On the road to percent accuracy II: calibration of the non-linear matter power spectrum for arbitrary cosmologies

Abstract: We introduce an emulator approach to predict the non-linear matter power spectrum for broad classes of beyond-$\Lambda$CDM cosmologies, using only a suite of $\Lambda$CDM $N$-body simulations. By including a range of suitably modified initial conditions in the simulations, and rescaling the resulting emulator predictions with analytical `halo model reactions', accurate non-linear matter power spectra for general extensions to the standard $\Lambda$CDM model can be calculated. We optimise the emulator design by substituting the simulation suite with non-linear predictions from the standard {\sc halofit} tool. We review the performance of the emulator for artificially generated departures from the standard cosmology as well as for theoretically motivated models, such as $f (R)$ gravity and massive neutrinos. For the majority of cosmologies we have tested, the emulator can reproduce the matter power spectrum with errors $\lesssim 1\%$ deep into the highly non-linear regime. This work demonstrates that with a well-designed suite of $\Lambda$CDM simulations, extensions to the standard cosmological model can be tested in the non-linear regime without any reliance on expensive beyond-$\Lambda$CDM simulations.