Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are very short and bright transients visible over extragalactic distances. The radio pulse undergoes dispersion caused by free electrons, along the line of sight, most of which are associated with the large-scale structure (LSS). The total dispersion measure therefore increases with the line of sight and provides a distance estimate to the source. We present the first measurement of the Hubble constant using the dispersion measure – redshift relation of FRBs with identified host counterpart and corresponding redshift information. A sample of nine currently available FRBs yields a constraint of H0=62.3±9.1kms−1Mpc−1H0=62.3±9.1kms−1Mpc−1⁠, accounting for uncertainty stemming from the LSS, host halo, and Milky Way contributions to the observed dispersion measure. We discuss possible biases arising from highly dispersed signals, and break the degeneracy between the expansion rate and the mean free electron abundance with a prior on the physical baryon density. The main current limitation is statistical, and we estimate that a few hundred events with corresponding redshifts are sufficient for a per cent measurement of H0. This is a number well within reach of ongoing FRB searches. We perform a forecast using a realistic mock sample to demonstrate that a high-precision measurement of the expansion rate is possible without relying on other cosmological probes. FRBs can therefore arbitrate the current tension between early and late-time measurements of H0 in the near future.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are astrophysical transients of still debated origin. So far several hundred events have been detected, mostly at extragalactic distances, and this number is expected to grow significantly over the next years. The radio signals from the burst experience dispersion as they travel through the free electrons along the line-of-sight characterised by the dispersion measure (DM) of the radio pulse. In addition, each photon also experiences a gravitational Shapiro time delay while travelling through the potentials generated by the large-scale structure. If the weak equivalence principle (WEP) holds, the Shapiro delay is the same for photons of all frequencies. In case the WEP is broken, one would expect an additional dispersion to occur which could be either positive or negative for individual sources. Here, we suggest to use angular statistics of the DM fluctuations to put constraints on the WEP parametrized by the post-Newtonian parameter gamma. Previous studies suffer from the problem that the gravitational potential responsible for the delay diverges in a cosmological setting, which our approach avoids. We carry out a forecast for a population of FRBs observable within the next years and show that any significant detection of the DM angular power spectrum will place the tightest constraints on the WEP to date, Δγ < 10(-15).

We revisit cosmological constraints on the sum of the neutrino masses Σm_ν from a combination of full-shape BOSS galaxy clustering [P(k)] data and measurements of the cross-correlation between Planck Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) lensing convergence and BOSS galaxy overdensity maps [C_ℓ^κg], using a simple but theoretically motivated model for the scale-dependent galaxy bias in auto- and cross-correlation measurements. We improve upon earlier related work in several respects, particularly through a more accurate treatment of the correlation and covariance between P(k) and C_ℓ^κg measurements. When combining these measurements with Planck CMB data, we find a 95% confidence level upper limit of Σm_ν<0.14eV, while slightly weaker limits are obtained when including small-scale ACTPol CMB data, in agreement with our expectations. We confirm earlier findings that (once combined with CMB data) the full-shape information content is comparable to the geometrical information content in the reconstructed BAO peaks given the precision of current galaxy clustering data, discuss the physical significance of our inferred bias and shot noise parameters, and perform a number of robustness tests on our underlying model. While the inclusion of C_ℓ^κg measurements does not currently appear to lead to substantial improvements in the resulting Σm_ν constraints, we expect the converse to be true for near-future galaxy clustering measurements, whose shape information content will eventually supersede the geometrical one.

We present a consistent framework to set limits on properties of light sterile neutrinos coupled to all three active neutrinos using a combination of the latest cosmological data and terrestrial measurements from oscillations, β-decay, and neutrinoless double-β-decay (0νββ) experiments. We directly constrain the full 3+1 active-sterile mixing matrix elements |Uα4|2, with α∈(e,μ,τ), and the mass-squared splitting Δm241≡m24−m21. We find that results for a 3+1 case differ from previously studied 1+1 scenarios where the sterile is coupled to only one of the neutrinos, which is largely explained by parameter space volume effects. Limits on the mass splitting and the mixing matrix elements are currently dominated by the cosmological datasets. The exact results are slightly prior dependent, but we reliably find all matrix elements to be constrained below |Uα4|2≲10−3. Short-baseline neutrino oscillation hints in favor of eV-scale sterile neutrinos are in serious tension with these bounds, irrespective of prior assumptions. We also translate the bounds from the cosmological analysis into constraints on the parameters probed by laboratory searches, such as mβ or mββ, the effective mass parameters probed by β-decay and 0νββ searches, respectively. When allowing for mixing with a light sterile neutrino, cosmology leads to upper bounds of mβ<0.09  eV and mββ<0.07  eV at 95% CL, more stringent than the limits from current laboratory experiments.

The COnstrain Dark Energy with X-ray clusters (CODEX) sample contains the largest flux limited sample of X-ray clusters at 0.35 < z < 0.65. It was selected from ROSAT data in the 10 000 square degrees of overlap with BOSS, mapping a total number of 2770 high-z galaxy clusters. We present here the full results of the CFHT CODEX programme on cluster mass measurement, including a reanalysis of CFHTLS Wide data, with 25 individual lensing-constrained cluster masses. We employ LENSFIT shape measurement and perform a conservative colour–space selection and weighting of background galaxies. Using the combination of shape noise and an analytic covariance for intrinsic variations of cluster profiles at fixed mass due to large-scale structure, miscentring, and variations in concentration and ellipticity, we determine the likelihood of the observed shear signal as a function of true mass for each cluster. We combine 25 individual cluster mass likelihoods in a Bayesian hierarchical scheme with the inclusion of optical and X-ray selection functions to derive constraints on the slope α, normalization β, and scatter σln λ|μ of our richness–mass scaling relation model in log-space: |${\langle {\rm In}\,\, \lambda\!\!\mid\!\!\mu\rangle = \alpha\mu + \beta,} $| with μ = ln (M200c/Mpiv), and Mpiv = 1014.81M⊙. We find a slope |$\alpha = 0.49^{+0.20}_{-0.15}$|⁠, normalization |$\exp (\beta) = 84.0^{+9.2}_{-14.8}$|⁠, and |$\sigma _{\ln \lambda | \mu } = 0.17^{+0.13}_{-0.09}$| using CFHT richness estimates. In comparison to other weak lensing richness–mass relations, we find the normalization of the richness statistically agreeing with the normalization of other scaling relations from a broad redshift range (0.0 < z < 0.65) and with different cluster selection (X-ray, Sunyaev–Zeldovich, and optical).

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are astrophysical transients of currently unknown origin, and so far several events have been detected at extragalactic distances. The dispersion measure (DM) of the radio signal is a probe of the integrated electron density along the line of sight and therefore allows to map the electron distribution within the large-scale structure. Since a fraction of electrons get expelled from galaxies by feedback, they are anticorrelated with halos at large scales and hence the angular DM correlations show a scale-dependent bias caused by primordial non-Gaussianity. Although the signal is weaker than in other probes like galaxy clustering, FRBs can potentially probe considerably larger volumes. We show that while studying the FRB clustering signal requires very large samples, correlations in the DM are cosmic-variance limited on large angular scales with only ∼103−4 events. A tomographic analysis of the angular DM correlation function can constrain the local primordial bispectrum shape parameter fNL to a precision down to fNL∼O(1) depending on assumptions about the FRB redshift distribution and the astrophysical feedback on large scales. This makes FRBs a competitive probe to constrain inflationary physics.

Context. Large area catalogs of galaxy clusters constructed from ROSAT All-Sky Survey provide the basis for our knowledge of the population of clusters thanks to long-term multiwavelength efforts to follow up observations of these clusters.

Aims. The advent of large area photometric surveys superseding previous, in-depth all-sky data allows us to revisit the construction of X-ray cluster catalogs, extending the study to lower cluster masses and higher redshifts and providing modeling of the selection function.

Methods. We performed a wavelet detection of X-ray sources and made extensive simulations of the detection of clusters in the RASS data. We assigned an optical richness to each of the 24 788 detected X-ray sources in the 10 382 square degrees of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey area using red sequence cluster finder redMaPPer version 5.2 run on Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry. We named this survey COnstrain Dark Energy with X-ray (CODEX) clusters.

Results. We show that there is no obvious separation of sources on galaxy clusters and active galactic nuclei (AGN) based on the distribution of systems on their richness. This is a combination of an increasing number of galaxy groups and their selection via the identification of X-ray sources either by chance or by groups hosting an AGN. To clean the sample, we use a cut on the optical richness at the level corresponding to the 10% completeness of the survey and include it in the modeling of the cluster selection function. We present the X-ray catalog extending to a redshift of 0.6.

Conclusions. The CODEX suvey is the first large area X-ray selected catalog of northern clusters reaching fluxes of 10⁻¹³ ergs s⁻¹ cm⁻². We provide modeling of the sample selection and discuss the redshift evolution of the high end of the X-ray luminosity function (XLF). Our results on z <  0.3 XLF agree with previous studies, while we provide new constraints on the 0.3 <  z <  0.6 XLF. We find a lack of strong redshift evolution of the XLF, provide exact modeling of the effect of low number statistics and AGN contamination, and present the resulting constraints on the flat ΛCDM.

Dark matter comprised of axion-like particles (ALPs) generated by the realignment mechanism in the post-inflationary scenario leads to primordial isocurvature fluctuations. The power spectrum of these fluctuations is flat for small wave numbers, extending to scales accessible with cosmological surveys. We use the latest measurements of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) primary anisotropies (temperature, polarization) together with CMB lensing, Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) cluster counts to measure the amplitude and tilt of the isocurvature component. We find preference for a white-noise isocurvature component in the CMB primary anisotropies; this conclusion is, however, weakened by current large-scale structure (LSS) data. Interpreting the result as a conservative upper limit on the isocurvature component, the combined bound on the ALP mass from all probes is m(a) greater than or similar to 10(-19) eV, with some dependence on how m(a) evolves with temperature. The expected sensitivity of cosmic shear and galaxy clustering from future LSS experiments and CMB lensing suggests improved bounds of m(a) greater than or similar to 10(-18) -10(-13) eV, depending on scale cuts used to avoid non-linearities and the ALP mass-temperature dependence.

Searches for modified gravity in the large-scale structure try to detect the enhanced amplitude of density fluctuations caused by the fifth force present in many of these theories. Neutrinos, on the other hand, suppress structure growth below their free-streaming length. Both effects take place on comparable scales, and uncertainty in the neutrino mass leads to a degeneracy with modified gravity parameters for probes that are measuring the amplitude of the matter power spectrum. We explore the possibility to break the degeneracy between modified gravity and neutrino effects in the growth of structures by considering kinematic information related to either the growth rate on large scales or the virial velocities inside of collapsed structures. In order to study the degeneracy up to fully non-linear scales, we employ a suite of N-body simulations including both f (R) modified gravity and massive neutrinos. Our results indicate that velocity information provides an excellent tool to distinguish massive neutrinos from modified gravity. Models with different values of neutrino masses and modified gravity parameters possessing a comparable matter power spectrum at a given time have different growth rates. This leaves imprints in the velocity divergence, which is therefore better suited than the amplitude of density fluctuations to tell the models apart. In such models with a power spectrum comparable to ACDM today, the growth rate is strictly enhanced. We also find the velocity dispersion of virialised clusters to be well suited to constrain deviations from general relativity without being affected by the uncertainty in the sum of neutrino masses.