Universality of the halo mass function in screened gravity theories

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether the halo mass function can serve as a universal probe for different screened modified gravity theories, finding that while not fully universal, it can be approximated with specific parameters for each screening type.

Contribution

The authors develop a generalized excursion-set method for modified gravity, compare environmental screening models, and analyze the universality of the halo mass function across theories.

Findings

MG effects can mimic GR by parameter adjustments in the HMF.

HMF parameters cluster according to screening mechanism type.

A single HMF fit per screening type is potentially sufficient.

Abstract

We examine the efficacy of the halo mass function as a probe of $f(R)$, symmetron and DGP gravity. We develop an excursion-set method to generalise a range of popular HMF fitting functions from GR to screened MG, considering the HMF dependence on the critical density parameter $\delta_{c}$. In particular, we propose a variety of new methods to account for the environmental dependence of chameleon screening and compare their accuracy to existing ones via $N$-body data. Finally, using the nested sampling routine MultiNest, we examine two possible interpretations of the MG $N$-body results: whether they can be interpreted as $\Lambda$CDM HMFs and whether the MG HMFs display any universality. We find that the effects of MG can be interpreted as a change in best-fit parameters in the $\Lambda$CDM HMF---i.e. can be mistaken for GR---for all of the fitting functions. Alternatively, the relation can be inverted to judge the universality of the HMF---not in terms of its purported invariance to $z$, $H_{0}$, $\Omega_{m}$, $\Omega_{\Lambda}$ as in GR, but its independence on the underlying theory of gravity. Although we found no completely universal HMF, the parameter values did cluster according to the type of screening mechanism. The results suggest that a single, best-fit HMF might be used for each type of screening, independent of the parameters in the MG model. This demonstrates that the additional complexity of the gravitational collapse in screened MG theories cannot always be accounted for using the techniques developed in GR. However, the variations are small enough that it is unnecessary to develop new fitting functions and calibrate them on a case-by-case basis.