A field-level reaction for screened modified gravity

Abstract

We present a field-level reaction framework to emulate the nonlinear effects of screened modified gravity on the cosmic web. This approach is designed to enable field-level inference with data from Stage IV cosmological surveys. Building on the reaction method, which models the nonlinear matter power spectrum in modified gravity as corrections to a "pseudo" $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, we extend the method to full field-level predictions by applying it to the output of $N$-body simulations, including both positions and velocities. We focus on modifications to gravity that are scale-independent at the linear level, allowing us to isolate and emulate nonlinear deviations, particularly screening effects. Our neural network predicts the field-level correction ("reaction") to a pseudo$\Lambda$CDM simulation whose linear clustering matches that of the target. The emulator achieves sub-percent accuracy across a broad range of summary statistics, including 0.4\% agreement in the matter power spectrum at scales $k < 1$ Mpc$/h$, and 2\% accuracy in redshift-space distortion multipoles at $k < 0.3$ Mpc$/h$. We also validate the emulator against $N$-body simulations with increased force resolution and time steps, confirming the robustness of its performance. These results demonstrate that our framework is a practical and reliable tool for incorporating screened modified gravity models into field-level cosmological inference, enabling stringent tests of extra fundamental forces at cosmological scales.