Void probability function in the Quijote simulations
Abstract
The void probability function (VPF) is the likelihood of finding no tracers (galaxies or dark-matter haloes) within a given volume and is sensitive to the large-scale matter distribution. We investigate the VPF of dark matter haloes and galaxies using the \textsc{Quijote} N-body simulations across a range of cosmological models, including ΛCDM and several extensions. We examine its dependence on cosmology, redshift, halo mass, morphology, and sample dilution, and compare the results with theoretical predictions from the geometric hierarchical (GH) and negative binomial (NB) models. We find that the halo VPF is sensitive to cosmology and halo mass and follows the GH model at z=0, with ΛCDM showing the smallest deviation and the massive-neutrino cosmology the largest. At higher redshift and stronger sample dilution, the VPF departs from the GH model and approaches the NB model. The dependence on halo mass varies with cosmology, with low-mass haloes showing the largest deviations in ΛCDM, while intermediate- and high-mass haloes show stronger deviations in the modified-gravity scenario. In redshift space, the VPF shifts toward the NB model, with primordial non-Gaussianity producing the largest deviations. For galaxies, the VPF depends on morphology and cosmology, with ellipticals following the GH model and spirals following the NB model. We also find that cosmic variance introduces non-negligible scatter in the VPF measurements. Overall, these results suggest that the VPF could be useful as a computationally efficient probe to distinguish extensions of the standard ΛCDM model in upcoming large-volume galaxy surveys.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{bhattacharjee2026void,
title = {{Void probability function in the Quijote simulations}},
author = {Snehasish Bhattacharjee},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.18221},
eprint = {2609.18221},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18221},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Void probability function in the Quijote simulations
AU - Snehasish Bhattacharjee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/16
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.18221
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18221
AB - The void probability function (VPF) is the likelihood of finding no tracers (galaxies or dark-matter haloes) within a given volume and is sensitive to the large-scale matter distribution. We investigate the VPF of dark matter haloes and galaxies using the \textsc{Quijote} N-body simulations across a range of cosmological models, including ΛCDM and several extensions. We examine its dependence on cosmology, redshift, halo mass, morphology, and sample dilution, and compare the results with theoretical predictions from the geometric hierarchical (GH) and negative binomial (NB) models. We find that the halo VPF is sensitive to cosmology and halo mass and follows the GH model at z=0, with ΛCDM showing the smallest deviation and the massive-neutrino cosmology the largest. At higher redshift and stronger sample dilution, the VPF departs from the GH model and approaches the NB model. The dependence on halo mass varies with cosmology, with low-mass haloes showing the largest deviations in ΛCDM, while intermediate- and high-mass haloes show stronger deviations in the modified-gravity scenario. In redshift space, the VPF shifts toward the NB model, with primordial non-Gaussianity producing the largest deviations. For galaxies, the VPF depends on morphology and cosmology, with ellipticals following the GH model and spirals following the NB model. We also find that cosmic variance introduces non-negligible scatter in the VPF measurements. Overall, these results suggest that the VPF could be useful as a computationally efficient probe to distinguish extensions of the standard ΛCDM model in upcoming large-volume galaxy surveys.
ER -