BibTeX

@article{2207.00519v4,
Author        = {Oliver H. E. Philcox and Salvatore Torquato},
Title         = {The Disordered Heterogeneous Universe: Galaxy Distribution and
  Clustering Across Length Scales},
Eprint        = {2207.00519v4},
ArchivePrefix = {arXiv},
PrimaryClass  = {astro-ph.CO},
Abstract      = {Studies of disordered heterogeneous media and galaxy cosmology share a common
goal: analyzing the distribution of particles at `microscales' to predict
physical properties at `macroscales', whether for a liquid, composite material,
or entire Universe. The former theory provides an array of techniques to
characterize a wide class of microstructures; in this work, we apply them to
the distributions of galaxies. We focus on the lower-order correlation
functions, `void' and `particle' nearest-neighbor functions, pair-connectedness
functions, percolation properties, and a scalar order metric. Compared to
homogeneous Poisson and typical disordered systems, the cosmological
simulations exhibit enhanced large-scale clustering and longer tails in the
nearest-neighbor functions, due to the presence of quasi-long-range
correlations. On large scales, the system appears `hyperuniform', due to
primordial density fluctuations, whilst on the smallest scales, the system
becomes almost `antihyperuniform', and, via the order metric, is shown to be a
highly correlated disordered system. Via a finite scaling analysis, we show
that the percolation threshold of the galaxy catalogs is significantly lower
than for Poisson realizations; this is consistent with the observation that the
galaxy distribution contains larger voids. However, the two sets of simulations
share a fractal dimension, implying that they lie in the same universality
class. Finally, we consider the ability of large-scale clustering statistics to
constrain cosmological parameters using simulation-based inference. Both the
nearest-neighbor distribution and pair-connectedness function considerably
tighten bounds on the amplitude of cosmological fluctuations at a level
equivalent to observing twenty-five times more galaxies. These are a useful
alternative to the three-particle correlation, and are computable in much
reduced time. (Abridged)},
Year          = {2022},
Month         = {Jul},
Url           = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2207.00519v4},
File          = {2207.00519v4.pdf}
}