Non‐Gaussianity of the Cosmic Baryon Fluid: Log‐Poisson Hierarchy Model

Abstract

In the nonlinear regime of cosmic clustering, the mass density field of the cosmic baryon fluid is highly non-Gaussian. It shows different dynamical behavior from collisionless dark matter. Nevertheless, the evolved field of the baryon fluid is scale-covariant in the range from the Jeans length to a few tens of h−1 Mpc, within which the dynamical equations and initial perturbations are scale free. We show that in the scale-free range, the non-Gaussian features of the cosmic baryon fluid, governed by the Navier-Stokes equation in an expanding universe, can be well described by a log-Poisson hierarchical cascade. The log-Poisson scheme is a random multiplicative process (RMP), which causes non-Gaussianity and intermittency even when the original field is Gaussian. The log-Poisson RMP contains two dimensionless parameters: β for the intermittency and γ for the most singular structure. All the predictions given by the log-Poisson RMP model, including the hierarchical relation, the order dependence of the intermittent exponent, the moments, and the scale-scale correlation, are in good agreement with the results given by hydrodynamic simulations of the standard cold dark matter model. The intermittent parameter β decreases slightly at low redshift and indicates that the density field of the baryon fluid contains more singular structures at lower redshifts. The applicability of the model is addressed.