The halo bispectrum as a sensitive probe of massive neutrinos and baryon physics

Abstract: The power spectrum has been a workhorse for cosmological studies of large-scale structure. However, the present-day matter distribution is highly non-Gaussian and significant cosmological information is also contained in higher-order correlation functions. Meanwhile, baryon physics (particularly AGN feedback) has previously been shown to strongly affect the two-point statistics but there has been limited exploration of its effects on higher-order functions to date. Here we use the BAHAMAS suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to explore the effects of baryon physics and massive neutrinos on the halo bispectrum. In contrast to matter clustering which is suppressed by baryon physics, we find that the halo clustering is typically enhanced. The strength of the effect and the scale over which it extends depends on how haloes are selected. On small scales (k > 1 $h$ Mpc$^{-1}$, dominated by satellites of groups/clusters), we find that the bispectrum is highly sensitive to the efficiency of star formation and feedback, making it an excellent testing ground for galaxy formation models. We show that the effects of feedback and the effects of massive neutrinos are largely separable (independent of each other) and that massive neutrinos strongly suppress the halo bispectrum on virtually all scales up to the free-streaming length (apart from the smallest scales, where baryon physics dominates). The strong sensitivity of the bispectrum to neutrinos on the largest scales and galaxy formation physics on the smallest scales bodes well for upcoming precision measurements from the next generation of wide-field surveys.