Particle-mesh simulations of the Lyα forest

Numerical hydrodynamical simulations have proven to be a successful means of reproducing many of the statistical properties of the Ly alpha forest as measured in high-redshift quasar spectra. Pseudo-hydrodynamical methods, based only on simulating the dark matter component, have been claimed to yield a comparable level of success. We investigate the degree to which two pseudo-methods, with and without allowing for a pseudo-gas pressure, are able to match the predictions of fully hydrodynamical plus dark matter simulations. We also address the requirements for convergence to the statistics of the spectra and the inferred properties of the Ly alpha forest as a function of resolution and box size. Generally, we find that it is possible to reach agreement with full hydrodynamic simulations at the 10 per cent level in the cumulative distributions of the flux and absorption line parameter statistics for readily achievable particle and grid numbers, but difficult to do much better.