The Nonlinear Matter Power Spectrum *

We modify the public PM code developed by Anatoly Klypin and Jon Holtzman to simulate cosmology with arbitrary initial power spectrum and equation of state of dark energy. With this tool in hand, we perform the following studies on the matter power spectrum. With an artificial sharp peak at k ∼ 0.2hMpc in the initial power spectrum, we find that the position of the peak is not shifted by nonlinear evolution. An upper limit of the shift at the level of 0.02% is achieved by fitting the power spectrum local to the peak using a power law plus a Gaussian. This implies that, for any practical purpose, the baryon acoustic oscillation peaks in the matter power spectrum are not shifted by nonlinear evolution which would otherwise bias the cosmological distance estimation. We also find that the existence of a peak in the linear power spectrum would boost the nonlinear power at all scales evenly. This is contrary to what HKLM scaling relation predicts, but roughly consistent with that of halo model. We construct two dark energy models with the same linear power spectra today but different linear growth histories. We demonstrate that their nonlinear power spectra differ at the level of the maximum deviation of the corresponding linear power spectra in the past. Similarly, two constructed dark energy models with the same growth histories result in consistent nonlinear power spectra. This is hinting, not a proof, that linear power spectrum together with linear growth history uniquely determine the nonlinear power spectrum. Based on these results, we propose that linear growth history be included in the next generation fitting formulas of nonlinear power spectrum. For simple dark energy models parametrized by w0 and wa, the existing nonlinear power spectrum fitting formulas, which are calibrated for ΛCDM model, work reasonably well. The corrections needed are at percent level for the power spectrum and 10% level for the derivative of the power spectrum. We find that, for Peacock & Dodds (1996) fitting formula, the corrections to the derivative of the power spectrum are independent of wa but changing with redshift. As a short term solution, a fitting form could be developed for w0, wa models based on this fact. Subject headings: cosmology large-scale structure of the universe