Abstract
We critically examine how well the evolution of large-scale density perturbations is followed in cosmological N-body simulations. We first run a large volume simulation and perform a mode-by-mode analysis in three-dimensional Fourier space. We show that the growth of large-scale fluctuations significantly deviates from linear-theory predictions. The deviations are caused by non-linear coupling with a small number of modes at largest scales owing to finiteness of the simulation volume. We then develop an analytic model based on second-order perturbation theory to quantify the effect. Our model accurately reproduces the simulation results. For a single realization, the second-order effect appears typically as 'zig-zag' patterns around the linear-theory prediction, which imprints artificial 'oscillations' that lie on the real baryon acoustic oscillations. Although an ensemble average of a number of realizations approaches the linear-theory prediction, the dispersions of the realizations remain large even for a large simulation volume of several hundred megaparsecs on a side. For the standard Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model, the deviations from linear growth rate are as large as 10 per cent for a simulation volume with L = 500 h-1 Mpc and for a bin width in wavenumber of Δk = 0.005 h Mpc-1, which are comparable to the intrinsic variance of Gaussian random realizations. We find that the dispersions scales as α L-3/4 Δ-1/2 and the mean dispersion amplitude can be made smaller than a per cent only if we use a very large volume of L > 2h-1 Gpc. The finite box size effect needs to be appropriately taken into account when interpreting results from large-scale structure simulations for future dark energy surveys using baryon acoustic oscillations.
Recommended Citation
R. Takahashi et al., "Simulations of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations - I. Growth of Large-Scale Density Fluctuations," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 389, no. 4, pp. 1675 - 1682, Oxford University Press, Oct 2008.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13731.x
Department(s)
Physics
Keywords and Phrases
Cosmology: theory; Large-scale structure of Universe; Methods: N-body simulations
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0035-8711; 1365-2966
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2008 Oxford University Press, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Oct 2008
