The statistics of peaks of weakly non-Gaussian random fields: Effects of bispectrum in two- and three-dimensions

Abstract: Analytic expressions for the statistics of peaks of random fields with weak non-Gaussianity are provided. Specifically, the abundance and spatial correlation of peaks are represented by formulas which can be evaluated only by virtually one-dimensional integrals. We assume the non-Gaussianity is weak enough such that it is represented by linear terms of the bispectrum. The formulas are formally given in $N$-dimensional space, and explicitly given in the case of $N=1,2,3$. Some examples of peak statistics in cosmological fields are calculated for the cosmic density field and weak lensing field, assuming the weak non-Gaussianity is induced by gravity. The formulas of this paper would find a fit in many applications to statistical analyses of cosmological fields.