The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - VI. Measuring Lambda and beta from redshift-space distortions in the power spectrum

When the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ) is complete, a powerful geometric te st for the cosmological constant will be available. By comparing the cluste ring along and across the line of sight and modelling the effects of peculi ar velocities and bulk motions in redshift space, geometric distortions, wh ich occur if the wrong cosmology is assumed, can be detected. In this paper we investigate the effect of geometric and redshift-space dis tortions in the power spectrum parallel and perpendicular to the observer's line of sight, P-S(k(parallel to),k(perpendicular to)). Ballinger et al. d eveloped a model to estimate the cosmological constant, Lambda, and the imp ortant parameter beta approximate to Omega (0.6)(m)/b from these distortion s. We apply this model to a detailed simulation of the final 25k 2QZ, produ ced using the Virgo Consortium's huge Hubble Volume N-body Lambda CDM (cold dark matter) light-cone simulation. We confirm the conclusions of Ballinge r et al.: the shapes of the redshift-space and geometric distortions are ve ry similar, and discriminating between the two to produce a purely geometri c constraint on Lambda is difficult. When all the uncertainties in measurin g P-S(k(parallel to),k(perpendicular to)) for the 2QZ are taken into accoun t, we find that only a joint Lambda-beta constraint is possible. By combining this result with a second constraint based on mass clustering evolution, however, we can make significant progress. We predict that this method should allow us to constrain beta to approximately +/-0.1, and Omega (m) to +/-0.25, using the final catalogue. We apply the method to the 2QZ catalogue of 10 000 quasars (QSOs) and find that this incomplete catalogue marginally favours a A cosmology, obtaining best-fitting values of beta = 0 .39(-017)(+0.18) and Omega (m) = 1 - Omega (Lambda) = 0.23(-0.13)(+0-44). H owever, Einstein-de Sitter (Omega (m) = 1.0, Omega (Lambda) = 0.0) models a re only rejected at the 1.4 sigma level in the current survey. The rejectio n of lambda-dominated (Omega (m) = 0.0, Omega (Lambda) = 1.0) models is str onger at similar to2 sigma.