Relative velocity of dark matter and baryonic fluids and the formation of the first structures

TL;DR

This paper investigates how supersonic relative velocities between baryons and dark matter after recombination influence the formation and distribution of the first cosmic structures, revealing suppression effects and scale-dependent biases.

Contribution

It introduces the importance of quadratic terms in perturbation theory to account for baryon-dark matter relative velocities, a factor previously neglected in linear models.

Findings

Suppression of the abundance of the first bound objects due to relative velocities

Introduction of scale-dependent bias and stochasticity in spatial distribution

Potential observable effects on high-redshift galaxy clustering and reionization

Abstract

At the time of recombination, baryons and photons decoupled and the sound speed in the baryonic fluid dropped from relativistic to the thermal velocities of the hydrogen atoms. This is less than the relative velocities of baryons and dark matter computed via linear perturbation theory, so we infer that there are supersonic coherent flows of the baryons relative to the underlying potential wells created by the dark matter. As a result, the advection of small-scale perturbations (near the baryonic Jeans scale) by large-scale velocity flows is important for the formation of the first baryonic structures. This effect involves a quadratic term in the cosmological perturbation theory equations and hence has not been included in studies based on linear perturbation theory. We show that the relative motion suppresses the abundance of the first bound objects, even if one only investigates dark matter haloes, and leads to qualitative changes in their spatial distribution, such as introducing scale-dependent bias and stochasticity. We discuss the possible observable implications for high-redshift galaxy clustering and reionization.