Density profiles and voids in modified gravity models

Abstract

We study the formation of voids in a modified gravity model in which gravity is generically stronger or weaker on large scales. We show that void abundances provide complementary information to halo abundances: if normalized to the CMB, models with weaker large-scale gravity have smaller large scale power, fewer massive halos and fewer large voids, although the scalings are not completely degenerate with $\sigma_8$. Our results suggest that, in addition to their abundances, halo and void density profiles may also provide interesting constraints on such models: stronger large scale gravity produces more concentrated halos, and thinner void walls. This potentially affects the scaling relations commonly assumed to translate cluster observables to halo masses, potentially making these too, useful probes of gravity.