Consistency tests of structure formation simulations of scalar field dark matter

Abstract

The so‐called scalar field dark matter model assumes that dark matter is an ultralight axon, with its De Broglie wavelength around λ ∼ 1kpc. This can lead to a scale suppression of the mass power spectrum at sub‐galactic scales, as compared with the standard cosmological model Λcold dark matter. In this work, we show numerical tests of cosmological simulations of scalar field dark matter using an amended version of the code MG‐PICOLA with a double purpose: to validate the results in (Medellín‐González et al. 2021), and extend them to higher numerical resolutions. Our cosmological observable of interest is the mass power spectrum, and we make dedicated comparisons with that of cold dark matter to quantify the differences in the nonlinear growth of density perturbations in both models.