Nonlinear Evolution of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations

TL;DR

The paper analyzes how nonlinear gravitational dynamics affect baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) using renormalized perturbation theory (RPT). It demonstrates that mode-coupling generates out-of-phase oscillations in the power spectrum, leading to percent-level shifts in the acoustic peak when transformed to real space, and provides redshift-dependent predictions along with a simple, physically motivated correction model. The approach yields predictions that match high-precision N-body simulations, offering a robust framework to model BAO in future observations. This work also clarifies limitations of halo-model interpretations at BAO scales and emphasizes the importance of large-scale, non-virial motions in shaping BAO features.

Abstract

We study the nonlinear evolution of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the dark matter power spectrum and correlation function using renormalized perturbation theory (RPT). In a previous paper we showed that RPT successfully predicts the damping of acoustic oscillations; here we extend our calculation to the enhancement of power due to mode-coupling. We show that mode-coupling generates additional oscillations that are out of phase with those in the linear spectrum, leading to shifts in the scales of oscillation nodes defined with respect to a smooth spectrum. When Fourier transformed, these out of phase oscillations induce percent-level shifts in the acoustic peak of the two-point correlation function. We present predictions for these shifts as a function of redshift; these should be considered as a robust lower limit to the more realistic case that includes in addition redshift distortions and galaxy bias. We show that these nonlinear effects occur at very large scales, leading to a breakdown of linear theory at scales much larger than commonly thought. We discuss why virialized halo profiles are not responsible for these effects, which can be understood from basic physics of gravitational instability. Our results are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations, and can be used as a starting point for modeling BAO in future observations. To meet this end, we suggest a simple physically motivated model to correct for the shifts caused by mode-coupling.