Voids in a ΛCDM universe

We study the formation and evolution of voids in the dark matter distribution using various simulations of the popular Λ cold dark matter cosmogony. We identify voids by requiring them to be regions of space with a mean overdensity of −0.8 or less – roughly the equivalent of using a spherical overdensity group finder for haloes. Each of the simulations contains thousands of voids. The distribution of void sizes in the different simulations shows good agreement when differences in particle and grid resolution are accounted for. Voids very clearly correspond to minima in the smoothed initial density field. Apart from a very weak dependence on the mass resolution, the rescaled mass profiles of voids in the different simulations agree remarkably well. We find a universal void mass profile of the form  ρ(< r )/ρ( r _eff) ∝ exp[( r / r _eff)^α]  , where r _eff is the effective radius of a void and  α∼ 2  . The mass function of haloes in voids is steeper than that of haloes that populate denser regions. In addition, the abundances of void haloes seem to evolve somewhat more strongly between redshifts ∼1 and 0 than the global abundances of haloes.     

Non-linear evolution of suppressed dark matter primordial power spectra

We address the degree and rapidity of generation of small-scale power over the course of structure formation in cosmologies where the primordial power spectrum is strongly suppressed beyond a given wavenumber. We first summarize the situations where one expects such suppressed power spectra and point out their diversity. We then employ an exponential cut-off, which characterizes warm dark matter (WDM) models, as a template for the shape of the cut-off and focus on damping scales ranging from 10⁶ to  10⁹  h ⁻¹ M_⊙  . Using high-resolution simulations, we show that the suppressed part of the power spectrum is quickly (re)generated and catches up with both the linear and the non-linear evolution of the unsuppressed power spectrum. From   z = 2  onwards, a power spectrum with a primordial cut-off at  10⁹  h ⁻¹ M_⊙  becomes virtually indistinguishable from an evolved cold dark matter (CDM) power spectrum. An attractor such as that described in Zaldarriaga, Scoccimarro & Hui for power spectra with different spectral indices also emerges in the case of truncated power spectra. Measurements of   z ∼ 0  non-linear power spectra at  ∼100  h ⁻¹ kpc  cannot rule out the possibility of linear power spectra damped below  ∼10⁹  h ⁻¹ M_⊙  . Therefore, WDM or scenarios with similar features should be difficult to exclude in this way.     

Supermassive black holes and their environments

We make use of the first high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of structure formation which self-consistently follows the build-up of supermassive black holes (BHs) introduced in Di Matteo et al. to investigate the relation between BHs, host halo and large-scale environment. There are well-defined relations between halo and BH masses and between the activities of galactic nuclei and halo masses at low redshifts. A large fraction of BHs forms anti-hierarchically, with a higher ratio of BH to halo mass at high than at low redshifts. At   z = 1  , we predict group environments (regions of enhanced local density) to contain the highest mass and most active (albeit with a large scatter) BHs while the rest of the BH population to be spread over all densities from groups to filaments and voids. Density dependencies are more pronounced at high rather than low redshift. These results are consistent with the idea that gas rich mergers are likely the main regulator of quasar activity. We find star formation to be a somewhat stronger and tighter function of local density than BH activity, indicating some difference in the triggering of the latter versus the former. There exist a large number of low-mass BHs, growing slowly predominantly through accretion, which extends all the way into the most underdense regions, that is, in voids.     

Warm dark matter versus bumpy power spectra

In this paper we explore the differences between a warm dark matter (WDM) model and a cold dark matter (CDM) model where the power on a certain scale is reduced by introducing a narrow negative feature ('dip'). This dip is placed in a way so as to mimic the loss of power in the WDM model: both models have the same integrated power out to the scale where the power of the dip model rises to the level of the unperturbed CDM spectrum again.
Using N -body simulations we show that some of the large-scale clustering patterns of this new model follow more closely the usual CDM scenario while simultaneously suppressing small-scale structures (within galactic haloes) even more efficiently than WDM. The analysis in the paper shows that the new Dip model appears to be a viable alternative to WDM, but it is based on different physics. Where WDM requires the introduction of a new particle species, the Dip model is based on a non-standard inflationary period. If we are looking for an alternative to the currently challenged standard ΛCDM structure formation scenario, neither the ΛWDM nor the new Dip model can be ruled out based on the analysis presented in this paper. They both make very similar predictions and the degeneracy between them can only be broken with observations yet to come.     

The detectability of baryonic acoustic oscillations in future galaxy surveys

We assess the detectability of baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) in the power spectrum of galaxies using ultralarge volume N -body simulations of the hierarchical clustering of dark matter and semi-analytical modelling of galaxy formation. A step-by-step illustration is given of the various effects (non-linear fluctuation growth, peculiar motions, non-linear and scale-dependent bias) which systematically change the form of the galaxy power spectrum on large scales from the simple prediction of linear perturbation theory. Using a new method to extract the scale of the oscillations, we nevertheless find that the BAO approach gives an unbiased estimate of the sound horizon scale. Sampling variance remains the dominant source of error despite the huge volume of our simulation box  (=2.41  h ⁻³ Gpc³)  . We use our results to forecast the accuracy with which forthcoming surveys will be able to measure the sound horizon scale, s , and, hence constrain the dark energy equation of state parameter, w (with simplifying assumptions and without marginalizing over the other cosmological parameters). Pan-STARRS could potentially yield a measurement with an accuracy of  Δ s / s = 0.5–0.7  per cent (corresponding to Δ w ≈ 2–3 per cent), which is competitive with the proposed WFMOS survey (  Δ s / s = 1  per cent Δ w ≈ 4 per cent). Achieving Δ w ≤ 1 per cent using BAO alone is beyond any currently commissioned project and will require an all-sky spectroscopic survey, such as would be undertaken by the SPACE mission concept under proposal to ESA.     

The universally growing mode in the solar atmosphere: coronal heating by drift waves

N -body simulations are an important tool in the study of formation of large-scale structures. Much of the progress in understanding the physics of galaxy clustering and comparison with observations would not have been possible without N -body simulations. Given the importance of this tool, it is essential to understand its limitations as ignoring these can easily lead to interesting but unreliable results. In this paper, we study the limitations due to the finite size of the simulation volume. In an earlier work, we proposed a formalism for estimating the effects of a finite box size on physical quantities and applied it to estimate the effect on the amplitude of clustering, mass function. Here, we extend the same analysis and estimate the effect on skewness and kurtosis in the perturbative regime. We also test the analytical predictions from the earlier work as well as those presented in this paper. We find good agreement between the analytical models and simulations for the two-point correlation function and skewness. We also discuss the effect of a finite box size on relative velocity statistics and find the effects for these quantities scale in a manner that retains the dependence on the averaged correlation function     .     

Precision of diffuse 21-cm lensing

We study the limits of accuracy for weak lensing maps of dark matter using diffuse 21-cm radiation from the pre-reionization epoch using simulations. We improve on previous 'optimal' quadratic lensing estimators by using shear and convergence instead of deflection angles. This is a generalization of the deflection estimator, and is more optimal for non-Gaussian sources. The cross-power spectrum of shear and convergence is an unbiased estimator of lensing power spectrum which does not require knowledge of the source four-point function. We find that non-Gaussianity provides a limit to the accuracy of weak lensing reconstruction, even if instrumental noise is reduced to zero. The best reconstruction result is equivalent to Gaussian sources with effective independent cell of side length  2.0  h ⁻¹ Mpc  . Using a source full map from z = 10 to 20, this limiting sensitivity allows mapping of dark matter at a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 1 out to l ≲ 6000, which is better than any other proposed technique for large-area weak lensing mapping.     

The three-point function in large-scale structure – I. The weakly non-linear regime in N-body simulations

This paper presents a comparison of the predictions for the two- and three-point correlation functions of density fluctuations, ξ and ζ , in gravitational perturbation theory (PT) against large cold dark matter (CDM) simulations. This comparison is made possible for the first time on large weakly non-linear scales (>10  h ⁻¹ Mpc) thanks to the development of a new algorithm for estimating correlation functions for millions of points in only a few minutes. Previous studies in the literature comparing the PT predictions of the three-point statistics with simulations have focused mostly on Fourier space, angular space or smoothed fields. Results in configuration space, such as those presented here, were limited to small scales where leading-order PT gives a poor approximation. Here we also propose and apply a method for separating the first-order and subsequent contributions to PT by combining different output times from the evolved simulations. We find that in all cases there is a regime where simulations do reproduce the leading-order (tree-level) predictions of PT for the reduced three-point function   Q ₃∼ ζ / ξ ²  . For steeply decreasing correlations (such as the standard CDM model) deviations from the tree-level results are important even at relatively large scales, ≃20 Mpc  h ⁻¹. On larger scales ξ goes to zero and the results are dominated by sampling errors. In more realistic models (such as the ΛCDM cosmology) deviations from the leading-order PT become important at smaller scales   r ≃10 Mpc  h ^-1  , although this depends on the particular three-point configuration. We characterize the range of validity of this agreement and show the behaviour of the next-order (one-loop) corrections.