Baryon Oscillations in the Large Scale Structure

We study the possibility for an observational detection of oscillations due to baryons in the matter power spectrum and suggest a new cosmological test using the angular power spectrum of halos. The “standard rulers” of the proposed test involve overall shape of the matter power spectrum and baryon oscillation peaks in projection, as a function of redshift. Since oscillations are erased at non-linear scales, traces at redshifts greater than 1 are generally preferred. Given the decrease in number density of clusters at high redshift, however, one is forced to use tracers corresponding to galaxy groups and galaxies themselves.