Critical Index and Fixed Point in the Transfer of Power in Nonlinear Gravitational Clustering

Abstract

We investigate the transfer of power between different scales and coupling of modes during non-linear evolution of gravitational clustering in an expanding universe. We start with a power spectrum of density fluctuations that is exponentially damped outside a narrow range of scales and use numerical simulations to study evolution of this power spectrum. Non-Linear effects generate power at other scales with most power flowing from larger to smaller scales. The ``cascade'' of power leads to equipartition of energy at smaller scales, implying a power spectrum with index $n\approx -1$. We find that such a spectrum is produced in the range $1<\delta <200$ for density contrast $\delta$. This result continues to hold even when small scale power is added to the initial power spectrum. Semi-analytic models for gravitational clustering suggest a tendency for the effective index to move towards a critical index $n_c\approx -1$ in this range. For n<n_c, power in this range grows faster than linear rate, while if n>n_c, it grows at a slower rate - thereby changing the index closer to n_c. At scales larger than the narrow range of scales with initial power, a k^4 tail is produced. We demonstrate that non-linear small scales do not effect the growth of perturbations at larger scales.

Title changed. Added two figures and some discussion. Postscript file containing all the figures is available at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jasjeet/papers/powspec.ps.gz Accepted for publication in the MNRAS

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