Cosmology in the non-linear regime : the small scale miracle

TL;DR

This paper investigates the information content in small-scale galaxy clustering using the halo model, revealing a non-linear regime where information surges again, termed the 'small scale miracle,' which could enhance cosmological constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the non-linear regime in galaxy power spectra, identifying a new regime of increasing information at small scales and discussing its implications for cosmology.

Findings

Information saturation occurs around k ~ 2 Mpc^{-1}.

Non-linear effects significantly impact covariance and information content.

High order statistics may further improve constraints in the small scale regime.

Abstract

Interest rises to exploit the full shape information of the galaxy power spectrum, as well as pushing analyses to smaller non-linear scales. Here I use the halo model to quantify the information content in the tomographic angular power spectrum of galaxies, for future high resolution surveys : Euclid and SKA2. I study how this information varies as a function of the scale cut applied, either with angular cut $\ell_{max}$ or physical cut kmax. For this, I use analytical covariances with the most complete census of non-Gaussian terms, which proves critical. I find that the Fisher information on most cosmological and astrophysical parameters follows a striking behaviour. Beyond the perturbative regime we first get decreasing returns : the information keeps rising but the slope slows down until reaching a saturation. The location of this plateau is a bit beyond the reach of current modeling methods : k $\sim$ 2 Mpc$^{-1}$ and slightly depends on the parameter and redshift bin considered. I explain the origin of this plateau, which is due to non-linear effects both on the power spectrum, and more importantly on non-Gaussian covariance terms. Then, pushing further we see the information rising again in the highly non-linear regime, with a steep slope. This is the small scale miracle, for which I give interpretation and discuss the properties. Hints are shown that this information should be disentanglable from the astrophysical content, and could improve Dark Energy constraints. Finally, more hints are shown that high order statistics may yield significant improvements over the power spectrum in this regime, with the improvements increasing with kmax. Data and notebooks reproducing all plots and results will be made available at \url{https://github.com/fabienlacasa/SmallScaleMiracle}