Testing the imprint of non-standard cosmologies on void profiles using Monte Carlo random walks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Monte Carlo random walk method to study cosmic voids in non-standard cosmologies, successfully reproducing simulation results for f(R) gravity and proposing a new void identification algorithm that enhances analysis precision.

Contribution

The study presents a novel Monte Carlo approach for analyzing voids in modified gravity models and introduces a new void finder algorithm based on density fluctuations.

Findings

Successfully reproduces N-body simulation void profiles for f(R) gravity.

Develops a new void identification method using density fluctuations.

Demonstrates potential to reduce systematic errors in galaxy-void correlation studies.

Abstract

Using a Monte Carlo random walks of a log-normal distribution, we show how to qualitatively study void properties for non-standard cosmologies. We apply this method to an f(R) modified gravity model and recover the N-body simulation results of (Achitouv et al. 2016) for the void profiles and their deviation from GR. This method can potentially be extended to study other properties of the large scale structures such as the abundance of voids or overdense environments. We also introduce a new way to identify voids in the cosmic web, using only a few measurements of the density fluctuations around random positions. This algorithm allows to select voids with specific profiles and radii. As a consequence, we can target classes of voids with higher differences between f(R) and standard gravity void profiles. Finally we apply our void criteria to galaxy mock catalogues and discuss how the flexibility of our void finder can be used to reduce systematics errors when probing the growth rate in the galaxy-void correlation function.