STFC Grant Final Report 2006-2008


The COSMOS Consortium
The Cosmic Microwave Sky and the Origin of our Universe

Final report for STFC Standard Grant PP/D001870/1

May 30, 2008

Professor SW Hawking CH FRS (PI) DAMTP, University of Cambridge
Dr RA Battye Dept. Physics, University of Manchester
Dr AD Challinor DAMTP & IoA, University of Cambridge
Dr C Contaldi Dept. Physics, Imperial College
Professor E Copeland Dept. Physics, University of Nottingham
Dr R Crittenden Cosmology Institute, University of Portsmouth
Professor GP Efstathiou FRS Inst. Astronomy, University of Cambridge
Dr PG Ferreria Dept. Physics, University of Oxford
Professor BK Gibson Astrophysics, University of Central Lancashire
Dr M Haehnelt Inst. Astronomy, University of Cambridge
Dr MB Hindmarsh Physics & Astronomy, University of Sussex
Dr MP Hobson Dept. Physics, University of Cambridge
Dr A Jaffe Dept. Physics, Imperial College
Professor A Lasenby Dept. Physics, University of Cambridge
Dr AM Lewis Inst. Astronomy, University of Cambridge
Professor A Liddle Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex
Professor R Maartens Cosmology Inst., University of Portsmouth
Professor J Magueijo Dept. Physics, Imperial College
Professor NS Manton FRS DAMTP, University of Cambridge
Professor R Nichol Cosmology Inst., University of Portsmouth
Dr W Percival Cosmology Inst., University of Portsmouth
Dr A Rajantie Dept. Physics, Imperial College
Professor M Rowan-Robinson Imperial College
Dr PM Saffin University of Nottingham
Dr EPS Shellard DAMTP, University of Cambridge
Professor PM Sutcliffe Dept. Mathematics, University of Durham
Professor NG Turok DAMTP, University of Cambridge
Dr J Weller Dept. Physics, University College London

COSMOS science goals

The COSMOS consortium provides the primary high-performance computing platform on which Particle Astrophysics (PA) research within the UK has been undertaken, yielding many important scientific advances from the exploitation of the cosmic microwave sky and other cosmological data sets and in the study of cosmological theories about the origin of the universe and its large-scale structure. The consortium currently encompasses 28 faculty members in 12 separate departments within the Universities of Cambridge, Sussex, Portsmouth, Nottingham, Central Lancashire, Durham, Manchester and Oxford, plus Imperial College and University College, London.

This final report refers to a grant PP/D001870/1 which was used to support COSMOS supercomputer operations (maintenance, hardware and running costs), as well as parallel programmer support, in the period from early 2006 until early 2008. The scientific goals of the original proposal encompassed three main areas:

This programme of research has been very successful in fulfilling these stated goals with over 100 COSMOS papers published in international journals over the period of the grant. The availability of these powerful and flexible supercomputer resources has helped ensure that the UK particle astrophysics community retains and enhances its world leadership in many areas important for STFC science strategy and experimental programmes. It is not possible to cover all the results of COSMOS research and simulations in the short report that follows, but we will note significant highlights in each broad area of research. We will also report on the vital role of the STFC funded programmer in supporting the development and implementation of key cosmology applications, and ensuring the efficient use of these heavily subscribed supercomputer resources. One significant change of use in resources was the redirection of hardware maintenance resources in the original grant towards an upgrade of the supercomputer. This is explained in the accompanying JeS form and STFC was kept fully informed of the process. Combining with further COSMOS instititutional contributions, this redirection proved highly cost-effective, greatly increasing processing power, memory, and storage while markedly improving energy efficiency. This vital COSMOS upgrade has ensured the ongoing availability of supercomputer resources for the UK PA community at a transitional time for STFC delaying HPC funding.

1 Cosmic microwave sky

CMB science exploitation

The dramatic confrontation between new observations of our Universe and theories of the early universe makes cosmology one of the most rapidly advancing fields in the physical sciences. Nowhere is this quantitative confrontation more evident than in the cosmic microwave sky and COSMOS users continue to play a leading role in this computationally intensive analysis. Published work includes novel analysis of present and past CMB data sets, increasingly sophisticated methods for cosmological parameter estimation and model selection, key constraints on a range of cosmological theories, and concerted effort in preparation for the next generation of CMB experiments, such as Planck and Clover.

Among the achievements of investigators and their groups using COSMOS resources are the following:

CMB predictions from early universe theories

The CMB has provided the clearest observational discriminants between competing primordial theories. The recent emergence of realistic cosmological models from higher-dimensional fundamental theories has demonstrated both the genericity of cosmic (super-)strings and the presence of many scalar fields. These two developments have reignited interest in cosmological areas in which COSMOS consortium members enjoy international leadership. In particular, aims achieved have included the calculation of primordial spectra for a variety of inflation and cosmic defect models, projecting these forward to predict the CMB power spectra and bispectra today and confront with observations. Recent advances building on pioneering work by COSMOS consortium members include:


PIC

Figure 1: Full-sky map simulation at Planck satellite resolution of the CMB polarization signal predicted by a non-Gaussian inflation model.


2 Matter content and large-scale structure

Galaxy surveys and dark energy

Two of the key questions on the STFC/PPAN roadmap are ‘What is the Universe made of and how does it evolve?’ and ‘How do galaxies, stars and planets form and evolve?’ Galaxy surveys attempt to address these questions by looking at the the seeds of structure in the Universe on the largest scales where it is simplest to understand. COSMOS consortium members have been exploiting galaxy surveys such as SDSS to learn more about the matter content of the Universe, as well as the primordial perturbations, while preparing for involvement in the Dark Energy Survey. Some of the recent COSMOS achievements related to surveys of the large scale galaxy distribution are:

Galaxy clusters and the Lyα forest

In order to make contact to observations of the structure in the matter distribution on small and intermediate scales it is necessary to perform advanced numerical simulations to track the non-linear evolution of the matter distribution, to model the gas-physical processes which affect the distribution and physical state of the diffuse baryonic matter component and to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies both important tracers of the overall matter distribution. Numerical simulations and statistical analysis performed on COSMOS have led to world-leading exploitation of astronomical data sets ranging from the CMB, surveys of galaxies and galaxy clusters, gravitational lensing and the Lyα forest. Recent highlights include:

3 The Early Universe

Fundamental cosmology

Fundamental cosmology covers a number of areas including cosmic string dynamics, formation and evolution of cosmic superstrings, inflation in braneworlds and other novel alternatives to inflationary cosmology. Perhaps the most significant impact made in this field through COSMOS has been in the area of cosmic superstring dynamics. Their existence has opened up a new field of research and a possible window on observing fundamental strings directly through cosmology. Among the significant advances in fundamental cosmology are:


PIC PIC

Figure 3: A snapshot of a simulation of a cosmic superstring network with junctions, modelled using a non-abelian field theory with symmetry breaking SU(2)Z3 (left). The formation of a network of abelian Type I cosmic strings with junctions, created in a thermal first-order phase transition (right).


Phase transitions and interdisciplinary studies

COSMOS has played a leading role in research into field theory for cosmology, leading to new results for cosmological phase transitions, inflationary preheating, and the baryon asymmetry. In addition, COSMOS consortium members have been engaged in interdisciplinary studies of solitons and other topological defects which have applications beyond cosmology in nuclear and condensed matter physics. We note that the interdisciplinary study of solitons have been a focal point for the EU Cosmology in the Laboratory (COSLAB) network and the PPARC/STFC-funded Classical Lattice Field Theory collaboration, in which many COSMOS consortium members have taken an active role. Recent highlights include:

New methods

The studies mentioned above are all based on quantum field dynamics in the early universe. The COSMOS consortium members have developed new innovative techniques for such studies to ensure continuing progress in future:


PIC
Figure 4: Interdisciplinary studies have included the classification of Skyrmion solutions (related to nuclear structures) and Skyrme–Fadeev knots (above).


4 Parallel Programming Specialist

Parallel programming support is vital if the consortium is to exploit its computational resources effectively and if it is to realise its ambitious research goals. With the introduction of multi-core technology in the current generation of chips, high performance applications need to be able to exploit effectively opportunities for thread and instruction level parallelism even within a single CPU if they are to achieve any performance gains when porting codes to the new machine. The long experience of the parallel programmer with mixed distributed- and shared-memory architectures, has been important to the consortium in this regard.

Here we can only mention the achievements of the present COSMOS parallel programmer, Victor Travieso, during the time of the grant. His primary role is high level support which involves detailed analysis of and parallel programming help with a continuous stream of consortium codes, with user priorities being determined at management meetings on the basis of need and scientific merit. The speed-ups and scalability achieved have proved to be remarkable for almost all codes which he has tackled in depth. As well as the high level support on specific scientific projects, the COSMOS programmer provides support across the spectrum of user requirements:

APPENDIX A. LIST OF CONSORTIUM CODES

COSMOS consortium application list

CMB Codes and Libraries






 

 

Code

Description

Core

Support

Users

 






 

galm

Monte Carlo generation of non-Gaussian primordial CMB maps

Numerical integration, FFT

Porting and OpenMP support

Liguori






 

bispectrum

CMB bi-spectrum calculations

Numerical integration

MPI Development

Fergusson






 

cmb2000

CMB analysis

ODE

Optimization and debugging

Shellard, Landriau, Battye






 

cmbfast camb

Basis for CosmoMC codes

ODE

Optimization

many users






 

cmbmap

3D Einstein Boltzmann

FFT, ODE

Debugging

Shellard, Landriau






 

cmbng

CMB non-Gaussian

FFT

Support

Kunz






 

cosmoMC

Markov Chain Monte Carlo

ODE

Optimization, porting and support

Lewis, Bridle, Weller, others






 

cosmonest

CosmoMC with nested sampling

ODE, sorting

Support

Parkinson, Mukherjee






 

healpix

CMB analysis

FFT

Porting and Optimization

Land, Bridle, Magueijo






 

integ

cmbmap post processing

array handling

Support

Landriau






 

mpole

multipole vector calculations

ODE

Support

Land






 

deconvmap

Planck deconvolution map making

matrix inversion

Support

Harrison






 

planckmem

Planck key code

variable metric minimization

Porting and Optimization

Stolyarov






 

Early Universe / Solitons






 

 

Code

Description

Core

Support

Users

 






 

ahiggs

Abelian Higgs field theory

finite diff.

Support

Shellard






 

mBranes

MCMC Brane simulations

finite diff.

Development and Support

Nicholson






 

defects

Defect simulation

finite diff.

Porting and Support

Hindmarsh






 

globalgeo

Textures simulation

ODE

Development and Optimization

Turok






 

higgsmc

Higgs field MC

finite diff.

Porting and Support

Rajantie






 

hybpar

Bosonic field evolution

finite diff.

Optimization

Rajantie






 

iilm

Finite temperature field theory

ODE

Porting and Support

Wantz






 

inf2004

nonlinear multifield stochastic inflation

ODE, FFT

Optimization and Support

Shellard, van Tent, Rigopoulos






 

latfield

lattice field evolution on topological defects

PDE,FFT

Porting and Support

Hindmarsh, Urrestilla, Saffin






 

on

field theory - global O(N) evolution

finite diff.

Support

Battye






 

osp

classical field evolution

finite diff.

MPI debugging and Support

Saffin, Tranberg






 

pd3N, pd2N

quantum operator evolution

finite diff., FFT

Porting and Optimization

Tranberg






 

preheat

cosmological preheating

PDE

Porting and Optimization

Chambers






 

sky_two

field theory, skyrmion evolution

finite diff.

Support

Battye






 

string

cosmic string networks

finite diff.

Debugging and Support

Shellard, Martins






 

su2

classical field evolution

finite diff.

Optimization and Support

Tranberg






 

walls

domain walls simulations

finite diff.

Development and Optimization

Martins






 

qball

field evolution of topological defects

PDE, FFT

Support

Tsumagari






 

Large Scale Structure, Dark Energy and Others






 

 

Code

Description

Core

Support

Users

 






 

enzo

N-body large scale formation

ODE, FFT

Porting and Support

Regan






 

gadget-2

N-body large scale structure

ODE, FFT

Porting and Optimization

Bolton, Regan, Johansson






 

lm2shape

MCMC galaxy shape estimation

ODE

Support

Bridle






 

mcAdam

maximum likelihood cluster modelling

MCMC

Porting and Support

Hobson, Feroz






 

npt

npoint correlation on SDSS catalogues

Porting and Support

Nichol and group






 

nested

nested sampler clustering

MC

Porting and Parallelization

Hobson, Feroz






 

optimcomp

MCMC

FFT, matrix decomp.

Support

Kunz, Parkinson






 

Pheno

Nested sampler

ODE, FFT

Development and Parallelization

Abdus-Salam, Hobson, Feroz






 

pico-net

Parallel Clustering Neural Networks

ODE

Porting and Support

Bridges






 

pksim

analysis of galaxy surveys

FFT

Support

Percival






 

ramses

AMR hydro solver

ODE

Support

Courty






 

APPENDIX B. COSMOS PUBLICATIONS

[1]   G. Aarts and A. Tranberg, Particle creation and warm inflation, Phys. Lett. B650, 65 2007, hep-ph/0701205.

[2]   A. Achucarro, P. Salmi, and J. Urrestilla, Semilocal Cosmic String Networks, Phys. Rev. D75, 121703 2007, astro-ph/0512487.

[3]   T. Auld, M. Bridges, and M. P. Hobson, CosmoNet: fast cosmological parameter estimation in non-flat models using neural networks, 2007, astro-ph/0703445.

[4]   T. Auld, M. Bridges, M. P. Hobson, and S. F. Gull, Fast cosmological parameter estimation using neural networks, M.N.R.A.S. 376, L11 2007, astro-ph/0608174.

[5]   T. Auld, M. Bridges, M. P. Hobson, and S. F. Gull, Fast cosmological parameter estimation using neural networks, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. Lett. 376, L11 2007, astro-ph/0608174.

[6]   P. P. Avelino, C. J. A. P. Martins, J. Menezes, R. Menezes, and J. C. R. E. Oliveira, Defect junctions and domain wall dynamics, Phys. Rev. D73, 123520 2006, hep-ph/0604250.

[7]   P. P. Avelino, C. J. A. P. Martins, and E. P. S. Shellard, Effects of Inflation on a Cosmic String Loop Population, Phys. Rev. D76, 083510 2007, 0710.2210.

[8]   A. Avgoustidis, Cosmic String Dynamics and Evolution in Warped Spacetime, 2007, 0712.3224.

[9]   A. Avgoustidis and E. P. S. Shellard, Effect of reconnection probability on cosmic (super)string network density, Phys. Rev. D73, 041301 2006, astro-ph/0512582.

[10]   R. Battye, N. S. Manton, and P. Sutcliffe, Skyrmions and the alpha-particle model of nuclei, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A463, 261 2007, hep-th/0605284.

[11]   R. Battye and P. Sutcliffe, Skyrmions with massive pions, Phys. Rev. C73, 055205 2006, hep-th/0602220.

[12]   R. A. Battye, B. Garbrecht, A. Moss, and H. Stoica, Constraints on Brane Inflation and Cosmic Strings, JCAP 0801, 020 2008, 0710.1541.

[13]   R. A. Battye and A. Moss, Scaling dynamics of domain walls in the cubic anisotropy model, Phys. Rev. D74, 023528 2006, hep-th/0605057.

[14]   N. Bevis and M. Hindmarsh, www.latfield.org.

[15]   N. Bevis, M. Hindmarsh, M. Kunz, and J. Urrestilla, CMB polarization power spectra contributions from a network of cosmic strings, Phys. Rev. D76, 043005 2007, 0704.3800.

[16]   N. Bevis, M. Hindmarsh, M. Kunz, and J. Urrestilla, CMB power spectrum contribution from cosmic strings using field-evolution simulations of the Abelian Higgs model, Phys. Rev. D75, 065015 2007, astro-ph/0605018.

[17]   N. Bevis, M. Hindmarsh, M. Kunz, and J. Urrestilla, Fitting CMB data with cosmic strings and inflation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 021301 2008, astro-ph/0702223.

[18]   J. S. Bolton and M. G. Haehnelt, A closer look at using quasar near-zones as a probe of neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium, M.N.R.A.S. 381, L35 2007, arXiv:0705.3558.

[19]   J. S. Bolton and M. G. Haehnelt, The nature and evolution of the highly ionized near-zones in the absorption spectra of z ˜= 6 quasars, M.N.R.A.S. 374, 493 2007, arXiv:astro-ph/0607331.

[20]   J. S. Bolton and M. G. Haehnelt, The observed ionization rate of the intergalactic medium and the ionizing emissivity at z 5: evidence for a photon-starved and extended epoch of reionization, M.N.R.A.S. 382, 325 2007, arXiv:astro-ph/0703306.

[21]   J. S. Bolton, M. G. Haehnelt, M. Viel, and R. F. Carswell, Spatial fluctuations in the spectral shape of the ultraviolet background at 2 < z < 3 and the reionization of helium, M.N.R.A.S. 366, 1378 2006, arXiv:astro-ph/0508201.

[22]   J. S. Bolton, M. Viel, T. S. Kim, M. G. Haehnelt, and R. F. Carswell, Possible evidence for an inverted temperature-density relation in the intergalactic medium from the flux distribution of the Lyman-alpha forest, 2007, 0711.2064.

[23]   J. S. Bolton, M. Viel, T.-S. Kim, M. G. Haehnelt, and R. F. Carswell, Possible evidence for an inverted temperature-density relation in the intergalactic medium from the flux distribution of the Lyα forest, M.N.R.A.S. 386, 1131 2008, arXiv:0711.2064.

[24]   J. S. Bolton and M. G. Haehnelt, The observed ionization rate of the intergalactic medium and the ionizing emissivity at z ¿5: Evidence for a photon starved and extended epoch of reionization, 2007, astro-ph/0703306.

[25]   S. Borsanyi and M. Hindmarsh, Semiclassical decay of topological defects, Phys. Rev. D77, 045022 2008, 0712.0300.

[26]   M. Bridges et al., Bianchi V IIh models and the cold spot texture, 2007, 0712.1789.

[27]   M. Bridges, A. N. Lasenby, and M. P. Hobson, A Bayesian analysis of the primordial power spectrum, M.N.R.A.S. 369, 1123 2006, astro-ph/0511573.

[28]   M. Bridges, A. N. Lasenby, and M. P. Hobson, A Bayesian analysis of the primordial power spectrum, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 369, 1123 2006, astro-ph/0511573.

[29]   M. Bridges, A. N. Lasenby, and M. P. Hobson, WMAP 3-year primordial power spectrum, 2006, astro-ph/0607404.

[30]   M. Bridges, J. D. McEwen, A. N. Lasenby, and M. P. Hobson, Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis of Bianchi V IIh models, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 377, 1473 2007, astro-ph/0605325.

[31]   M. Cruz, N. Turok, P. Vielva, E. Martinez-Gonzalez, and M. Hobson, A Cosmic Microwave Background feature consistent with a cosmic texture, Science 318, 1612 2007, 0710.5737.

[32]   A. Curto et al., Constraints on the non-linear coupling parameter fnl with the Archeops data, 2008, 0804.0136.

[33]   G. De Troia et al., Searching for non Gaussian signals in the BOOMERanG 2003 CMB maps, 2007, 0705.1615.

[34]   S. Dodelson and M. Liguori, Can Cosmic Structure form without Dark Matter?, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 231301 2006, astro-ph/0608602.

[35]   V. D’Odorico et al., Tomography of the intergalactic medium with Lyα forests in close QSO pairs, M.N.R.A.S. 372, 1333 2006, arXiv:astro-ph/0607672.

[36]   M. Donaire and A. Rajantie, Heavy cosmic strings, Phys. Rev. D73, 063517 2006, hep-ph/0508272.

[37]   J. J. Drake and B. Ercolano, On the Detectability of Oxygen X-ray Fluorescence and its Use as a Solar Photospheric Abundance Diagnostic, 2008, 0802.0492.

[38]   J. R. Fergusson and E. P. S. Shellard, Primordial non-Gaussianity and the CMB bispectrum, Phys. Rev. D76, 083523 2007, astro-ph/0612713.

[39]   F. Feroz and M. P. Hobson, Multimodal nested sampling: an efficient and robust alternative to MCMC methods for astronomical data analysis, 2007, 0704.3704.

[40]   G. L. Fogli et al., Neutrino mass and mixing: 2006 status, Nucl. Phys. Proc. Suppl. 168, 341 2007.

[41]   C. Gordon, K. Land, and A. Slosar, Cosmological Constraints from Type Ia Supernovae Peculiar Velocity Measurements, 2007, 0705.1718.

[42]   S. Gratton, A. Lewis, and G. Efstathiou, Prospects for Constraining Neutrino Mass Using Planck and Lyman-Alpha Forest Data, Phys. Rev. D77, 083507 2008, 0705.3100.

[43]   C. Heymans et al., The shear testing programme 1: Weak lensing analysis of simulated ground-based observations, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 368, 1323 2006, astro-ph/0506112.

[44]   C. Hikage et al., Primordial Non-Gaussianity from Minkowski Functionals of the WMAP Temperature Anisotropies, 2008, 0802.3677.

[45]   M. Hindmarsh and P. M. Saffin, Scaling in a SU(2)/Z(3) model of cosmic superstring networks, JHEP 08, 066 2006, hep-th/0605014.

[46]   M. Hindmarsh and P. Salmi, Numerical investigations of oscillons in 2 dimensions, Phys. Rev. D74, 105005 2006, hep-th/0606016.

[47]   M. Hindmarsh and P. Salmi, Oscillons and Domain Walls, 2007, 0712.0614.

[48]   L. Joukovskaya, Rolling Tachyon in Nonlocal Cosmology, AIP Conf. Proc. 957, 325 2007, 0710.0404.

[49]   L. Joukovskaya, Dynamics in Nonlocal Cosmological Models Derived from String Field Theory, Phys. Rev. D76, 105007 2007, 0707.1545.

[50]   L. Joukovskaya, Rolling Solution for Tachyon Condensation in Open String Field Theory, 2008, 0803.3484.

[51]   J. L. P. Karthauser, P. M. Saffin, and M. Hindmarsh, Cosmology with Twisted Tori, Phys. Rev. D76, 104039 2007, 0705.3789.

[52]   G. V. Kulkarni et al., The Three-Point Correlation Function of Luminous Red Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 378, 1196 2007, astro-ph/0703340.

[53]   K. Land and J. Magueijo, Template fitting and the large-angle CMB anomalies, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 367, 1714 2006, astro-ph/0509752.

[54]   K. Land and J. Magueijo, The Axis of Evil revisited, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 378, 153 2007, astro-ph/0611518.

[55]   K. Land and A. Slosar, Correlation between galactic HI and the Cosmic Microwave Background, Phys. Rev. D76, 087301 2007, 0706.1703.

[56]   M. Landriau, E. P. S. Shellard, and E. Komatsu, Fluctuations in the CMB and weak lensing induced by cosmic strings, in Proceedings of the XLIst Rencontres de Moriond: Contents and Structures of the Universe, edited by C. Magneville, R. Ansari, J. Dumarchez, and J. T. T. Vân, pp. 11–14, Th´ˆe  Giói, 2006.

[57]   J. Lesgourgues, M. Viel, M. G. Haehnelt, and R. Massey, A combined analysis of 3D weak lensing, Lyman-α forest and WMAP year three data, Journal of Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics 11, 8 2007, arXiv:0705.0533.

[58]   A. Lewis, J. Weller, and R. Battye, The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Ionization History of the Universe, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 373, 561 2006, astro-ph/0606552.

[59]   A. R. Liddle, D. Parkinson, S. M. Leach, and P. Mukherjee, The WMAP normalization of inflationary cosmologies, Phys. Rev. D74, 083512 2006, astro-ph/0607275.

[60]   J. Liske et al., Cosmic dynamics in the era of Extremely Large Telescopes, M.N.R.A.S. 386, 1192 2008, arXiv:0802.1532.

[61]   C. J. A. P. Martins and E. P. S. Shellard, Fractal properties and small-scale structure of cosmic string networks, Phys. Rev. D73, 043515 2006, astro-ph/0511792.

[62]   P. Mukherjee, D. Parkinson, and A. R. Liddle, A nested sampling algorithm for cosmological model selection, Astrophys. J. 638, L51 2006, astro-ph/0508461.

[63]   T. Naab, P. H. Johansson, J. P. Ostriker, and G. Efstathiou, Formation of Early-Type Galaxies from Cosmological Initial Conditions, Astrophys. J.658, 710 2007, arXiv:astro-ph/0512235.

[64]   A. Niarchou and A. Jaffe, Imprints of Spherical Nontrivial Topologies on the Cosmic Microwave Background, Physical Review Letters 99, 081302 2007.

[65]   R. C. Nichol et al., The Effect of Large-Scale Structure on the SDSS Galaxy Three-Point Correlation Function, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 368, 1507 2006, astro-ph/0602548.

[66]   C. Pahud, A. R. Liddle, P. Mukherjee, and D. Parkinson, Model selection forecasts for the spectral index from the Planck satellite, Phys. Rev. D73, 123524 2006, astro-ph/0605004.

[67]   A. Palazzo, D. Cumberbatch, A. Slosar, and J. Silk, Sterile neutrinos as subdominant warm dark matter, Phys. Rev. D76, 103511 2007, 0707.1495.

[68]   E. Palti, P. Saffin, and J. Urrestilla, The effects of inhomogeneities on the cosmology of type IIB conifold transitions, JHEP 03, 029 2006, hep-th/0510269.

[69]   D. Parkinson et al., Optimising baryon acoustic oscillation surveys - i: Testing the concordance lcdm cosmology, 2007, astro-ph/0702040.

[70]   D. Parkinson, P. Mukherjee, and A. R. Liddle, A Bayesian model selection analysis of WMAP3, Phys. Rev. D73, 123523 2006, astro-ph/0605003.

[71]   A. C. Peel, Mass selection bias in galaxy cluster peculiar velocities from the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 365, 1191 2006, astro-ph/0501098.

[72]   W. J. Percival et al., Measuring the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation scale using the SDSS and 2dFGRS, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 381, 1053 2007, 0705.3323.

[73]   W. J. Percival et al., Measuring the matter density using baryon oscillations in the SDSS, Astrophys. J. 657, 51 2007, astro-ph/0608635.

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