Magnification and evolution biases in large-scale structure surveys

Measurements of the galaxy number density in upcoming surveys such as Euclid and the SKA will be sensitive to distortions from lensing magnification and Doppler effects, beyond the standard redshift-space distortions. The amplitude of these contributions depends sensitively on magnification bias and evolution bias in the galaxy number density. Magnification bias quantifies the change in the observed number of galaxies gained or lost by lensing magnification, while evolution bias quantifies the physical change in the galaxy number density relative to the conserved case. These biases are given by derivatives of the number density, and consequently are very sensitive to the form of the luminosity function. We give a careful derivation of the magnification and evolution biases, clarifying a number of results in the literature. We then examine the biases for a variety of surveys, encompassing optical/NIR, 21cm galaxy and 21cm intensity mapping surveys.

Reference:
Magnification and evolution biases in large-scale structure surveys, Roy MaartensJosé FonsecaStefano CameraSheean JolicoeurJan-Albert ViljoenChris Clarkson, arXiv:2107.13401