Setting the Stage: Structures from Gaussian Random Fields

Understand

We study structure formation in a set of cosmological simulations to uncover the scales in the initial density field that gave rise to the formation of present-day structures.

• Our simulations share a common primordial power spectrum (here Lambda-CDM), but the introduction of hierarchical variations of the phase information allows us to systematically study the scales that determine the formation of structure at later times.
• We consider the variance in z=0 statistics such as the matter power spectrum and halo mass function.
• We also define a criterion for the existence of individual haloes across simulations, and determine what scales in the initial density field contain sufficient information for the non-linear formation of unique haloes.