A Unified Halo Mass Function Across Dark Matter Models from High-Resolution Multi-Scale Simulations

We measure the dark matter halo mass function, with backsplash halos removed, from a wide range of cosmological-box and zoom-in simulations. These include the MultiDark Planck boxes, along with a suite of zoom-in simulations of Group, Milky Way, and LMC-mass halos. The Milky Way simulations include both CDM and non-CDM initial conditions. Using these measurements, we calibrate the parameters of flexible fitting functions for the halo mass function and the window function, along with parameterized models for various systematics, including finite box size effects, halo isolation criteria, halo detection efficiency, and contamination by artificial halos (objects forming from particle noise in the initial conditions). We show that this model shows remarkable consistency with N-body simulations over a broad range of redshifts, and ten orders of magnitude in halo mass ( 10 6 M ⊙ to 10 16 M ⊙ ). Our model typically maintains a high precision of 12% and captures complex behaviors, including small-scale cut-offs, oscillations, and enhancements. In specific mass intervals for certain power spectra, we see larger deviations of 40-50%. Furthermore, when integrated with a simple model for environmental dependence, this fitting function provides a robust description of how environmental density influences the halo mass function. This precision model captures a wide variety of dark matter paradigms (including thermal relics, axions, and models with dark-sector interactions), is accurate for halo masses down to 10 7 M ⊙ , and is a critical ingredient for model-independent dark-matter inference from forthcoming data.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Open Journal of Astrophysics
Published
2026-09-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.33232/001c.170877
Primary Topic
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

A Unified Halo Mass Function Across Dark Matter Models from High-Resolution Multi-Scale Simulations

Vera Gluscevic, Ethan O. Nadler, Andrew J. Benson, Xiaolong Du
The Open Journal of Astrophysics
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
article

A Unified Halo Mass Function Across Dark Matter Models from High-Resolution Multi-Scale Simulations

Vera Gluscevic, Ethan O. Nadler, Andrew J. Benson, Xiaolong Du
article en

Abstract

We measure the dark matter halo mass function, with backsplash halos removed, from a wide range of cosmological-box and zoom-in simulations. These include the MultiDark Planck boxes, along with a suite of zoom-in simulations of Group, Milky Way, and LMC-mass halos. The Milky Way simulations include both CDM and non-CDM initial conditions. Using these measurements, we calibrate the parameters of flexible fitting functions for the halo mass function and the window function, along with parameterized models for various systematics, including finite box size effects, halo isolation criteria, halo detection efficiency, and contamination by artificial halos (objects forming from particle noise in the initial conditions). We show that this model shows remarkable consistency with N-body simulations over a broad range of redshifts, and ten orders of magnitude in halo mass ( 10 6 M ⊙ to 10 16 M ⊙ ). Our model typically maintains a high precision of 12% and captures complex behaviors, including small-scale cut-offs, oscillations, and enhancements. In specific mass intervals for certain power spectra, we see larger deviations of 40-50%. Furthermore, when integrated with a simple model for environmental dependence, this fitting function provides a robust description of how environmental density influences the halo mass function. This precision model captures a wide variety of dark matter paradigms (including thermal relics, axions, and models with dark-sector interactions), is accurate for halo masses down to 10 7 M ⊙ , and is a critical ingredient for model-independent dark-matter inference from forthcoming data.

The Open Journal of AstrophysicsVol. 9
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Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
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A Unified Halo Mass Function Across Dark Matter Models from High-Resolution Multi-Scale Simulations — Vera Gluscevic, Ethan O. Nadler, et al. · The Open Journal of Astrophysics (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS