An Improved Calculation of the Non-Gaussian Halo Mass Function

Details An Improved Calculation of the Non-Gaussian Halo Mass Function An Improved Calculation of the Non-Gaussian Halo Mass Function

2010-05-07

arxiv.org/abs/1005.1203v2

JCAP02(2011)001

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

28 pages, 13 figures; v2: text reorganized and some figured modified for clarity, results unchanged, references added. Matches

Scientific paper

10.1088/1475-7516/2011/02/001

The abundance of collapsed objects in the universe, or halo mass function, is an important theoretical tool in studying the effects of primordially generated non-Gaussianities on the large scale structure. The non-Gaussian mass function has been calculated by several authors in different ways, typically by exploiting the smallness of certain parameters which naturally appear in the calculation, to set up a perturbative expansion. We improve upon the existing results for the mass function by combining path integral methods and saddle point techniques (which have been separately applied in previous approaches). Additionally, we carefully account for the various scale dependent combinations of small parameters which appear. Some of these combinations in fact become of order unity for large mass scales and at high redshifts, and must therefore be treated non-perturbatively. Our approach allows us to do this, and to also account for multi-scale density correlations which appear in the calculation. We thus derive an accurate expression for the mass function which is based on approximations that are valid over a larger range of mass scales and redshifts than those of other authors. By tracking the terms ignored in the analysis, we estimate theoretical errors for our result and also for the results of others. We also discuss the complications introduced by the choice of smoothing filter function, which we take to be a top-hat in real space, and which leads to the dominant errors in our expression. Finally, we present a detailed comparison between the various expressions for the mass functions, exploring the accuracy and range of validity of each.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

An Improved Calculation of the Non-Gaussian Halo Mass Function does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with An Improved Calculation of the Non-Gaussian Halo Mass Function, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and An Improved Calculation of the Non-Gaussian Halo Mass Function will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-222749