170 research outputs found
The effect of AGN feedback on the halo mass function
[Abridged.] We investigate baryon effects on the halo mass function (HMF),
with emphasis on the role played by AGN feedback. Halos are identified with
both Friends-of-Friends (FoF) and Spherical Overdensity (SO) algorithms. We
embed the standard SO algorithm into a memory-controlled frame program and
present the {\bf P}ython spher{\bf I}c{\bf A}l {\bf O}verdensity code ---
{\small PIAO}.
For both FoF and SO halos, the effect of AGN feedback is that of suppressing
the HMFs to a level even below that of Dark Matter simulations. The ratio
between the HMFs in the AGN and in the DM simulations is at
overdensity , a difference that increases at higher overdensity
, with no significant redshift and mass dependence. A decrease
of the halo masses ratio with respect to the DM case induces the decrease of
the HMF in the AGN simulation. The shallower inner density profiles of halos in
the AGN simulation witnesses that mass reduction is induced by the sudden
displacement of gas induced by thermal AGN feedback. We provide fitting
functions to describe halo mass variations at different overdensities, which
can recover the HMFs with a residual random scatter per cent for halo
masses larger than .Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures. Matches to MNRAS published version, typo
corrected in the fitting functio
Nonlinearities in modified gravity cosmology. II. Impacts of modified gravity on the halo properties
The statistics of dark matter halos is an essential component of
understanding the nonlinear evolution in modified gravity cosmology. Based on a
series of modified gravity N-body simulations, we investigate the halo mass
function, concentration and bias. We model the impact of modified gravity by a
single parameter \zeta, which determines the enhancement of particle
acceleration with respect to GR, given the identical mass distribution (\zeta=1
in GR). We select snapshot redshifts such that the linear matter power spectra
of different gravity models are identical, in order to isolate the impact of
gravity beyond modifying the linear growth rate. At the baseline redshift
corresponding to z_S=1.2 in the standard \Lambda CDM, for a 10% deviation from
GR(|\zeta-1|=0.1), the measured halo mass function can differ by about 5-10%,
the halo concentration by about 10-20%, while the halo bias differs
significantly less. These results demonstrate that the halo mass function
and/or the halo concentration are sensitive to the nature of gravity and may be
used to make interesting constraints along this line.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
The source-lens clustering effect in the context of lensing tomography and its self-calibration
Cosmic shear can only be measured where there are galaxies. This source-lens
clustering (SLC) effect has two sources, intrinsic source clustering and cosmic
magnification (magnification/size bias). Lensing tomography can suppress the
former. However, this reduction is limited by the existence of photo-z error
and nonzero redshift bin width. Furthermore, SLC induced by cosmic
magnification cannot be reduced by lensing tomography. Through N-body
simulations, we quantify the impact of SLC on the lensing power spectrum in the
context of lensing tomography. We consider both the standard estimator and the
pixel-based estimator. We find that none of them can satisfactorily handle both
sources of SLC. (1) For the standard estimator, SLC induced by both sources can
bias the lensing power spectrum by O(1)-O(10)%. Intrinsic source clustering
also increases statistical uncertainties in the measured lensing power
spectrum. However, the standard estimator suppresses intrinsic source
clustering in the cross-spectrum. (2) In contrast, the pixel-based estimator
suppresses SLC through cosmic magnification. However, it fails to suppress SLC
through intrinsic source clustering and the measured lensing power spectrum can
be biased low by O(1)-O(10)%. In short, for typical photo-z errors
(sigma_z/(1+z)=0.05) and photo-z bin sizes (Delta_z^P=0.2), SLC alters the
lensing E-mode power spectrum by 1-10%, with ell~10^3$ and z_s~1 being of
particular interest to weak lensing cosmology. Therefore the SLC is a severe
systematic for cosmology in Stage-IV lensing surveys. We present useful scaling
relations to self-calibrate the SLC effect.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by AP
The Impact of Baryons on the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe
Numerical simulations play an important role in current astronomy researches. Previous dark-matter-only simulations have represented the large-scale structure of the Universe. However, nowadays, hydro-dynamical simulations with baryonic models, which can directly present realistic galaxies, may twist these results from dark-matter-only simulations. In this chapter, we mainly focus on these three statistical methods: power spectrum, two-point correlation function and halo mass function, which are normally used to characterize the large-scale structure of the Universe. We review how these baryon processes influence the cosmology structures from very large scale to quasi-linear and non-linear scales by comparing dark-matter-only simulations with their hydro-dynamical counterparts. At last, we make a brief discussion on the impacts coming from different baryon models and simulation codes
Gaussianizing the non-Gaussian lensing convergence field I: the performance of the Gaussianization
Motivated by recent works of Neyrinck et al. 2009 and Scherrer et al. 2010,
we proposed a Gaussianization transform to Gaussianize the non-Gaussian lensing
convergence field . It performs a local monotonic transformation
pixel by pixel to make the unsmoothed one-point
probability distribution function of the new variable Gaussian. We tested
whether the whole field is Gaussian against N-body simulations. (1) We
found that the proposed Gaussianization suppresses the non-Gaussianity by
orders of magnitude, in measures of the skewness, the kurtosis, the 5th- and
6th-order cumulants of the field smoothed over various angular scales
relative to that of the corresponding smoothed field. The residual
non-Gaussianities are often consistent with zero within the statistical errors.
(2) The Gaussianization significantly suppresses the bispectrum. Furthermore,
the residual scatters around zero, depending on the configuration in the
Fourier space. (3) The Gaussianization works with even better performance for
the 2D fields of the matter density projected over \sim 300 \mpch distance
interval centered at , which can be reconstructed from the weak
lensing tomography. (4) We identified imperfectness and complexities of the
proposed Gaussianization. We noticed weak residual non-Gaussianity in the
field. We verified the widely used logarithmic transformation as a good
approximation to the Gaussianization transformation. However, we also found
noticeable deviations.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, accepted by PR
Brightest cluster galaxies in cosmological simulations: achievements and limitations of AGN feedback models
We analyze the basic properties of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) produced
by state of the art cosmological zoom-in hydrodynamical simulations. These
simulations have been run with different sub-grid physics included. Here we
focus on the results obtained with and without the inclusion of the
prescriptions for supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth and of the ensuing
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) feedback. The latter process goes in the right
direction of decreasing significantly the overall formation of stars. However,
BCGs end up still containing too much stellar mass, a problem that increases
with halo mass, and having an unsatisfactory structure. This is in the sense
that their effective radii are too large, and that their density profiles
feature a flattening on scales much larger than observed. We also find that our
model of thermal AGN feedback has very little effect on the stellar velocity
dispersions, which turn out to be very large. Taken together, these problems,
which to some extent can be recognized also in other numerical studies
typically dealing with smaller halo masses, indicate that on one hand present
day sub-resolution models of AGN feedback are not effective enough in
diminishing the global formation of stars in the most massive galaxies, but on
the other hand they are relatively too effective in their centers. It is likely
that a form of feedback generating large scale gas outflows from BCGs
precursors, and a more widespread effect over the galaxy volume, can alleviate
these difficulties.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication on MNRAS, comments
welcom
How baryons affect haloes and large-scale structure: a unified picture from the Simba simulation
Using the state-of-the-art suite of hydrodynamic simulations Simba, as well
as its dark-matter-only counterpart, we study the impact of the presence of
baryons and of different stellar/AGN feedback mechanisms on large-scale
structure, halo density profiles, and on the abundance of different baryonic
phases within halos and in the intergalactic medium (IGM). The unified picture
that emerges from our analysis is that the main physical drivers shaping the
distribution of matter at all scales are star formation-driven galactic
outflows at for lower mass halos and AGN jets at in higher mass
halos. Feedback suppresses the baryon mass function with time relative to the
halo mass function, and it even impacts the halo mass function itself at the
~20% level, particularly evacuating the centres and enhancing dark matter just
outside halos. At early epochs baryons pile up in the centres of halos, but by
late epochs and particularly in massive systems gas has mostly been evacuated
from within the inner halo. AGN jets are so efficient at such evacuation that
at low redshifts the baryon fraction within halos is only 25% of the cosmic baryon fraction, mostly in stars.
The baryon fraction enclosed in a sphere around such halos approaches the
cosmic value only at 10-20 virial radii. As a
result, 87% of the baryonic mass in the Universe lies in the IGM at , with
67% being in the form of warm-hot IGM ().Comment: submitted to MNRA
Prospects for studying the mass and gas in protoclusters with future CMB observations
Protoclusters are the progenitors of massive galaxy clusters. Understanding
the properties of these structures is important for building a complete picture
of cluster formation and for understanding the impact of environment on galaxy
evolution. Future cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys may provide insight
into the properties of protoclusters via observations of the thermal Sunyaev
Zel'dovich (SZ) effect and gravitational lensing. Using realistic
hydrodynamical simulations of protoclusters from the Three Hundred Project, we
forecast the ability of CMB Stage 4-like (CMB-S4) experiments to detect and
characterize protoclusters with observations of these two signals. For
protoclusters that are the progenitors of clusters at with we find that the S4-Ultra deep survey has a roughly
20% chance of detecting the main halos in these structures with
at and a 10% chance of detecting them at , where these
probabilities include the impacts of noise, CMB foregrounds, and the different
possible evolutionary histories of the structures. On the other hand, if
protoclusters can be identified using alternative means, such as via galaxy
surveys like LSST and Euclid, CMB-S4 will be able to obtain high
signal-to-noise measurements of their stacked lensing and SZ signals, providing
a way to measure their average mass and gas content. With a sample of 2700
protoclusters at , the CMB-S4 wide survey can measure the stacked SZ
signal with a signal-to-noise of 7.2, and the stacked lensing signal with a
signal-to-noise of 5.7. Future CMB surveys thus offer exciting prospects for
understanding the properties of protoclusters.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
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