Understanding the Cosmic Mass Function High-Mass Behavior

Abstract

We claim that the discrepancy found between theoretical predictions for the cosmic mass function and those found in numerical simulations is due to the fact that in deriving the former all mass elements are assumed to be at the center of the object they belong to (the all-mass-at-center problem). By an appropriate treatment of this problem, using the spherical collapse model (which is not a bad approximation in the high mass limit), we obtain both the high mass behaviour found in simulations and the true assymptotic behaviour of the mass function (for arbitrarily high masses). Therefore, we conclude that by combining ellipsoidal dynamics with a suitable treatment of the all-mass-at-center problem (that we will show in a follow up work) a theoretical prediction for the cosmic mass function in full agreement with simulations may be obtained.