Tests of redshift-space distortions models in configuration space for the analysis of the BOSS final data release

TL;DR

This paper evaluates various models of redshift-space distortions in configuration space using mock catalogs to determine their accuracy and robustness for analyzing BOSS data, focusing on scales above 30 Mpc/h.

Contribution

It compares analytic and phenomenological streaming models against N-body simulations to identify which models reliably estimate structure growth from BOSS-like galaxy data.

Findings

Models based on resummation fit data above 30 Mpc/h well enough for unbiased estimates.

All models fit simulations only over limited scales, failing at small scales.

Resummation-based models are most robust for BOSS-like galaxy analysis.

Abstract

Observations of redshift-space distortions in spectroscopic galaxy surveys offer an attractive method for observing the build-up of cosmological structure, which depends both on the expansion rate of the Universe and our theory of gravity. In preparation for analysis of redshift-space distortions from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) final data release we compare a number of analytic and phenomenological `streaming' models, specified in configuration space, to mock catalogs derived in different ways from several N-body simulations. The galaxies in each mock catalog have properties similar to those of the higher redshift galaxies measured by BOSS but differ in the details of how small-scale velocities and halo occupancy are determined. We find that all of the analytic models fit the simulations over a limited range of scales while failing at small scales. We discuss which models are most robust and on which scales they return reliable estimates of the rate of growth of structure: we find that models based on some form of resummation can fit our N-body data for BOSS-like galaxies above $30\,h^{-1}$Mpc well enough to return unbiased parameter estimates.