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Pierluigi Monaco

Publications and source records attributed to Pierluigi Monaco.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Testing approximate predictions of displacements of cosmological dark matter halos

We present a test to quantify how well some approximate methods, designed to reproduce the mildly non-linear evolution of perturbations, are able to reproduce the clustering of DM halos once the grouping of particles into halos is defined and kept fixed. The following methods have been considered: Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (LPT) up to third order, Truncated LPT, Augmented LPT, MUSCLE and COLA. The test runs as follows: halos are defined by applying a friends-of-friends (FoF) halo finder to the output of an N-body simulation. The approximate methods are then applied to the same initial conditions of the simulation, producing for all particles displacements from their starting position and velocities. The position and velocity of each halo are computed by averaging over the particles that belong to that halo, according to the FoF halo finder. This procedure allows us to perform a well-posed test of how clustering of the matter density and halo density fields are recovered, without asking to the approximate method an accurate reconstruction of halos. We have considered the results at $z=0,0.5,1$, and we have analysed power spectrum in real and redshift space, object-by-object difference in position and velocity, density Probability Distribution Function (PDF) and its moments, phase difference of Fourier modes. We find that higher LPT orders are generally able to better reproduce the clustering of halos, while little or no improvement is found for the matter density field when going to 2LPT and 3LPT. Augmentation provides some improvement when coupled with 2LPT, while its effect is limited when coupled with 3LPT. Little improvement is brought by MUSCLE with respect to Augmentation. The more expensive particle-mesh code COLA outperforms all LPT methods [abridged]

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Uncertainty in the visibility mask of a survey and its effects on the clustering of biased tracers

The forecasted accuracy of upcoming surveys of large-scale structure cannot be achieved without a proper quantification of the error induced by foreground removal (or other systematics like 0-point photometry offset). Because these errors are highly correlated on the sky, their influence is expected to be especially important at very large scales. In this work we quantify how the uncertainty in the visibility mask of a survey influences the measured power spectrum of a sample of tracers of the density field and its covariance matrix. We start from a very large set of 10,000 catalogs of dark matter halos in periodic cosmological boxes, produced with the PINOCCHIO approximate method. To make an analytic approach feasible, we assume luminosity-independent halo bias and an idealized geometry for the visibility mask. We find that the power spectrum of these biased tracers can be expressed as the sum of a cosmological term, a mask term and a term involving their convolution. The mask and convolution terms scale like $P\propto l^2σ_A^2$, where $σ_A^2$ is the variance of the uncertainty on the visibility mask. With $l=30-100$ Mpc$/h$ and $σ_A=5-20$\%, the mask term can be significant at $k\sim0.01-0.1\ h/$Mpc, and the convolution term can amount to $\sim 1-10$\% of the total. For the power spectrum covariance, the coupling of the convolution term with the other two gives rise to several mixed terms, that we quantify by difference using the mock catalogs. These are found to be of the same order of the mask covariance, and to introduce non-diagonal terms at large scales. Then, the power spectrum covariance matrix cannot be expressed as the sum of a cosmological and of a mask term. Our results lie down the theoretical bases to quantify the impact that uncertainties in the mask calibration have on the derivation of cosmological constraints from large spectroscopic surveys. [Abridged]

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Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of simulated galaxies: results at redshift $z=0$

We present predictions of Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs), from the UV to the FIR, of simulated galaxies at $z=0$. These were obtained by post-processing the results of an N-body+hydro simulation of a small cosmological volume, that uses the Multi-Phase Particle Integrator (MUPPI) for star formation and stellar feedback, with the GRASIL-3D radiative transfer code, that includes reprocessing of UV light by dust. Physical properties of galaxies resemble observed ones, though with some tension at small and large stellar masses. Comparing predicted SEDs of simulated galaxies with different samples of local galaxies, we find that these resemble observed ones, when normalised at 3.6 $μ$m. A comparison with the Herschel Reference Survey shows that, when binning galaxies in Star Formation Rate (SFR), average SEDs are reproduced to within a factor of $\sim2$ even in normalization, while binning in stellar mass highlights the same tension that is present in the stellar mass -- SFR plane. We use our sample to investigate the correlation of IR luminosity in Spitzer and Herschel bands with several galaxy properties. SFR is the quantity that best correlates with IR light up to $160\ μ$m, while at longer wavelengths better correlations are found with molecular mass and, at $500\ μ$m, with dust mass. However, using the position of the FIR peak as a proxy for cold dust temperature, we assess that heating of cold dust is mostly determined by SFR, with stellar mass giving only a minor contribution. We finally show how our sample of simulated galaxies can be used as a guide to understand the physical properties and selection biases of observed samples.

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Simulating cosmologies beyond $Λ$CDM with PINOCCHIO

We present a method that extends the capabilities of the PINpointing Orbit-Crossing Collapsed HIerarchical Objects (PINOCCHIO) code, allowing it to generate accurate dark matter halo mock catalogues in cosmological models where the linear growth factor and the growth rate depend on scale. Such cosmologies comprise, among others, models with massive neutrinos and some classes of modified gravity theories. We validate the code by comparing the halo properties from PINOCCHIO against N-body simulations, focusing on cosmologies with massive neutrinos: $νΛ$CDM. We analyse the halo mass function, halo two-point correlation function, halo power spectrum and the moments of the halo density field, showing that PINOCCHIO reproduces the results from simulations with the same level of precision as the original code ($\sim5-10\%$). We demonstrate that the abundance of halos in cosmologies with massless and massive neutrinos from PINOCCHIO matches very well the outcome of simulations, and point out that PINOCCHIO can reproduce the $Ω_ν-σ_8$ degeneracy that affects the halo mass function. We show that the clustering properties of the halos from PINOCCHIO matches accurately those from simulations both in real and redshift-space, in the latter case up to $k=0.3~h~{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$. We finally point out that the first moments of the halo density field from simulations are precisely reproduced by PINOCCHIO. We emphasize that the computational time required by PINOCCHIO to generate mock halo catalogues is orders of magnitude lower than the one needed for N-body simulations. This makes this tool ideal for applications like covariance matrix studies within the standard $Λ$CDM model but also in cosmologies with massive neutrinos or some modified gravity theories.

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Approximate methods for the generation of dark matter halo catalogs in the age of precision cosmology

Precision cosmology has recently triggered new attention on the topic of approximate methods for the clustering of matter on large scales, whose foundations date back to the period from late '60s to early '90s. Indeed, although the prospect of reaching sub-percent accuracy in the measurement of clustering poses a challenge even to full N-body simulations, an accurate estimation of the covariance matrix of clustering statistics, not to mention the sampling of parameter space, requires usage of a large number (hundreds in the most favourable cases) of simulated (mock) galaxy catalogs. Combination of few N-body simulations with a large number of realizations performed with approximate methods gives the most promising approach to solve these problems with a reasonable amount of resources. In this paper I review this topic, starting from the foundations of the methods, then going through the pioneering efforts of the '90s, and finally presenting the latest extensions and a few codes that are now being used in present-generation surveys and thoroughly tested to assess their performance in the context of future surveys.

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The Spectral Slope and Escape Fraction of Bright Quasars at $z \sim 3.8$: the Contribution to the Cosmic UV Background

We use a sample of 1669 QSOs ($r<20.15$, $3.6<z<4.0$) from the BOSS survey to study the intrinsic shape of their continuum and the Lyman continuum photon escape fraction (f$_{esc}$), estimated as the ratio between the observed flux and the expected intrinsic flux (corrected for the intergalactic medium absorption) in the wavelength range 865-885 Å rest-frame. Modelling the intrinsic QSO continuum shape with a power-law, $F_λ\proptoλ^{-γ}$, we find a median $γ=1.30$ (with a dispersion of $0.38$, no dependence on the redshift and a mild intrinsic luminosity dependence) and a mean f$_{esc}=0.75$ (independent of the QSO luminosity and/or redshift). The f$_{esc}$ distribution shows a peak around zero and a long tail of higher values, with a resulting dispersion of $0.7$. If we assume for the QSO continuum a double power-law shape (also compatible with the data) with a break located at $λ_{\rm br}=1000$ Å and a softening $Δγ=0.72 $ at wavelengths shorter than $λ_{\rm br}$, the mean f$_{esc}$ rises to $=0.82$. Combining our $γ$ and f$_{esc}$ estimates with the observed evolution of the AGN luminosity function (LF) we compute the AGN contribution to the UV ionizing background (UVB) as a function of redshift. AGN brighter than one tenth of the characteristic luminosity of the LF are able to produce most of it up $z\sim 3$, if the present sample is representative of their properties. At higher redshifts a contribution of the galaxy population is required. Assuming an escape fraction of Lyman continuum photons from galaxies between $5.5$ and $7.6\%$, independent of the galaxy luminosity and/or redshift, a remarkably good fit to the observational UVB data up to $z\sim 6$ is obtained. At lower redshift the extrapolation of our empirical estimate agrees well with recent UVB observations, dispelling the so-called Photon Underproduction Crisis.

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Kinetic AGN Feedback Effects on Cluster Cool Cores Simulated using SPH

We implement novel numerical models of AGN feedback in the SPH code GADGET-3, where the energy from a supermassive black hole (BH) is coupled to the surrounding gas in the kinetic form. Gas particles lying inside a bi-conical volume around the BH are imparted a one-time velocity (10,000 km/s) increment. We perform hydrodynamical simulations of isolated cluster (total mass 10^14 /h M_sun), which is initially evolved to form a dense cool core, having central T<10^6 K. A BH resides at the cluster center, and ejects energy. The feedback-driven fast wind undergoes shock with the slower-moving gas, which causes the imparted kinetic energy to be thermalized. Bipolar bubble-like outflows form propagating radially outward to a distance of a few 100 kpc. The radial profiles of median gas properties are influenced by BH feedback in the inner regions (r<20-50 kpc). BH kinetic feedback, with a large value of the feedback efficiency, depletes the inner cool gas and reduces the hot gas content, such that the initial cool core of the cluster is heated up within a time 1.9 Gyr, whereby the core median temperature rises to above 10^7 K, and the central entropy flattens. Our implementation of BH thermal feedback (using the same efficiency as kinetic), within the star-formation model, cannot do this heating, where the cool core remains. The inclusion of cold gas accretion in the simulations produces naturally a duty cycle of the AGN with a periodicity of 100 Myr.

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Improving fast generation of halo catalogs with higher-order Lagrangian perturbation theory

We present the latest version of Pinocchio, a code that generates catalogues of DM haloes in an approximate but fast way with respect to an N-body simulation. This code version extends the computation of particle and halo displacements up to 3rd-order Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (LPT), in contrast with previous versions that used Zeldovich approximation (ZA). We run Pinocchio on the same initial configuration of a reference N-body simulation, so that the comparison extends to the object-by-object level. We consider haloes at redshifts 0 and 1, using different LPT orders either for halo construction - where displacements are needed to decide particle accretion onto a halo or halo merging - or to compute halo final positions. We compare the clustering properties of Pinocchio haloes with those from the simulation by computing the power spectrum and 2-point correlation function (2PCF) in real and redshift space (monopole and quadrupole), the bispectrum and the phase difference of halo distributions. We find that 2LPT and 3LPT give noticeable improvement. 3LPT provides the best agreement with N-body when it is used to displace haloes, while 2LPT gives better results for constructing haloes. At the highest orders, linear bias is typically recovered at a few per cent level. In Fourier space and using 3LPT for halo displacements, the halo power spectrum is recovered to within 10 per cent up to $k_{max}\sim0.5\ h/$Mpc. The results presented in this paper have interesting implications for the generation of large ensemble of mock surveys aimed at accurately compute covariance matrices for clustering statistics.

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Interpreting the possible break in the Black Hole - Bulge mass relation

Recent inspections of local available data suggest that the almost linear relation between the stellar mass of spheroids ($M_{\rm sph}$) and the mass of the super massive Black Holes (BHs) residing at their centres, shows a break below $M_{\rm sph} \sim 10^{10}\ {\rm M}_\odot$, with a steeper, about quadratic relation at smaller masses. We investigate the physical mechanisms responsible for the change in slope of this relation, by comparing data with the results of the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation MORGANA, which already predicted such a break in its original formulation. We find that the change of slope is mostly induced by effective stellar feedback in star-forming bulges. The shape of the relation is instead quite insensitive to other physical mechanisms connected to BH accretion such as disc instabilities, galaxy mergers, Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) feedback, or even the exact modelling of accretion onto the BH, direct or through a reservoir of low angular momentum gas. Our results support a scenario where most stars form in the disc component of galaxies and are carried to bulges through mergers and disc instabilities, while accretion onto BHs is connected to star formation in the spheroidal component. Therefore, a model of stellar feedback that produces stronger outflows in star-forming bulges than in discs will naturally produce a break in the scaling relation. Our results point to a form of co-evolution especially at lower masses, below the putative break, mainly driven by stellar feedback rather than AGN feedback.

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nIFTy Cosmology: Galaxy/halo mock catalogue comparison project on clustering statistics

We present a comparison of major methodologies of fast generating mock halo or galaxy catalogues. The comparison is done for two-point and the three-point clustering statistics. The reference catalogues are drawn from the BigMultiDark N-body simulation. Both friend-of-friends (including distinct halos only) and spherical overdensity (including distinct halos and subhalos) catalogs have been used with the typical number density of a large-volume galaxy surveys. We demonstrate that a proper biasing model is essential for reproducing the power spectrum at quasilinear and even smaller scales. With respect to various clustering statistics a methodology based on perturbation theory and a realistic biasing model leads to very good agreement with N-body simulations. However, for the quadrupole of the correlation function or the power spectrum, only the method based on semi-N-body simulation could reach high accuracy (1% level) at small scales, i.e., r<25 Mpc/h or k>0.15 h/Mpc. Full N-body solutions will remain indispensable to produce reference catalogues. Nevertheless, we have demonstrated that the far more efficient approximate solvers can reach a few percent accuracy in terms of clustering statistics at the scales interesting for the large-scale structure analysis after calibration with a few reference N-body calculations. This makes them useful for massive production aimed at covariance studies, to scan large parameter spaces, and to estimate uncertainties in data analysis techniques, such as baryon acoustic oscillation reconstruction, redshift distortion measurements, etc.

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nIFTy Cosmology: Comparison of Galaxy Formation Models

We present a comparison of 14 galaxy formation models: 12 different semi-analytical models and 2 halo-occupation distribution models for galaxy formation based upon the same cosmological simulation and merger tree information derived from it. The participating codes have proven to be very successful in their own right but they have all been calibrated independently using various observational data sets, stellar models, and merger trees. In this paper we apply them without recalibration and this leads to a wide variety of predictions for the stellar mass function, specific star formation rates, stellar-to- halo mass ratios, and the abundance of orphan galaxies. The scatter is much larger than seen in previous comparison studies primarily because the codes have been used outside of their native environment within which they are well tested and calibrated. The purpose of the `nIFTy comparison of galaxy formation models' is to bring together as many different galaxy formation modellers as possible and to investigate a common approach to model calibration. This paper provides a unified description for all participating models and presents the initial, uncalibrated comparison as a baseline for our future studies where we will develop a common calibration framework and address the extent to which that reduces the scatter in the model predictions seen here.

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Properties of barred spiral disks in hydrodynamical cosmological simulations

We present a quantification of the properties of bars in two N-body+SPH cosmological simulations of spiral galaxies, named GA and AqC. The initial conditions were obtained using the zoom-in technique and represent two dark matter (DM) halos of $2-3\times10^{12}\ {\rm M}_\odot$, available at two different resolutions. The resulting galaxies are presented in the companion paper of Murante et al. (2014). We find that the GA galaxy has a bar of length $8.8$ kpc, present at the two resolution levels even though with a slightly different strength. Classical bar signatures (e.g. pattern of streaming motions, high $m=2$ Fourier mode with roughly constant phase) are consistently found at both resolutions. Though a close encounter with a merging satellite at $z\sim0.6$ (mass ratio $1:50$) causes a strong, transient spiral pattern and some heating of the disk, we find that bar instability is due to secular process, caused by a low Toomre parameter $Q\lesssim1$ due to accumulation of mass in the disk. The AqC galaxy has a slightly different history: it suffers a similar tidal disturbance due to a merging satellite at $z\sim0.5$ but with a mass ratio of $1:32$, that triggers a bar in the high-resolution simulation, while at low resolution the merging is found to take place at a later time, so that both secular evolution and merging are plausible triggers for bar instability.

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Simulating realistic disk galaxies with a novel sub-resolution ISM model

We present results of cosmological simulations of disk galaxies carried out with the GADGET-3 TreePM+SPH code, where star formation and stellar feedback are described using our MUlti Phase Particle Integrator (MUPPI) model. This description is based on simple multi-phase model of the interstellar medium at unresolved scales, where mass and energy flows among the components are explicitly followed by solving a system of ordinary differential equations. Thermal energy from SNe is injected into the local hot phase, so as to avoid that it is promptly radiated away. A kinetic feedback prescription generates the massive outflows needed to avoid the over-production of stars. We use two sets of zoomed-in initial conditions of isolated cosmological halos with masses (2-3) * 10^{12} Msun, both available at several resolution levels. In all cases we obtain spiral galaxies with small bulge-over-total stellar mass ratios (B/T \approx 0.2), extended stellar and gas disks, flat rotation curves and realistic values of stellar masses. Gas profiles are relatively flat, molecular gas is found to dominate at the centre of galaxies, with star formation rates following the observed Schmidt-Kennicutt relation. Stars kinematically belonging to the bulge form early, while disk stars show a clear inside-out formation pattern and mostly form after redshift z=2. However, the baryon conversion efficiencies in our simulations differ from the relation given by Moster et al. (2010) at a 3 sigma level, thus indicating that our stellar disks are still too massive for the Dark Matter halo in which they reside. Results are found to be remarkably stable against resolution. This further demonstrates the feasibility of carrying out simulations producing a realistic population of galaxies within representative cosmological volumes, at a relatively modest resolution.

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Galactic outflow and diffuse gas properties at z>=1 using different baryonic feedback models

We measure and quantify properties of galactic outflows and diffuse gas at $z \geq 1$ in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. Our novel sub-resolution model, MUPPI, implements supernova feedback using fully local gas properties, where the wind velocity and mass loading are not given as input. We find the following trends at $z = 2$ by analysing central galaxies having a stellar mass higher than $10^{9} M_{\odot}$. The outflow velocity and mass outflow rate ($\dot{M}_{\rm out}$) exhibit positive correlations with galaxy mass and with the star formation rate (SFR). However, most of the relations present a large scatter. The outflow mass loading factor ($η$) is between $0.2 - 10$. The comparison Effective model generates a constant outflow velocity, and a negative correlation of $η$ with halo mass. The number fraction of galaxies where outflow is detected decreases at lower redshifts, but remains more than $80 \%$ over $z = 1 - 5$. High SF activity at $z \sim 2 - 4$ drives strong outflows, causing the positive and steep correlations of velocity and $\dot{M}_{\rm out}$ with SFR. The outflow velocity correlation with SFR becomes flatter at $z = 1$, and $η$ displays a negative correlation with halo mass in massive galaxies. Our study demonstrates that both the MUPPI and Effective models produce significant outflows at $\sim 1 / 10$ of the virial radius; at the same time shows that the properties of outflows generated can be different from the input speed and mass loading in the Effective model. Our MUPPI model, using local properties of gas in the sub-resolution recipe, is able to develop galactic outflows whose properties correlate with global galaxy properties, and consistent with observations.

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The definition of environment and its relation to the quenching of galaxies at z=1-2 in a hierarchical Universe

A well calibrated method to describe the environment of galaxies at all redshifts is essential for the study of structure formation. Such a calibration should include well understood correlations with halo mass, and the possibility to identify galaxies which dominate their potential well (centrals), and their satellites. Focusing on z = 1 and 2 we propose a method of environmental calibration which can be applied to the next generation of low to medium resolution spectroscopic surveys. Using an up-to-date semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, we measure the local density of galaxies in fixed apertures on different scales. There is a clear correlation of density with halo mass for satellite galaxies, while a significant population of low mass centrals is found at high densities in the neighbourhood of massive haloes. In this case the density simply traces the mass of the most massive halo within the aperture. To identify central and satellite galaxies, we apply an observationally motivated stellar mass rank method which is both highly pure and complete, especially in the more massive haloes where such a division is most meaningful. Finally we examine a test case for the recovery of environmental trends: the passive fraction of galaxies and its dependence on stellar and halo mass for centrals and satellites. With careful calibration, observationally defined quantities do a good job of recovering known trends in the model. This result stands even with reduced redshift accuracy, provided the sample is deep enough to preserve a wide dynamic range of density.

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A semi-analytic model comparison: testing cooling models against hydrodynamical simulations

We compare predictions of cooled masses and cooling rates from three stripped-down Semi-Analytic Models (SAMs) of galaxy formation with the results of N-body+SPH simulations with gas particle mass of 3.9x10^6 Msun, where radiative cooling of a gas of primordial composition is implemented. We also run a simulation where cooling is switched on at redshift ~2, in order to test cooling models in a regime in which their approximations are expected to be valid. We confirm that cooling models implemented in SAMs are able to predict the amount of cooled mass at z=0 to within ~20 per cent. However, some relevant discrepancies are found. (i) When the contribution from poorly resolved halos is subtracted out, SAMs tend to under-predict by ~30 per cent the mass that cools in the infall-dominated regime. (ii) At large halo masses SAMs tend to over-predict cooling rates, though the numerical result may be affected by the use of SPH. (iii) As found in our previous work, cooling rates are found to be significantly affected by model details: simulations disfavour models with large cores and with quenching of cooling at major mergers. (iv) When cooling is switched on at z~2, cold gas accumulates very quickly in the simulated halos. This accumulation is reproduced by SAMs with varying degrees of accuracy.

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Environmental dependence of bulge-dominated galaxy sizes in hierarchical models of galaxy formation. Comparison with the local Universe

We compare state-of-the-art semi-analytic models of galaxy formation as well as advanced sub-halo abundance matching models with a large sample of early-type galaxies from SDSS at z < 0.3. We focus our attention on the dependence of median sizes of central galaxies on host halo mass. The data do not show any difference in the structural properties of early-type galaxies with environment, at fixed stellar mass. All hierarchical models considered in this work instead tend to predict a moderate to strong environmental dependence, with the median size increasing by a factor of about 1.5-3 when moving from low to high mass host haloes. At face value the discrepancy with the data is highly significant, especially at the cluster scale, for haloes above log Mhalo > 14. The convolution with (correlated) observational errors reduces some of the tension. Despite the observational uncertainties, the data tend to disfavour hierarchical models characterized by a relevant contribution of disc instabilities to the formation of spheroids, strong gas dissipation in (major) mergers, short dynamical friction timescales, and very short quenching timescales in infalling satellites. We also discuss a variety of additional related issues, such as the slope and scatter in the local size-stellar mass relation, the fraction of gas in local early-type galaxies, and the general predictions on satellite galaxies.

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Bias deconstructed: Unravelling the scale dependence of halo bias using real space measurements

We explore the scale dependence of halo bias using real space cross-correlation measurements in N-body simulations and in Pinocchio, an algorithm based on Lagrangian Perturbation Theory. Recent work has shown how to interpret such real space measurements in terms of k-dependent bias in Fourier space, and how to remove the k-dependence to reconstruct the k-independent peak-background split halo bias parameters. We compare our reconstruction of the linear bias, which requires no free parameters, with previous estimates from N-body simulations which were obtained directly in Fourier space at large scales, and find very good agreement. Our reconstruction of the quadratic bias is similarly parameter-free, although in this case there are no previous Fourier space measurements to compare with. Our analysis of N-body simulations explicitly tests the predictions of the excursion set peaks (ESP) formalism of Paranjape et al. (2013) for the scale dependence of bias; we find that the ESP predictions accurately describe our measurements. In addition, our measurements in Pinocchio serve as a useful, successful consistency check between Pinocchio and N-body simulations that is not accessible to traditional measurements.

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