Imprint of f(R) gravity in the cosmic magnification

Abstract: f(R) gravity is one of the simplest viable modifications to General Relativity: it passes local astrophysical tests, predicts both the early-time cosmic inflation and the late-time cosmic acceleration, and also describes dark matter. In this paper, we probe cosmic magnification on large scales in f(R) gravity, using the well-known Hu-Sawicki model as an example. Our results indicate that at redshifts z < 3, values of the model exponent n > 1 lead to inconsistent behaviour in the evolution of scalar perturbations. Moreover, when relativistic effects are taken into account in the large scale analysis, our results show that as z increases, large-scale changes in the cosmic magnification angular power spectrum owing to integral values of n tend to share a similar pattern, while those of decimal values tend to share another. This feature could be searched for in the experimental data, as a potential "smoking gun" for the given class of gravity models. Furthermore, we found that at z = 1 and lower, relativistic effects lead to a suppression of the cosmic magnification on large scales in f(R) gravity, relative to the concordance model; whereas, at z > 1, relativistic effects lead to a relative boost of the cosmic magnification. In general, relativistic effects enhance the potential of the cosmic magnification as a cosmological probe.