The Evolution of Correlation Functions in the Zeldovich Approximation and Its Implications for the Validity of Perturbation Theory

Abstract

We investigate whether it is possible to study perturbatively the transition in cosmological clustering between a single streamed flow to a multi streamed flow. We do this by considereing a system whose dynamics is governed by the Zel'dovich approximation (ZA) and calculating the evolution of the two point correlation function using two methods: 1.Distribution functions 2.Hydrodynamic equations without pressure and vorticity. The latter method breaks down once multistreaming occurs whereas the former does not. We find that the two methods give the same results to all orders in a perturbative expansion of the two point correlation function. We thus conclude that we cannot study the transition from a single stream flow to a multi-stream flow in a perturbative expansion. We expect this conclusion to hold even if we use the full gravitational dynamics (GD) instead of ZA. We use ZA to look at the evolution of the two point correlation function at large spatial separations and we find that until the onset of multi-streaming the evolution can be described by a diffusion process where the linear evolution at large scales gets modified by the rearrangement of matter on small scales. We compare these results with the lowest order nonlinear results from GD. We find that the difference is only in the numerical value of the diffusion coefficient and we interpret this physically. We also use ZA to study the induced three point correlation function. At the lowest order we find that, as in the case of GD, the three point correlation does not necessarily have the hierarchical form. We also find that at large separations the effect of the higher order terms for the three point correlatin function is very similar to that for the the two point correlation and in this case too the evolution can be be described in terms of