Evolution of Clusters in Cold plus Hot Dark Matter Models

We use N-body simulations to study evolution of galaxy clusters over the redshift interval 0 <= z <= 0.5 in cosmological models with a mixture of cold and hot dark matter (CHDM). Four different techniques are utilized: the cluster-cluster correlation function, axial ratios and quadrupoles of the dark matter distribution in individual clusters, and virial properties. We find that the correlation function for clusters of the same mass limit was larger and steeper at high redshifts. The slope increases from 1.8 at z=0 to 2.1 at z=0.5. Comoving correlation length r_c scales with the mass limit M within comoving radius 1.5 h^-1 Mpc and the redshift z as r_c ~= 20(1+z)(M/M_*)^1/3, where M_* = 3*10^14 h^-1 M_sun. When the correlation length is normalized to the mean cluster separation d_c, it remains almost constant: r_c~=(0.45-0.5) d_c. For small masses (M_clust <2*10^14 h^-1 M_sun) there is an indication that r_c goes slightly above the relation with the constant of proportionality being ~= 0.55-0.6. Anisotropy of density distribution in a cluster shows no change over redshift with axial ratios remaining constant around 1.2. In other words, clusters at present are as elongated as they were at the epoch of their first appearance. While the anisotropy of clusters does not change with time, the density profile shows visible evolution: the slope of density profile changes from gamma ~= -3.5 at z=0.5 to gamma ~= -2.5 at the present. We find that the core of a cluster remains essentially the same over time, but the density of the outlying regions increases noticeably. The virial relation M ~ v^2 is a good approximation, but there is a large fraction of clusters with peculiar velocities greater than given by this relation, and clusters with the same rms velocities have smaller masses in the past, a factor of 2 at z=0.5.Comment: 16 pages, used aaspp.sty V3.0 13 figures are available from http://charon.nmsu.edu/ftp/cwalter/CHD

Effects of long-wavelength fluctuations in large galaxy surveys

In order to capture as much information as possible large galaxy surveys have been increasing their volume and redshift depth. To face this challenge theory has responded by making cosmological simulations of huge computational volumes with equally increasing the number of dark matter particles and supercomputing resources. Thus, it is taken for granted that the ideal situation is when a single computational box encompasses the whole effective volume of the observational survey, e.g., ~50 Gpch^3 for the DESI and Euclid surveys. Here we study the effects of missing long-waves in a finite volume using several relevant statistics: the abundance of dark matter halos, the PDF, the correlation function and power spectrum, and covariance matrices. Finite volume effects can substantially modify the results if the computational volumes are less than ~(500Mpch)^3. However, the effects become extremely small and practically can be ignored when the box-size exceeds ~1Gpch^3. We find that the average power spectra of dark matter fluctuations show remarkable lack of dependence on the computational box-size with less than 0.1% differences between 1Gpch and 4Gpch boxes. No measurable differences are expected for the halo mass functions for these volumes. The covariance matrices are scaled trivially with volume, and small corrections due to super-sample modes can be added. We conclude that there is no need to make those extremely large simulations when a box-size of 1-1.5Gpch is sufficient to fulfil most of the survey science requirements.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, accepted to MNRA

Constrained simulations of the local universe: I. Mass and motion in the Local Volume

It has been recently claimed that there is no correlation between the distribution of galaxies and their peculiar velocities within the Local Volume (LV), namely a sphere of R=7/h Mpc around the Local Group (LG). It has been then stated that this implies that either locally dark matter is not distributed in the same way as luminous matter, or peculiar velocities are not due to fluctuations in mass. To test that statement a set of constrained N-body cosmological simulations, designed to reproduce the main observed large scale structure, have been analyzed. The simulations were performed within the flat-Lambda, open and flat matter only CDM cosmogonies. Two unconstrained simulations of the flat-Lambda and open CDM models were performed for comparison. LG-like objects have been selected so as to mimic the real LG environment. The local gravitational field due to all halos found within each LV is compared with the exact gravitational field induced by all matter in the simulation. We conclude that there is no correlation between the exact and the local gravitational field obtained by pairwise newtonian forces between halos. Moreover, the local gravitational field is uncorrelated with the peculiar velocities of halos. The exact gravitational field has a linear correlation with peculiar velocities but the proportionality constant relating the velocity with gravitational field falls below the prediction of the linear theory. Upon considering all matter inside the LVs, the exact and local gravitational accelerations show a much better correlation, but with a considerable scatter independent on the cosmological models. The main conclusion is that the lack of correlation between the local gravitation and the peculiar velocity fields around LG-like objects is naturally expected in the CDM cosmologies.Comment: 10 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Suppressing cosmic variance with paired-and-fixed cosmological simulations: average properties and covariances of dark matter clustering statistics

Making cosmological inferences from the observed galaxy clustering requires accurate predictions for the mean clustering statistics and their covariances. Those are affected by cosmic variance -- the statistical noise due to the finite number of harmonics. The cosmic variance can be suppressed by fixing the amplitudes of the harmonics instead of drawing them from a Gaussian distribution predicted by the inflation models. Initial realizations also can be generated in pairs with 180 degrees flipped phases to further reduce the variance. Here, we compare the consequences of using paired-and-fixed vs Gaussian initial conditions on the average dark matter clustering and covariance matrices predicted from N-body simulations. As in previous studies, we find no measurable differences between paired-and-fixed and Gaussian simulations for the average density distribution function, power spectrum and bispectrum. Yet, the covariances from paired-and-fixed simulations are suppressed in a complicated scale- and redshift-dependent way. The situation is particularly problematic on the scales of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations where the covariance matrix of the power spectrum is lower by only 20% compared to the Gaussian realizations, implying that there is not much of a reduction of the cosmic variance. The non-trivial suppression, combined with the fact that paired-and-fixed covariances are noisier than from Gaussian simulations, suggests that there is no path towards obtaining accurate covariance matrices from paired-and-fixed simulations. Because the covariances are crucial for the observational estimates of galaxy clustering statistics and cosmological parameters, paired-and-fixed simulations, though useful for some applications, cannot be used for the production of mock galaxy catalogs.Comment: Submitted to MNRA