Gravitational Clustering in Redshift Space: Non-Gaussian Tail of the Cosmological Density Distribution Function

Abstract

We study the non-Gaussian tail of the probability distribution function of density in cosmological N-Body simulations for a variety of initial conditions. We compare the behaviour of the non-Gaussian tail in the real space with that in the redshift space. The form of the PDF in redshift space is of great significance as galaxy surveys probe this and not the real space analogue predicted using theoretical models. We model the non-Gaussian tail using the halo model. In the weakly non-linear regime the moments of counts in cells in the redshift space approach the values expected from perturbation theory for moments in real space. We show that redshift space distortions in the non-linear regime dominate over signatures of initial conditions or the cosmological background. We illustrate this using Skewness and higher moments of counts in cells, as well as using the form of the non-Gaussian tail of the distribution function. We find that at scales smaller than the scale of non-linearity the differences in Skewness, etc. for different models are very small compared to the corresponding differences in real space. We show that bias also leads to smaller values of higher moments, but the redshift space distortions are typically the dominant effect.