nIFTy Cosmology: Galaxy/halo mock catalogue comparison project on clustering statistics

We present a comparison of major methodologies of fast generating mock halo or galaxy catalogues. The comparison is done for two-point (power spectrum and two-point correlation function in real and redshift space), and the three-point clustering statistics (bispectrum and three-point correlation function). The reference catalogues are drawn from the BigMultiDark N-body simulation. Both friend-of-friends (including distinct haloes only) and spherical overdensity (including distinct haloes and subhalos) catalogues have been used with the typical number density of a large volume galaxy surveys. We demonstrate that a proper biasing model is essential for reproducing the power spectrum at quasi-linear and even smaller scales. With respect to various clustering statistics, a methodology based on perturbation theory and a realistic biasing model leads to very good agreement with N-body simulations. However, for the quadrupole of the correlation function or the power spectrum, only the method based on semi-N-body simulation could reach high accuracy (1 per cent level) at small scales, i.e. r 0.15 h Mpc-1. Full N-body solutions will remain indispensable to produce reference catalogues. Nevertheless, we have demonstrated that the more efficient approximate solvers can reach a few per cent accuracy in terms of clustering statistics at the scales interesting for the large-scale structure analysis. This makes them useful for massive production aimed at covariance studies, to scan large parameter spaces, and to estimate uncertainties in data analysis techniques, such as baryon acoustic oscillation reconstruction, redshift distortion measurements, etc.Fil: Chuang, Chia Hsun. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Zhao, Cheng. Tsinghua University; ChinaFil: Prada, Francisco. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; España. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Munari, Emiliano. Università degli Studi di Trieste; Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica. Osservatorio astronomico di Trieste; ItaliaFil: Avila, Santiago. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; España. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Izard, Albert. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; España. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Kitaura, Francisco Shu. Gobierno de la República Federal de Alemania. Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik; AlemaniaFil: Manera, Marc. University College London; Reino UnidoFil: Monaco, Pierluigi. Università degli Studi di Trieste; Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica. Osservatorio astronomico di Trieste; ItaliaFil: Murray, Steven. University of Western Australia; Australia. ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics; AustraliaFil: Knebe, Alexander. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Scoccola, Claudia Graciela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Área Física Teórica; ArgentinaFil: Yepes, Gustavo. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Garcia Bellido, Juan. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Marín, Felipe A.. University of Technology; Australia. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Müller, Volker. Gobierno de la República Federal de Alemania. Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik; AlemaniaFil: Skibba, Ramin. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Crocce, Martin. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Fosalba, Pablo. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Gottlöber, Stefan. Gobierno de la República Federal de Alemania. Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik; AlemaniaFil: Klypin, Anatoly A.. New Mexico State University; Estados UnidosFil: Power, Chris. University of Western Australia; Australia. ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics; AustraliaFil: Tao, Charling. Tsinghua University; China. Universite Aix-Marseille; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Turchaninov, Victor. Russian Academy of Sciences; Rusi