General framework for cosmological dark matter bounds using $N$-body simulations

Understand

We present a general framework for obtaining robust bounds on the nature of dark matter using cosmological $N$-body simulations and Lyman-alpha forest data.

• We construct an emulator of hydrodynamical simulations, which is a flexible, accurate and computationally-efficient model for predicting the response of the Lyman-alpha forest flux power spectrum to different dark matter models, the state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) and the primordial power spectrum.
• The emulator combines a flexible parameterization for the small-scale suppression in the matter power spectrum arising in "non-cold" dark matter models, with an improved IGM model.
• We then demonstrate how to optimize the emulator for the case of ultra-light axion dark matter, presenting tests of convergence.