The adhesion model as a field theory for cosmological clustering

TL;DR

This paper develops a field theory version of the adhesion model for cosmic web formation, incorporating stochastic forces and analyzing its renormalization properties to better understand non-linear large scale structure evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a stochastic field theory formulation of the adhesion model, including a time-dependent viscosity and noise spectrum, and demonstrates its renormalizability to one loop.

Findings

The SAM field theory is renormalizable to one loop.

Choosing viscosity proportional to the growth factor constrains the noise spectrum.

The model offers a simplified approach to non-linear cosmological clustering.

Abstract

The adhesion model has been proposed in the past as an improvement of the Zel'dovich approximation, providing a good description of the formation of the cosmic web. We recast the model as a field theory for cosmological large scale structure, adding a stochastic force to account for power generated from very short, highly non-linear scales that is uncorrelated with the initial power spectrum. The dynamics of this Stochastic Adhesion Model (SAM) is reminiscent of the well known Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation with the difference that the viscosity and the noise spectrum are time dependent. Choosing the viscosity proportional to the growth factor $D$ restricts the form of noise spectrum through a 1-loop renormalization argument. For this choice, the SAM field theory is renormalizable to one loop. We comment on the suitability of this model for describing the non-linear regime of the CDM power spectrum and its utility as a relatively simple approach to cosmological clustering.