THE 3-POINT FUNCTION IN AN ENSEMBLE OF NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS

We evaluate the three-point function in Fourier space for an ensemble of two-dimensional numerical simulations with nine initial power spectra distinguished by spectral index and cutoff. To remove the main dependences on scale and time, we present results as the reduced amplitude Q in the hierarchical model. To lowest nonvanishing order in perturbation theory, Q is a constant, independent of length scale, of time, and of initial spectrum. Our results show that in the nonlinear regime of evolution, normalizing to Q does remove the main variations, but systematic dependences on spectral index and cutoff remain at late times that depend on properties of the initial spectrum. Models with initial power cut off on a scale that has been evolved far into the nonlinear regime are indistinguishable from models with no cutoff.