On the asymptotic behaviour of cosmic density-fluctuation power spectra of cold dark matter

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the small-scale asymptotic behavior of the cold dark matter power spectrum using the Zel'dovich approximation, revealing a dominant $k^{-3}$ tail and the effects of ultraviolet cut-offs.

Contribution

It derives the asymptotic series for the power spectrum at large wave-numbers without ultraviolet cut-offs, highlighting the mathematical structure of perturbative terms.

Findings

Power spectrum exhibits a $k^{-3}$ tail at large wave-numbers.

Intermediate scales can be accurately described by non-cutoff asymptotics.

Small-scale asymptotics are sensitive to the spectral index $n_s$.

Abstract

We study the small-scale asymptotic behaviour of the cold dark matter density fluctuation power spectrum in the Zel'dovich approximation, without introducing an ultraviolet cut-off. Assuming an initially correlated Gaussian random field and spectral index $0 < n_s < 1$, we derive the small-scale asymptotic behaviour of the initial momentum-momentum correlations. This result is then used to derive the asymptotics of the power spectrum in the Zel'dovich approximation. Our main result is an asymptotic series, dominated by a $k^{-3}$ tail at large wave-numbers, containing higher-order terms that differ by integer powers of $k^{n_s-1}$ and logarithms of $k$. Furthermore, we show that dark matter power spectra with an ultraviolet cut-off develop an intermediate range of scales where the power spectrum is accurately described by the asymptotics of dark matter without a cut-off. These results reveal information about the mathematical structure that underlies the perturbative terms in kinetic field theory and thus the non-linear power spectrum. We also discuss the sensitivity of the small-scale asymptotics to the spectral index $n_s$.