Testing gravity on Large Scales

¹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA 91109, USA
² California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA 91125, USA

^a e-mail: alvise@caltech.edu

Published online: 5 September 2013

Abstract

We show how it is possible to test general relativity and different models of gravity via Redshift-Space Distortions using forthcoming cosmological galaxy surveys. However, the theoretical models currently used to interpret the data often rely on simplifications that make them not accurate enough for precise measurements. We will discuss improvements to the theoretical modeling at very large scales, including wide-angle and general relativistic corrections; we then show that for wide and deep surveys those corrections need to be taken into account if we want to measure the growth of structures at a few percent level, and so perform tests on gravity, without introducing systematic errors. Finally, we report the results of some recent cosmological model tests carried out using those precise models.