The BACCO simulation project: exploiting the full power of large-scale structure for cosmology

We present the BACCO project, a simulation framework specially designed to provide highly-accurate predictions for the distribution of mass, galaxies, and gas as a function of cosmological parameters. In this paper, we describe our main suite of gravity-only simulations (L similar to 2 Gpc and 4320(3) particles) and present various validation tests. Using a cosmology-rescaling technique, we predict the non-linear mass power spectrum over the redshift range 0 < z < 1.5 and over scales 10(-2) < k/(h Mpc(-1)) < 5 for 800 points in an eight-dimensional cosmological parameter space. For an efficient interpolation of the results, we build an emulator and compare its predictions against several widely-used methods. Over the whole range of scales considered, we expect our predictions to be accurate at the 2 per cent level for parameters in the minimal Lambda cold dark matter model and to 3 per cent when extended to dynamical dark energy and massive neutrinos. We make our emulator publicly available under http://www.dipc.org/bacco

Automated summary

The BACCO project presents a simulation framework designed for accurate predictions of mass, galaxies, and gas distribution based on cosmological parameters. The gravity-only simulations and cosmology-rescaling technique used in the project demonstrate high accuracy in predicting the non-linear mass power spectrum over a wide redshift range and scales. The emulator built for efficient interpolation of results shows promising accuracy levels, making predictions at the 2-3% level for various cosmological models.