TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing cosmic acceleration with the Alcock-Paczyński effect in the SDSS-IV quasar catalogue
AU - Melia, Fulvio
AU - Qin, Jin
AU - Zhang, Tong Jie
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.
PY - 2020/11/1
Y1 - 2020/11/1
N2 - The geometry of the Universe may be probed using the Alcock-Paczyński (AP) effect, in which the observed redshift size of a spherical distribution of sources relative to its angular size varies according to the assumed cosmological model. Past applications of this effect have been limited, however, by a paucity of suitable sources and mitigating astrophysical factors, such as internal redshift-space distortions and poorly known source evolution. In this Letter, we introduce a new test based on the AP effect that avoids the use of spatially bound systems, relying instead on sub-samples of quasars at redshifts z 1.5 in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV, with a possible extension to higher redshifts and improved precision when this catalogue is expanded by upcoming surveys. We here use this method to probe the redshift-dependent expansion rate in three pertinent Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker cosmologies: Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM), which predicts a transition from deceleration to acceleration at z ∼0.7; Einstein-de Sitter, in which the Universe is always decelerating; and the Rh = ct universe, which expands at a constant rate. ΛCDM is consistent with these data, but Rh = ct is favoured overall.
AB - The geometry of the Universe may be probed using the Alcock-Paczyński (AP) effect, in which the observed redshift size of a spherical distribution of sources relative to its angular size varies according to the assumed cosmological model. Past applications of this effect have been limited, however, by a paucity of suitable sources and mitigating astrophysical factors, such as internal redshift-space distortions and poorly known source evolution. In this Letter, we introduce a new test based on the AP effect that avoids the use of spatially bound systems, relying instead on sub-samples of quasars at redshifts z 1.5 in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV, with a possible extension to higher redshifts and improved precision when this catalogue is expanded by upcoming surveys. We here use this method to probe the redshift-dependent expansion rate in three pertinent Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker cosmologies: Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM), which predicts a transition from deceleration to acceleration at z ∼0.7; Einstein-de Sitter, in which the Universe is always decelerating; and the Rh = ct universe, which expands at a constant rate. ΛCDM is consistent with these data, but Rh = ct is favoured overall.
KW - cosmological parameters
KW - cosmology: observations
KW - cosmology: theory
KW - distance scale
KW - galaxies: active
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U2 - 10.1093/mnrasl/slaa153
DO - 10.1093/mnrasl/slaa153
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096925906
SN - 1745-3925
VL - 499
SP - L36-L40
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
IS - 1
ER -