Growth index of matter perturbations in the light of Dark Energy Survey
  We study how the cosmological constraints from growth data are improved by
including the measurements of bias from Dark Energy Survey (DES). In
particular, we utilize the biasing properties of the DES Luminous Red Galaxies
(LRGs) and the growth data provided by the various galaxy surveys in order to
constrain the growth index ($\gamma$) of the linear matter perturbations.
Considering a constant growth index we can put tight constraints, up to $\sim
10\%$ accuracy, on $\gamma$. Specifically, using the priors of the Dark Energy
Survey and implementing a joint likelihood procedure between theoretical
expectations and data we find that the best fit value is in between
$\gamma=0.64\pm 0.075$ and $0.65\pm 0.063$. On the other hand utilizing the
Planck priors we obtain $\gamma=0.680\pm 0.089$ and $0.690\pm 0.071$. This
shows a small but non-zero deviation from General Relativity ($\gamma_{\rm
GR}\approx 6/11$), nevertheless the confidence level is in the range $\sim
1.3-2\sigma$. Moreover, we find that the estimated mass of the dark-matter halo
in which LRGs survive lies in the interval $\sim 6.2 \times 10^{12} h^{-1}
M_{\odot}$ and $1.2 \times 10^{13} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$, for the different bias
models. Finally, allowing $\gamma$ to evolve with redshift [Taylor expansion:
$\gamma(z)=\gamma_{0}+\gamma_{1}z/(1+z)$] we find that the
$(\gamma_{0},\gamma_{1})$ parameter solution space accommodates the GR
prediction at $\sim 1.7-2.9\sigma$ levels.
