The shape of dark matter halos: A new fundamental cosmological invariance

We focus on the complex relationship between the shape of dark matter halos and the cosmological models underlying their formation. We used three realistic cosmological models from the Dark Energy Universe Simulation suite. They have significantly distinct cosmological parameters (ₘ, ₈, and w) but quasi-indistinguishable cosmic matter fields beyond the scale of DM halos. Firstly, we developed a robust method to measure the FoF halos shape, while avoiding numerical artifacts on shape measurements. These artifacts are generally induced by the presence of substructures (resolution-dependent) or by any spherical a priori in contradiction with the halos triaxiality. We obtain a marked dependence of the halos shape, both on their mass and on the cosmological model. However, when re-expressing the halos shape parameters in terms of the non-linear fluctuations of the cosmic matter field, the cosmological dependence disappears. This new fundamental cosmological invariance is a direct consequence of the matter field non-linear dynamics: as the universe evolves, the non-linear fluctuations of the cosmic field increase, driving the halos towards sphericity. The deviation from sphericity, measured by the prolaticity, triaxiality, and ellipticity of the dark matter halos, is therefore entirely encapsulated in the non-linear power spectrum. From this fundamental invariant relation, we can reconstruct with remarkable accuracy the non-linear variance of the cosmic matter field and, consequently, the non-linear power spectrum. We also re-find the ₈ amplitude of the cosmological model. Our results highlight, not only the nuanced relationship between dark matter halo formation and the underlying cosmology, but also the potential of dark matter halo shape analysis as a powerful tool for probing the non-linear dynamics of the cosmic matter field.