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DOE OSTI2023

CODEX: Role of velocity substructure in the scaling relations of galaxy clusters

The use of galaxy clusters as cosmological probes relies on a detailed understanding of their properties. They define cluster selection and ranking linked to a cosmologically significant cluster mass function. Previous studies have employed small samples of clusters, concentrating on achieving the first calibrations of cluster properties with mass, while the diversity of cluster properties has been revealed via detailed studies. The large spectroscopic follow-up on the CODEX cluster sample with SDSS and NOT enables a detailed study of hundreds of clusters, lifting the limitations of previous samples. We aim to update the spectroscopic cluster identification of CODEX by running the spectroscopic group finder on the follow-up spectroscopy results and connecting the dynamical state of clusters to their scaling relations. We implemented a reproducible spectroscopic membership determination and cleaning procedures, based on the redMaPPer membership, running the spectroscopic group finder on the follow-up spectroscopy results and cleaning the membership for spectroscopic outliers. We applied the Anderson-Darling test for velocity substructure and analysed its influence on the scaling relations. We also tested the effect of the X-ray-to-optical centre offset on the scaling relations. We report on the scaling relations between richness, X-ray luminosity, and velocity dispersion for a complete sample of clusters with at least 15 members. Clusters with velocity substructure exhibit enhanced velocity dispersion for a given richness and are characterized by 2.5 times larger scatter. Clusters that have a strong offset in X-ray-to-optical centres have comparable scaling relations as clusters with substructure. We demonstrate that there is a consistency in the parameters of the scaling relations for the low- and high-richness galaxy clusters. Splitting the clusters by redshift, we note a decrease in scatter with redshift in all scaling relations. We localize the redshift range where a high scatter is observed to z < 0.15, which is in agreement with the literature results on the scatter. We note that the increase in scatter for both high- and low-luminosity clusters is z < 0.15, suggesting that both cooling and the resulting active galactic nucleus feedback are at the root of this scatter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Constraining the galaxy-halo connection of infrared-selected unWISE galaxies with galaxy clustering and galaxy-CMB lensing power spectra

We present the first detailed analysis of the connection between galaxies and their dark matter halos for the unWISE galaxy catalog—a full-sky, infrared-selected sample built from WISE data, containing over 500 million galaxies. Using unWISE galaxy-galaxy autocorrelation and Planck CMB lensing-galaxy cross-correlation measurements down to 10 arcmin angular scales, we constrain the halo occupation distribution (HOD), a model describing how central and satellite galaxies are distributed within dark matter halos, for three unWISE galaxy samples at mean redshifts z ¯ ≈ 0.6 , 1.1, and 1.5, assuming a fixed cosmology at the best-fit Planck Λ CDM values. We constrain the characteristic minimum halo mass to host a central galaxy, M min HOD = 1.8 3 - 1.63 + 0.41 × 10 12 M ⊙ / h , 5.22 - 4.80 + 0.34 × 10 12 M ⊙ / h , 6.60 - 1.11 + 0.30 × 10 13 M ⊙ / h and the mass scale at which one satellite galaxy per halo is found, M 1 ' = 1.1 3 - 0.70 + 0.32 × 10 13 M ⊙ / h , 1.18 - 1.11 + 0.30 × 10 13 M ⊙ / h , 1.23 - 1.17 + 0.14 × 10 14 M ⊙ / h for the unWISE samples at z ¯ ≈ 0.6 , 1.1, and 1.5, respectively. We find that all three samples are dominated by central galaxies, rather than satellites. Using our constrained HOD models, we infer the effective linear galaxy bias for each unWISE sample, and find that it does not evolve as steeply with redshift as found in previous perturbation-theory-based analyses of these galaxies. We discuss possible sources of systematic uncertainty in our results, the most significant of which is the uncertainty on the galaxy redshift distribution. Our HOD constraints provide a detailed, quantitative understanding of how the unWISE galaxies populate the underlying dark matter halo distribution. These constraints will have a direct impact on future studies employing the unWISE galaxies as a cosmological and astrophysical probe, including measurements of ionized gas thermodynamics and dark matter profiles via Sunyaev-Zel’dovich and lensing cross-correlations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

ODIN: Characterizing the Three-dimensional Structure of Two Protocluster Complexes at z = 3.1

We present a detailed study of the 3D morphology of two extended associations of multiple protoclusters at z = 3.1. These protocluster "complexes," designated COSMOS-z3.1-A and COSMOS-z3.1-C, are the most prominent overdensities of z = 3.1 Lyα emitters (LAEs) identified in the COSMOS field by the One-hundred-deg$^{2}$ DECam Imaging in Narrowbands survey. These protocluster complexes have been followed up with extensive spectroscopy from Keck, Gemini, and DESI. Using a probabilistic method that combines photometrically selected and spectroscopically confirmed LAEs, we reconstruct the 3D structure of these complexes on scales of ≈50 cMpc. We validate our reconstruction method using the IllustrisTNG300-1 cosmological hydrodynamical simulation and show that it consistently outperforms approaches relying solely on spectroscopic data. The resulting 3D maps reveal that both complexes are irregular and elongated along a single axis, emphasizing the impact of sightline on our perception of structure morphology. The complexes consist of multiple density peaks, 10 in COSMOS-z3.1-A and 4 in COSMOS-z3.1-C. The former is confirmed to be a proto-supercluster, similar to Hyperion at z = 2.4 but observed at an even earlier epoch. Multiple "tails" connected to the cores of the density peaks are seen, likely representing cosmic filaments feeding into these extremely overdense regions. The 3D reconstructions further provide strong evidence that Lyα blobs preferentially reside in the outskirts of the highest density regions. Descendant mass estimates of the density peaks suggest that COSMOS-z3.1-A and COSMOS-z3.1-C will evolve to become ultramassive structures by z = 0, with total masses log ( M / M ,⊙ ,) ≳ 15.3 , exceeding that of Coma.

Ramakrishnan, Vandana [Purdue U., West Lafayette] ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Weak gravity conjecture

The weak gravity conjecture holds that in a theory of quantum gravity any gauge force must mediate interactions stronger than gravity for some particles. This statement has surprisingly deep and extensive connections to many different areas of physics and mathematics. Several variations on the basic conjecture have been proposed, including statements that are much stronger but are nonetheless satisfied by all known consistent quantum gravity theories. These related conjectures and the evidence for their validity in the string theory landscape are reviewed. Also reviewed here are a variety of arguments for these conjectures, which tend to fall into two categories: qualitative arguments that claim the conjecture is plausible based on general principles and quantitative arguments for various special cases or analogs of the conjecture. The implications of these conjectures for particle physics, cosmology, general relativity, and mathematics are also outlined. Finally, important directions for future research are highlighted.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

H α emission in local galaxies: star formation, time variability, and the diffuse ionized gas

ABSTRACT The nebular recombination line H α is widely used as a star formation rate (SFR) indicator in the local and high-redshift Universe. We present a detailed H α radiative transfer study of high-resolution isolated Milky-Way and Large Magellanic Cloud simulations that include radiative transfer, non-equilibrium thermochemistry, and dust evolution. We focus on the spatial morphology and temporal variability of the H α emission, and its connection to the underlying gas and star formation properties. The H α and H β radial and vertical surface brightness profiles are in excellent agreement with observations of nearby galaxies. We find that the fraction of H α emission from collisional excitation amounts to fcol ∼ 5–$10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, only weakly dependent on radius and vertical height, and that scattering boosts the H α luminosity by $\sim 40{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. The dust correction via the Balmer decrement works well (intrinsic H α emission recoverable within 25 per cent), though the dust attenuation law depends on the amount of attenuation itself both on spatially resolved and integrated scales. Important for the understanding of the H α–SFR connection is the dust and helium absorption of ionizing radiation (Lyman continuum [LyC] photons), which are about $f_{\rm abs}\approx 28{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ and $f_{\rm He}\approx 9{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, respectively. Together with an escape fraction of $f_{\rm esc}\approx 6{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, this reduces the available budget for hydrogen line emission by nearly half ($f_{\rm H}\approx 57{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$). We discuss the impact of the diffuse ionized gas, showing – among other things – that the extraplanar H α emission is powered by LyC photons escaping the disc. Future applications of this framework to cosmological (zoom-in) simulations will assist in the interpretation of spectroscopy of high-redshift galaxies with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Dark Matter Constraints from a Unified Analysis of Strong Gravitational Lenses and Milky Way Satellite Galaxies

Joint analyses of small-scale cosmological structure probes have been relatively unexplored yet promise to advance measurements of microphysical dark matter properties using heterogeneous data. Here, we present a multidimensional analysis of dark matter substructure using strong gravitational lenses and the Milky Way (MW) satellite galaxy population, accounting for degeneracies in model predictions and using covariances in the constraining power of these individual probes for the first time. We simultaneously infer the projected subhalo number density and the half-mode mass describing the suppression of the subhalo mass function in thermal relic warm dark matter (WDM), $M_{\mathrm{hm}}$, using the semianalytic model \texttt{Galacticus} to connect the subhalo population inferred from MW satellite observations to the strong lensing host halo mass and redshift regime. Combining MW satellite and strong lensing posteriors in this parameter space yields $M_{\mathrm{hm}}<10^{7.0}\ M_{\mathrm{\odot}}$ (WDM particle mass $m_{\mathrm{WDM}}>9.7\ \mathrm{keV}$) at $95\%$ confidence and disfavors $M_{\mathrm{hm}}=10^{7.4}\ M_{\mathrm{\odot}}$ ($m_{\mathrm{WDM}}=7.4\ \mathrm{keV}$) with a 20:1 marginal likelihood ratio, improving limits on $m_{\mathrm{WDM}}$ set by the two methods independently by $\sim 30\%$. These results are marginalized over the line-of-sight contribution to the strong lensing signal, the mass of the MW host halo, and the efficiency of subhalo disruption due to baryons and are robust to differences in the disruption efficiency between the MW and strong lensing regimes at the $\sim 10\%$ level. This work paves the way for unified analyses of next-generation small-scale structure measurements covering a wide range of scales and redshifts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cosmic Reionization on Computers: Statistics, Physical Properties, and Environments of Lyman Limit Systems at z ~ 6

Lyman limit systems (LLSs) are dense hydrogen clouds with high enough H i column densities to absorb Lyman continuum photons emitted from distant quasars. Their high column densities imply an origin in dense environments; however, the statistics and distribution of LLSs at high redshifts still remain uncertain. In this paper, we use self-consistent radiative transfer cosmological simulations from the Cosmic Reionization on Computers (CROC) project to study the physical properties of LLSs at the tail end of cosmic reionization at z ~ 6. We generate 3000 synthetic quasar sight lines to obtain a large number of LLS samples in the simulations. In addition, with the high physical fidelity and resolution of CROC, we are able to quantify the association between these LLS samples and nearby galaxies. Our results show that the fraction of LLSs spatially associated with nearby galaxies increases with H i column density. Moreover, we find that LLSs that are not near any galaxy typically reside in filamentary structures connecting neighboring galaxies in the intergalactic medium (IGM). This quantification of the distribution and association of LLSs to large-scale structure informs our understanding of the IGM–galaxy connection during the "Epoch of Reionization," and provides a theoretical basis for interpreting future observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Merger Response of Halo Anisotropy Properties

Anisotropy properties—halo spin, shape, position offset, velocity offset, and orientation—are an important family of dark matter halo properties that indicate the level of directional variation of the internal structures of halos. These properties reflect the dynamical state of halos, which in turn depends on the mass assembly history. In this work, we study the evolution of anisotropy properties in response to merger activity using the IllustrisTNG simulations. We find that the response trajectories of the anisotropy properties significantly deviate from secular evolution. These trajectories have the same qualitative features and timescales across a wide range of merger and host properties. We propose explanations for the behavior of these properties and connect their evolution to the relevant stages of merger dynamics. We measure the relevant dynamical timescales. We also explore the dependence of the strength of the response on time of merger, merger ratio, and mass of the main halo. These results provide insight into the physics of halo mergers and their effects on the statistical behavior of halo properties. This study paves the way toward a physical understanding of scaling relations, particularly to how systematics in their scatter are connected to the mass assembly histories of halos.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Forecasting the Ly-𝛼 forest × CMB lensing bispectrum from ACT, SO, S4, and DESI

We forecast the sensitivity of future correlations between cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing and the Lyman-𝛼 forest power spectrum. This squeezed-limit bispectrum probes the connection between the Lyman-𝛼 transmission and the underlying large-scale matter density field. We recover the measured signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio obtained with Planck × BOSS, and forecast a SNR of 10.3, 14.8 and 20.2 for DESI combined with ACT, SO, and CMB-S4, respectively. For DESI and SO/CMB-S4, the correlation should be detectable at SNR ≥ 5 in 5 redshift bins, useful for distinguishing our signal from several contaminants. Indeed, our forecast is affected by large theoretical uncertainties in the current modeling of the signal and its contaminants, such as continuum misestimation bias or damped-Lyman-𝛼 absorbers. Quantifying these more accurately will be crucial to enable a reliable cosmological interpretation of this observable in future measurements. We attempt to enumerate the features required in future Lyman-𝛼 forest simulations required to do so.

Cosmic microwave background↗
DOE OSTI2024

Signatures of rotating black holes in quantum superposition

A new approach for operationally studying the effects of spacetime in quantum superpositions of semiclassical states has recently been proposed by some of the authors. This approach was applied to the case of a (2+1)-dimensional Bañados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole in a superposition of masses, where it was shown that a two-level system interacting with a quantum field residing in the spacetime exhibits resonant peaks in its response at certain values of the superposed masses. Here, we extend this analysis to a mass-superposed rotating BTZ black hole, considering the case where the two-level system corotates with the black hole in a superposition of trajectories. We find similar resonances in the detector response function at rational ratios of the superposed outer horizon radii, specifically in the case where the ratio of the inner and outer horizons is fixed. This suggests a connection with Bekenstein’s seminal conjecture concerning the discrete horizon spectra of black holes in quantum gravity, generalized to the case of rotating black holes. Here, our results further indicate that deeper insights into quantum-gravitational phenomena may be accessible via tools in relativistic quantum information and curved spacetime quantum field theory.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Differentiable stochastic halo occupation distribution

ABSTRACT In this work, we demonstrate how differentiable stochastic sampling techniques developed in the context of deep reinforcement learning can be used to perform efficient parameter inference over stochastic, simulation-based, forward models. As a particular example, we focus on the problem of estimating parameters of halo occupation distribution (HOD) models that are used to connect galaxies with their dark matter haloes. Using a combination of continuous relaxation and gradient re-parametrization techniques, we can obtain well-defined gradients with respect to HOD parameters through discrete galaxy catalogue realizations. Having access to these gradients allows us to leverage efficient sampling schemes, such as Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, and greatly speed up parameter inference. We demonstrate our technique on a mock galaxy catalogue generated from the Bolshoi simulation using a standard HOD model and find near-identical posteriors as standard Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques with an increase of ∼8× in convergence efficiency. Our differentiable HOD model also has broad applications in full forward model approaches to cosmic structure and cosmological analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Velocity reconstruction in the era of DESI and Rubin/LSST. I. Exploring spectroscopic, photometric, and hybrid samples

Peculiar velocities of galaxies and halos can be reconstructed from their spatial distribution alone. This technique is analogous to the baryon acoustic oscillations reconstruction, using the continuity equation to connect density and velocity fields. The resulting reconstructed velocities can be used to measure imprints of galaxy velocities on the cosmic microwave background like the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect or the moving lens effect. As the precision of these measurements increases, characterizing the performance of the velocity reconstruction becomes crucial to allow unbiased and statistically optimal inference. In this paper, we quantify the relevant performance metrics: the variance of the reconstructed velocities and their correlation coefficient with the true velocities. We show that the relevant velocities to reconstruct for kSZ and moving lens are actually the halo—rather than galaxy—velocities. We quantify the impact of redshift-space distortions, photometric redshift errors, satellite galaxy fraction, incorrect cosmological parameter assumptions and smoothing scale on the reconstruction performance. Here, we also investigate hybrid reconstruction methods, where velocities inferred from spectroscopic samples are evaluated at the positions of denser photometric samples. We find that using exclusively the photometric sample is better than performing a hybrid analysis. The 2 Gpc/ℎ length simulations from abacussummit with realistic galaxy samples for DESI and Rubin LSST allow us to perform this analysis in a controlled setting. In the companion paper [B. Hadzhiyska, S. Ferraro, B. Ried Guachalla, and E. Schaan, companion paper, Phys. Rev. D 109, 103534 (2024).], we further include the effects of evolution along the light cone and give realistic performance estimates for DESI luminous red galaxies, emission line galaxies, and Rubin LSST-like samples.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

DESC DC2 Data Release Note

In preparation for cosmological analyses of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (LSST DESC) has created a 300 deg$^2$ simulated survey as part of an effort called Data Challenge 2 (DC2). The DC2 simulated sky survey, in six optical bands with observations following a reference LSST observing cadence, was processed with the LSST Science Pipelines (19.0.0). In this Note, we describe the public data release of the resulting object catalogs for the coadded images of five years of simulated observations along with associated truth catalogs. We include a brief description of the major features of the available data sets. To enable convenient access to the data products, we have developed a web portal connected to Globus data services. We describe how to access the data and provide example Jupyter Notebooks in Python to aid first interactions with the data. We welcome feedback and questions about the data release via a GitHub repository.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

BCG alignment with the locations of cluster members and the large-scale structure out to 10 R 200

Using a sample of >200 clusters, each with typically 100–200 spectroscopically confirmed cluster members, we search for a signal of alignment between the position angle (PA) of the Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) and the distribution of cluster members on the sky about the cluster centre out to projected distances of 3 R 200 . The deep spectroscopy, combined with corrections for spectroscopic incompleteness, makes our sample ideal to determine alignment signal strengths. We also use an SDSS based skeleton of the filamentary large-scale structure (LSS), and measure BCG alignment with the location of the LSS skeleton segments on the sky out to projected distances of 10 R 200 . The alignment signal is measured using three separate statistical measures; Rao’s spacing test (U), Kuiper’s V parameter (V), and the Binomial probability test (P). The significance of the BCG alignment signal with both cluster members and LSS segments is extremely high (1 in a million chance or less to be drawn randomly from a uniform distribution). We investigate a wide set of parameters that may influence the strength of the alignment signal. Clusters with more elliptical-shaped BCGs show stronger alignment with both their cluster members and LSS segments. Also, selecting clusters with closely connected filaments, or using a luminosity-weighted LSS skeleton, increases the alignment signal significantly. Alignment strength decreases with increasing projected distance. Combined, these results provide strong evidence for the growth of clusters and their BCGs by preferential feeding along the direction of the filaments in which they are embedded.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dark Matter Production during Warm Inflation via Freeze-In

We present a novel perspective on the role of inflation in the production of dark matter (DM). Specifically, we explore the DM production during warm inflation via ultraviolet freeze-in (WIFI). We demonstrate that in a warm inflation (WI) setting the persistent thermal bath, sustained by the dissipative interactions with the inflaton field, can source a sizable DM abundance via the nonrenormalizable interactions that connect the DM with the bath. Compared to the (conventional) radiation-dominated (RD) UV freeze-in scenario for the same reheat temperature (after inflation), the resulting DM yield in WIFI is always enhanced showing a strongly positive dependence on the mass dimension of the nonrenormalizable operator. Of particular interest, for a sufficiently large mass dimension of the operator, the entirety of the DM abundance of the Universe can be created during the inflationary phase. For the specific models we study, we find that the enhancement in DM yield, relative to RD UV freeze-in, is at least an order of magnitude for an operator of mass dimension 5, and as large as 18 orders of magnitude for an operator of mass dimension 10. Our findings also suggest a broader applicability for producing other cosmological relics, which may have a substantial impact on the evolution of the early Universe. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Freese, Katherine↗
DOE OSTI2026

Testing Scale-Dependent Modified Gravity with DESI DR1

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) provides an unprecedented opportunity to test deviations from general relativity (GR) that introduce a new physical scale within its redshift range. Using the connection between a Yukawa-like potential and the Hu-Sawicki $f(R)$ model, we place strong constraints on the range of a hypothetical fifth force mediated by a massive scalar field. We analyze the power spectrum measurements from DESI Data Release 1 using a baseline EFT model that employs the fkpt approach for the loop integrals. We find no evidence for deviations from GR and obtain the constraint $\log_{10} |f_{R_0}| < -4.59$ (95% C.L.). This corresponds to an upper bound at redshift zero on the scale at which corrections to GR become important, $λ< 17.81$ Mpc, or equivalently, a lower bound on the mass of the additional gravitational mediator of $m_ϕ> 3.60 \times 10^{-31}$ eV. We find that the modified gravity parameter $f_{R_0}$ is largely orthogonal to the cosmological parameters in the model, such that no additional projection effects relative to the GR case are introduced in this Full-Shape analysis. Furthermore, a second modified gravity parameter, the power index $n$, which modulates the time-variation of the associated mass, is found to be consistent with previous analyses that fixed it to unity. Adding DESI BAO data or other cosmological probes does not significantly change these results. The conclusions remain similar if the background evolution is described by evolving dark energy instead of a cosmological constant. Additionally, we test the robustness of the baseline model by varying the maximum wavenumber used in the Full-Shape analysis and analyzing the DESI targets separately. Finally, we analyze the degeneracies between the modified-gravity parameters and the sum of neutrino masses.

Gonzalez, D. [Guanajuato U.; UNAM, CCF] (ORCID:000↗
DOE OSTI2026

On the Properties of Cosmological Ionization Fronts

We investigate the properties of cosmological ionization fronts during the epoch of reionization using the Cosmic Reionization on Computers simulations. By analyzing reionization timing maps, we characterize ionization front velocities and curvatures and their dependence on the density structure of the intergalactic medium (IGM). The velocity distribution of ionization fronts in the simulations indicates that while the barrier-crossing analytical model captures the overall shape in high-velocity regions, it fails to reproduce the low-velocity tail, highlighting the non-Gaussian nature of the IGM’s density field. Ionization front velocities are inversely correlated with local density, propagating faster in underdense regions and more slowly in overdense environments. Faster ionization fronts also lead to higher postionization temperatures, reaching a plateau at ∼2 × 10$^{4}$ K for velocities exceeding 3000 km s$^{−1}$. Examining curvature statistics further establishes a connection between ionization front structure and the normalized density contrast ν, with trends in overdense regions aligning well with barrier-crossing model predictions, while deviations appear in underdense environments due to model limitations. These results provide a detailed characterization of ionization front dynamics and their interaction with the underlying density field, bridging small-scale reionization physics with large-scale observables such as the 21 cm signal and the IGM’s thermal history.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Amortized simulation-based frequentist inference for tractable and intractable likelihoods

Abstract High-fidelity simulators that connect theoretical models with observations are indispensable tools in many sciences. If the likelihood is known, inference can proceed using standard techniques. However, when the likelihood is intractable or unknown, a simulator makes it possible to infer the parameters of a theoretical model directly from real and simulated observations when coupled with machine learning. We introduce an extension of the recently proposed likelihood-free frequentist inference ( LF2I ) approach that makes it possible to construct confidence sets with the p -value function and to use the same function to check the coverage explicitly at any given parameter point. Like LF2I , this extension yields provably valid confidence sets in parameter inference problems for which a high-fidelity simulator is available. The utility of our algorithm is illustrated by applying it to three pedagogically interesting examples: the first is from cosmology, the second from high-energy physics and astronomy, both with tractable likelihoods, while the third, with an intractable likelihood, is from epidemiology 3 3 Code to reproduce all of our results is available on https://github.com/AliAlkadhim/ALFFI . .

Computer Science↗