A Model of Void Formation

Abstract

We introduce a simple model for the formation of voids. In this model the underdensity of galaxies in voids is the product of two factors. The first arises from a gravitational expansion of the negative density perturbation. The second is due to biasing: galaxies are less likely to form in an underdense region. One feature of the model is an upper cutoff in void sizes. We calculate the volume filling factor of characteristic voids for different CDM models and find that our formation model points to $\Lambda$CDM models as preferred models of the power spectrum. A natural consequence of our model is that the underdensity of the dark matter inside voids is smaller than the galaxy underdensity.