Deriving the Nonlinear Cosmological Power Spectrum and Bispectrum from Analytic Dark Matter Halo Profiles and Mass Functions

Abstract

We present an analytic model for the fully nonlinear two- and three-point correlation functions of the cosmological mass density field, and their Fourier transforms, the mass power spectrum and bispectrum. The model is based on physical properties of dark matter halos, with the three main model inputs being analytic halo density profiles, halo mass functions, and halo-halo spatial correlations, each of which has been well studied in the literature. We demonstrate that this new model can reproduce the power spectrum and bispectrum computed from cosmological simulations of both an n = -2 scale-free model and a low-density cold dark matter model. To enhance the dynamic range of these large simulations, we use the synthetic-halo replacement technique of Ma & Fry, in which the original halos with numerically softened cores are replaced by synthetic halos of realistic density profiles. At high wavenumbers, our model predicts a slope for the nonlinear power spectrum different from the often-used fitting formulas in the literature based on the stable-clustering assumption. Our model also predicts a three-point amplitude, Q, that is scale dependent, in contrast to the popular hierarchical clustering assumption. This model provides a rapid way to compute the mass power spectrum and bispectrum over all length scales where the input halo properties are valid. It also provides a physical interpretation of the clustering properties of matter in the universe.