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@PHDTHESIS{Sagunski:307715,
author = {Sagunski, Laura},
othercontributors = {Konstandin, Thomas and Sigl, Guenter},
title = {{O}n {S}oft {L}imits of {L}arge-{S}cale {S}tructure
{C}orrelation {F}unctions},
issn = {1435-8085},
school = {Universität Hamburg},
type = {Dissertation},
address = {Hamburg},
publisher = {Verlag Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron},
reportid = {PUBDB-2016-03361, DESY-THESIS-2016-023},
series = {DESY-THESIS},
pages = {247},
year = {2016},
note = {Dissertation, Universität Hamburg, 2016},
abstract = {Large-scale structure surveys have the potential to become
the leading probe for precision cosmology in the next
decade. To extract valuable information on the cosmological
evolution of the Universe from the observational data, it is
of major importance to derive accurate theoretical
predictions for the statistical large-scale structure
observables, such as the power spectrum and the bispectrum
of (dark) matter density perturbations. Hence, one of the
greatest challenges of modern cosmology is to theoretically
understand the non-linear dynamics of large-scale structure
formation in the Universe from first principles. While
analytic approaches to describe the large-scale structure
formation are usually based on the framework of
non-relativistic cosmological perturbation theory, we pursue
another road in this thesis and develop methods to derive
generic, non-perturbative statements about large-scale
structure correlation functions. We study unequal- and
equal-time correlation functions of density and velocity
perturbations in the limit where one of their wavenumbers
becomes small, that is, in the soft limit. In the soft
limit, it is possible to link
$\left(\mathcal{N}+1\right)$-point and $\mathcal{N}$-point
correlation functions to non-perturbative `consistency
conditions'. These provide in turn a powerful tool to test
fundamental aspects of the underlying theory at hand. In
this work, we first rederive the (resummed) consistency
conditions at unequal times by using the so-called eikonal
approximation. The main appeal of the unequal-time
consistency conditions is that they are solely based on
symmetry arguments and thus are universal. Proceeding from
this, we direct our attention to consistency conditions at
equal times, which, on the other hand, depend on the
interplay between soft and hard modes. We explore the
existence and validity of equal-time consistency conditions
within and beyond perturbation theory. For this purpose, we
investigate the predictions for the soft limit of the
bispectrum of density and velocity perturbations in two
different approaches, namely in the perturbative time-flow
approach and in a non-perturbative background method. This
background method, which relies on absorbing a spherically
symmetric soft mode into a locally curved background
cosmology, has recently inspired a proposal for an
(allegedly non-perturbative) angular-averaged equal-time
consistency condition for the bispectrum of density
perturbations (henceforth referred to as VKPR proposal). We
demonstrate explicitly for an Einstein-de Sitter universe
that the time-flow relations as well as the VKPR proposal
are only fulfilled at leading order in perturbation theory,
but are not exact beyond it. Since the VKPR proposal still
leads to qualitatively accurate predictions for the
bispectrum of density perturbations beyond the linear
perturbative order, it can nevertheless be regarded as a
reasonable empirical approximation in this case. However,
transferring the VKPR proposal to the velocity perturbations
significantly fails beyond linear order in perturbation
theory. In consequence, we generalize the background method
to properly account for the effect of local curvature both
in the density and velocity perturbations on short distance
scales. This allows us not only to identify the
discrepancies of the VKPR proposal, but also to formulate a
proper generalization of it which includes both the density
and velocity perturbations. In addition, we use the
background method to deduce a generic, non-perturbative
angular-averaged bispectrum consistency condition, which
depends on the density power spectrum of hard modes in the
presence of local curvature.Building upon this, we proceed
by deriving a non-perturbative equation for the power
spectrum in the soft limit. To this end, we perform an
operator product expansion, on the one hand, and deduce a
non-perturbative angular-dependent bispectrum consistency
condition, on the other hand. We obtain the latter from
extending the background method to the case of a directional
soft mode, being absorbed into a locally curved anisotropic
background cosmology. The resulting non-perturbative power
spectrum equation encodes the coupling to ultraviolet (UV)
modes in two time-dependent coefficients. These can most
generally be inferred from response functions to geometrical
parameters, such as spatial curvature, in the locally curved
anisotropic background cosmology. However, we can determine
one coefficient by use of the angular-averaged bispectrum
consistency condition together with the generalized VKPR
proposal, and we show that the impact of the other one is
subleading. Neglecting the latter in consequence, we
confront the non-perturbative power spectrum equation
against numerical simulations and find indeed a very good
agreement within the expected error bars. Moreover, we argue
that both coefficients and thus the non-perturbative power
spectrum in the soft limit depend only weakly on UV modes
deep in the non-linear regime. This non-perturbative finding
allows us in turn to derive important implications for
perturbative approaches to large-scale structure formation.
First, it leads to the conclusion that the UV dependence of
the power spectrum found in explicit computations within
standard perturbation theory is an artifact. Second, it
implies that in the Eulerian (Lagrangian) effective field
theory (EFT) approach, where UV divergences are canceled by
counter-terms, the renormalized leading-order coefficient(s)
receive most contributions from modes close to the
non-linear scale. The non-perturbative approach we developed
can in principle be used to precisely infer the size of
these renormalized leading-order EFT coefficient(s) by
performing small-volume numerical simulations within an
anisotropic `separate universe' framework. Our results
suggest that the importance of these coefficient(s) is a
$\sim 10 \\%$ effect at most.},
cin = {T},
cid = {I:(DE-H253)T-20120731},
pnm = {611 - Fundamental Particles and Forces (POF3-611) / PHGS,
VH-GS-500 - PIER Helmholtz Graduate School
$(2015_IFV-VH-GS-500)$},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF3-611 / $G:(DE-HGF)2015_IFV-VH-GS-500$},
experiment = {EXP:(DE-MLZ)NOSPEC-20140101},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)3 / PUB:(DE-HGF)11},
doi = {10.3204/PUBDB-2016-03361},
url = {https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/307715},
}