density field.