Nonlinear evolution of baryon acoustic oscillations

Journal Article · Tue Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 2008 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.77.023533· OSTI ID:21035821

Crocce, Martin ^[1]; Scoccimarro, Roman ^[1]

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1. Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003 (United States)

We study the nonlinear evolution of baryon acoustic oscillations in the dark matter power spectrum and the correlation function using renormalized perturbation theory. In a previous paper we showed that renormalized perturbation theory successfully predicts the damping of acoustic oscillations; here we extend our calculation to the enhancement of power due to mode coupling. We show that mode coupling generates additional oscillations that are out of phase with those in the linear spectrum, leading to shifts in the scales of oscillation nodes defined with respect to a smooth spectrum. When Fourier transformed, these out-of-phase oscillations induce percent-level shifts in the acoustic peak of the two-point correlation function. We present predictions for these shifts as a function of redshift; these should be considered as a robust lower limit to the more realistic case that includes, in addition, redshift distortions and galaxy bias. We show that these nonlinear effects occur at very large scales, leading to a breakdown of linear theory at scales much larger than commonly thought. We discuss why virialized halo profiles are not responsible for these effects, which can be understood from basic physics of gravitational instability. Our results are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations, and can be used as a starting point for modeling baryon acoustic oscillations in future observations. To meet this end, we suggest a simple physically motivated model to correct for the shifts caused by mode coupling.

• OSTI ID: 21035821
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 77; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BARYONS
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
COUPLING
GRAVITATIONAL INSTABILITY
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PHASE OSCILLATIONS
RED SHIFT