Power spectra in the eikonal approximation with adiabatic and nonadiabatic modes

Abstract

We use the so-called eikonal approximation, recently introduced in the context of cosmological perturbation theory, to compute power spectra for multi-component fluids. We demonstrate that, at any given order in standard perturbation theory, multipoint power spectra do not depend on the large-scale adiabatic modes. Moreover, we employ perturbation theories to decipher how nonadiabatic modes, such as a relative velocity between two different components, damp the small-scale matter power spectrum, a mechanism recently described in the literature. In particular, we do an explicit calculation at 1-loop order of this effect. While the 1-loop result eventually breaks down, we show how the damping effect can be fully captured by the help of the eikonal approximation. A relative velocity not only induces mode damping but also creates large-scale anisotropic modulations of the matter power spectrum amplitude. We illustrate this for the Local Group environment.