Discussion of the article: Non-Linear Matter Power

Spectrum Modeling in Interacting Dark Energy

Cosmologies
Prof. Matheus Mello
email: [email protected]
16 de abril de 2024

1 Comments on the summary

• Understanding the power spectrum behavior of matter on non-linear scales beyond the Λ
CDM model is crucial to accurately predicting the large-scale structure of the Universe
in non-standard cosmologies.

• In this work, an analysis of the power spectrum of nonlinear matter was presented within
the scope of cosmologies with interaction between dark energy and dark matter.

• N-body simulations and theoretical models were used to investigate the impact of inte-
raction models on nonlinear scales.

• They started with N-body simulations with a fixed parameter space delineated by observa-
tional research, fitted the simulated spectra with a simple parametric function, achieving
accuracy within 5%.

• Subsequently, they refined a modified halo model adapted to an interaction cosmology

exhibiting good accuracy in fitting the simulations on scales of approximately 1h/Mpc.

• To analyze the robustness of the model, they carried out a prediction analysis for the
Euclides research using the interaction model.

• They discovered that the coupling parameter ξ was restricted to σ(ξ) = 0.0046

• They signaled that this marks a significant improvement by an order of magnitude com-
pared to any other current observational test documented in the literature.

• The authors state that these primary findings paved the way for a new preliminary ap-
proach, enabling the use of interaction models for observational constraints on large-scale
structure data at nonlinear levels.

2 Comments on the introduction

• The authors discuss the role of dark energy in the current model, as a cosmological
constant it drives the accelerated expansion of the universe. Its existence is strengthened
by various observational evidence, Supernovas, CMB, LSS, Gravitational Lensing, among
others.

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 • They signal that recently some tensions and anomalies have emerged as statistically sig-
nificant when analyzing different data sets. The most notable ones are in the values of
H0 with significance greater than 5σ and S8 with statistical tension between 2 − 3σ.

• These tensions strengthen the need for the introduction of new physics beyond the stan-
dard cosmological model. To resolve these tensions, a possible cosmological model is the
Interaction between dark energy and dark matter (IDE).

• At the intersection of various cosmic phenomena, especially at the level of LSS observa-
tions, lies the power spectrum of matter, an essential cosmology tool for unraveling the
interplay between cosmological parameters and the emergence of large-scale structure.

• The power spectrum is a quantity through which we can analyze the past of the universe
and reveal the traces of primordial fluctuations, the gravitational dynamics of dark matter,
and the nature of dark energy.

• The nonlinear power spectrum plays a fundamental role in LSS research because it pro-
vides information about the complex and dynamic behavior of cosmic structures and is a
bridge between theoretical predictions and observational data.

• Modeling non-linear regimes in non-standard cosmologies is not easy, some methodologies

were used in this article to assist the authors in this task, such as: the Effective Field
Theory of large-scale structures, Halo models and emulators trained using simulation data
of N-bodies.

• The authors’ main objective was to create a nonlinear P (k) model in the presence of a
DE-DM interaction. To do this, they performed a series of N-body gravity simulations
and developed these perspectives in two ways (IDE-1 and IDE-2)

• To obtain IDE-1, the authors first captured the ratio R(k) = PN L (k)/Plinear (k) up to
non-linear scales and found a reliable analytical modeling for the function R(k) up to
scales where k ≤ 1h/M pc.

• To obtain IDE-2 they modified and proposed a new P (k) Halo model that can fit the
simulation data.

• In the end, the authors applied the models obtained in a Euclid Survey prediction analysis
and demonstrated that it will have a strong sensitivity to constrain the DM-DE coupling,
making it a crucial probe for this class of cosmological models.

3 Comments on section II
• The authors used a spatially flat FLRW metric. They introduced a phenomenological
parameterization for the DM-DE interaction so that the individual voltage-energy tensors
are not conserved but their sum is. Eqs.(1) and (2)

• They used an interaction like Q = ξHρx where ξ represents the dimensionless parameter
that governs the strength of the interaction between DM and DE.

• The differential equations for the energy densities of dark matter and dark energy were
written in this model. (Zero term of the covariant derivative of the energy moment tensor
of both) Eqs. (3) and (4)

• By solving the differential equations, equations (5) and (6) were obtained.

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 • The expression for the Hubble parameter used is that of Eq.(7). We should note that
they consider radiation, baryonic matter, dark matter and dark energy. Working in
the Newtonian gauge, the coupled system of linear Einstein-Boltzmann equations were
written (8) and (9). The differential equations of the evolution of dark matter density
perturbations and dark matter velocity divergence.

• The authors point out that Euler’s equation remained the same as that of the ΛCDM
model, which indicates that there is no fifth force in this model. The authors neglected
the formation of dark energy clusters.

• In the simulation regime N-body Newtonians that we are focused on modeling, the DE
clustering does not significantly impact the power spectrum of matter

• Figure 1 illustrates the relative difference in P (k, z = 0) with and without DE grouping
effects. Consequently, we can infer that disturbances due to DE can be considered insig-
nificant. The results were obtained using a customized version of the CLASS code, which
integrates the FDI model developed in this study.

• As the DE clusters can be neglected the Poisson equation remains unchanged as in (10)
the authors focused on the sub-horizon, where relativistic effects can be neglected.

• They introduced the linear growth function concept in (10) and derived the ODE for linear
growth in (11) and (12). Where the line represents the derivative of the magnitude in
relation to the natural logarithm of the scale factor. This equation was used in the N-body
simulations as it guarantees the accurate implementation of the Zel’dovich approximation.

• Figure 2 illustrates the variation of the growth factor with redshift z. It is apparent
that as the value of ξ changes, notable differences in the amplitudes of the curves arise,
particularly at lower redshifts.

• However, as redshift values increase, the curves gradually converge asymptotically. This
trend indicates that the interaction between DM and DE significantly influences the
structures at lower redshifts, while at higher z the effects diminish.

4 Comments from section III

• The authors used the PWMD code to perform the N-body simulation.

• The N-body particles discretize the uniform distribution of matter at the beginning of
cosmic history into their Lagrangian positions q, from which they then evolve by displa-
cements s to their later positions x = q + s(q)

• The authors calculated the positions and initial positions using second-order Lagrangian
perturbation theory (2LPT). Thus writing equations (13)

• Using reference [106] from the article, the authors calculated the suppression factors in the
research (14). Equations (15),(16) and (17) are derived in relation to the logarithm of the
scale factor. Replacing m = 1 the authors wrote equations (18,19 and 20). Substituting
these equations in the definition of growth factor for the proposed IDE model obtained
the discovery (21).

• The authors substitute m = 2 and perform the same procedure to obtain equations
(22-25)

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• In the cosmological consensus, the overdensity field is a homogeneous and isotropic Gaus-
sian random field characterized by the linear power spectrum of matter as written in
equation (26). Where V is a periodic box. We can calculate the linear contrast by cal-
culating each Fourier mode independently as in equation (27) where ω(k) is the Fourier
transform of a white noise field real ω(q).

• The input cosmological linear power spectrum can be written as in equation (28) where
D is the linear growth equation, T is the transfer function, As is the amplitude of the
primordial power spectrum defined in some fixed-scale kpivot , and ns describes the shape of
the spectrum primordial power. In summary, it is necessary to discretize the white noise
modes ω and solve the growth and transfer functions that depend on a set of cosmological
parameters. (pg.5)

• The authors used 2563 for the number of particles in the simulation and a 5123 mesh in
a (256M pc/h)3 box for 63 time steps, from a = 1/64 to a = 1.

• To test the structure for the IDE model in N-body simulations, three scenarios were
considered: the model ΛCDM of Planck-CMB best-fit values and, based on recent LSS
analysis [108] in the IDE context, two different input baselines for IDE.

• The size of the box mainly affects the large-scale power spectrum caused by cosmic va-
riance, and they were interested in modeling P (k) on small scales. The authors applied
smoothing with a Gaussian filter to reduce noise in the figures.

• They assumed a deviation of σ = 2.5 for Gaussian Kernels in all simulations. For the
three scenarios, ΛCDM, IDE-01 and IDE-02, the authors evaluated the nonlinear power
spectrum, P(k), at z = 0. For other values of z, the form of P(k) remains unchanged; it
just goes through a simple amplitude resizing.

• To quantify their results, the authors wrote the ratio of equation (29). Where the IDE-2
model is the bottom one and the IDE-01 is the top one.

• The authors also wrote the ratio of equation (30) to quantify the deviations between the
linear and nonlinear power spectra as predicted by the IDE models themselves.

• The authors proposed the fitting function of equation (31) and plotted their fitting results
in figure 4. IDE01- red and IDE02-blue. Accuracy of 5% for low k’s and 1% for k’s above
0.2

• It is noted in the article that the adjustment function, expressed as a parametric ap-
proximation as in equation (31), has been widely used to adjust non-linear scales in
phenomenological models.