Galaxy Bias and non-Linear Structure Formation in General Relativity

TL;DR

This paper extends galaxy bias models to include General Relativity, showing how long-wavelength modes affect bias and can be studied without large simulations, especially considering non-Gaussian initial conditions.

Contribution

It provides a GR-based generalization of galaxy bias applicable to both Gaussian and non-Gaussian initial conditions, linking long-wavelength modes to local curvature effects.

Findings

Bias from long modes vanishes for super-horizon scales.

Non-Gaussian bias remains constant for super-horizon modes.

Long-wavelength effects can be incorporated via curvature in small-scale N-body simulations.

Abstract

Length scales probed by large scale structure surveys are becoming closer to the horizon scale. Further, it has been recently understood that non-Gaussianity in the initial conditions could show up in a scale dependence of the bias of galaxies at the largest distances. It is therefore important to include General Relativistic effects. Here we provide a General Relativistic generalization of the bias, valid both for Gaussian and non-Gaussian initial conditions. The collapse of objects happens on very small scales, while long-wavelength modes are always in the quasi linear regime. Around every collapsing region, it is therefore possible to find a reference frame that is valid for all times and where the space time is almost flat: the Fermi frame. Here the Newtonian approximation is applicable and the equations of motion are the ones of the N-body codes. The effects of long-wavelength modes are encoded in the mapping from the cosmological frame to the local frame. For the linear bias, the effect of the long-wavelength modes on the dynamics is encoded in the local curvature of the Universe, which allows us to define a General Relativistic generalization of the bias in the standard Newtonian setting. We show that the bias due to this effect goes to zero as the squared ratio of the physical wavenumber with the Hubble scale for modes longer than the horizon, as modes longer than the horizon have no dynamical effects. However, the bias due to non-Gaussianities does not need to vanish for modes longer than the Hubble scale, and for non-Gaussianities of the local kind it goes to a constant. As a further application, we show that it is not necessary to perform large N-body simulations to extract information on long-wavelength modes: N-body simulations can be done on small scales and long-wavelength modes are encoded simply by adding curvature to the simulation and rescaling the coordinates.