Psi-GAN: A power-spectrum-informed generative adversarial network for the emulation of large-scale structure maps across cosmologies and redshifts

Abstract

Simulations of the dark matter distribution throughout the Universe are essential in order to analyse data from cosmological surveys. $N$-body simulations are computationally expensive, and many cheaper alternatives (such as lognormal random fields) fail to reproduce accurate statistics of the smaller, non-linear scales. In this work, we present \textsc{Psi-GAN} (\textbf{P}ower-\textbf{s}pectrum-\textbf{i}nformed \textbf{G}enerative \textbf{A}dversarial \textbf{N}etwork), a machine learning model which takes a two-dimensional lognormal dark matter density field and transforms it into a more realistic field. We construct \textsc{Psi-GAN} so that it is continuously conditional, and can therefore generate realistic realisations of the dark matter density field across a range of cosmologies and redshifts in $z\in [0,3]$. We train \textsc{Psi-GAN} as a generative adversarial network on $2000$ simulation boxes from the Quijote simulation suite. We use a novel critic architecture that utilises the power spectrum as the basis for discrimination between real and generated samples. \textsc{Psi-GAN} shows agreement with $N$-body simulations over a range of redshifts and cosmologies, consistently outperforming the lognormal approximation on all tests of non-linear structure, such as being able to reproduce both the power spectrum up to wavenumbers of $1h{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$, and the bispectra of target $N$-body simulations to within $\sim 5$ per cent. Our improved ability to model non-linear structure should allow more robust constraints on cosmological parameters when used in techniques such as simulation-based inference.

20 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables, 1 appendix. Accepted for publication by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society