Log-Poisson Hierarchical Clustering of Cosmic Neutral Hydrogen and Ly-alpha Transmitted Flux of QSO Absorption Spectrum

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the non-Gaussian features of cosmic neutral hydrogen density and Ly-alpha transmitted flux can be effectively described by a log-Poisson hierarchical model, validated through simulations and high-quality quasar spectra.

Contribution

It introduces the application of the log-Poisson hierarchy to neutral hydrogen and Ly-alpha flux, showing its consistency with observations and superiority over the log-normal model.

Findings

Neutral hydrogen density field follows the log-Poisson hierarchy.

Ly-alpha flux non-Gaussian features are consistent with the hierarchy despite redshift distortions.

Log-Poisson model matches high-resolution quasar data better than the log-normal model.

Abstract

we study, in this paper, the non-Gaussian features of the mass density field of neutral hydrogen fluid and the Ly-alpha transmitted flux of QSO absorption spectrum from the point-of-view of self-similar log-Poisson hierarchy. It has been shown recently that, in the scale range from the onset of nonlinear evolution to dissipation, the velocity and mass density fields of cosmic baryon fluid are extremely well described by the She-Leveque's scaling formula, which is due to the log-Poisson hierarchical cascade. Since the mass density ratio between ionized hydrogen to total hydrogen is not uniform in space, the mass density field of neutral hydrogen component is not given by a similar mapping of total baryon fluid. Nevertheless, we show, with hydrodynamic simulation samples of the concordance $\Lambda$CDM universe, that the mass density field of neutral hydrogen, is also well described by the log-Poisson hierarchy. We then investigate the field of Ly$\alpha$ transmitted flux of QSO absorption spectrum. Due to redshift distortion, Ly$\alpha$ transmitted flux fluctuations are no longer to show all features of the log-Poisson hierarchy. However, some non-Gaussian features predicted by the log-Poisson hierarchy are not affected by the redshift distortion. We test these predictions with the high resolution and high S/N data of quasars Ly$\alpha$ absorption spectra. All results given by real data, including $\beta$-hierarchy, high order moments and scale-scale correlation, are found to be well consistent with the log-Poisson hierarchy. We compare the log-Poisson hierarchy with the popular log-normal model of the Ly$\alpha$ transmitted flux. The later is found to yield too strong non-Gaussianity at high orders, while the log-Poisson hierarchy is in agreement with observed data.