The Primordial Perturbation Spectrum and Large Scale Structure

Observational constraints on standard CDM spectra and perturbation spectra with broken scale invariance are discussed.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 17th Texas Symposium, 4 pages uuencoded, including figures

On the shape of dark matter halos from MultiDark Planck simulations

The halo shape plays a central role in determining important observational properties of the haloes such as mass, concentration and lensing cross-sections. The triaxiality of lensing galaxy clusters has a substantial impact on the distribution of the largest Einstein radii, while weak lensing techniques are sensitive to the intrinsic halo ellipticity. In this work, we provide scaling relations for the shapes of dark matter haloes as a function of mass (peak height) and redshift over more than four orders of magnitude in halo masses, namely from $10^{11.5}$ to $10^{15.8}~h^{-1}~$M$_\odot$. We have analysed four dark matter only simulations from the MultiDark cosmological simulation suite with more than 56 billion particles within boxes of 4.0, 2.5, 1.0 and 0.4 $h^{-1}$Gpc size assuming \textit{Planck} cosmology. The dark matter haloes have been identified in the simulations using the {\sc rockstar} halo finder, which also determines the axis ratios in terms of the diagonalization of the inertia tensor. In order to infer the shape for a hypothetical halo of a given mass at a given redshift, we provide fitting functions to the minor-to-major and intermediate-to-major axis ratios as a function of the peak height.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (14 pages, 13 figures). The ROCKSTAR outputs used in this paper are available at https://www.cosmosim.org/cms/simulations/data

Dark Matter decay and annihilation in the Local Universe: CLUES from Fermi

We present all-sky simulated Fermi maps of gamma-rays from dark matter decay and annihilation in the Local Universe. The dark matter distribution is obtained from a constrained cosmological simulation of the neighboring large-scale structure provided by the CLUES project. The dark matter fields of density and density squared are then taken as an input for the Fermi observation simulation tool to predict the gamma-ray photon counts that Fermi would detect in 5 years of all-sky survey for given dark matter models. Signal-to-noise sky maps have also been obtained by adopting the current Galactic and isotropic diffuse background models released by the Fermi collaboration. We point out the possibility for Fermi to detect a dark matter gamma-ray signal in local extragalactic structures. In particular, we conclude here that Fermi observations of nearby clusters (e.g. Virgo and Coma) and filaments are expected to give stronger constraints on decaying dark matter compared to previous studies. As an example, we find a significant signal-to-noise ratio in dark matter models with a decay rate fitting the positron excess as measured by PAMELA. This is the first time that dark matter filaments are shown to be promising targets for indirect detection of dark matter. On the other hand, the prospects for detectability of annihilating dark matter in local extragalactic structures are less optimistic even with extreme cross-sections. We make the dark matter density and density squared maps available online at http://www.clues-project.org/articles/darkmattermaps.htmlComment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Matches version published in ApJ Letters. High-resolution version of Figure 1 together with FITS files of the dark matter density and density squared maps at: http://www.clues-project.org/articles/darkmattermaps.html ; Version 3 includes 1-page ApJL Erratum: S/N values corrected, conclusions now point to a better detectability of Virgo and Coma in gamma-ray

Large scale environmental bias of the QSO line of sight proximity effect

We analyse the proximity zone of the intergalactic matter around high-redshift quasars in a cosmological environment. In a box of 64 h-1 Mpc base length we employ dark matter only simulations. For estimating the hydrogen temperature and density distribution we use the effective equation of state. Hydrogen is assumed to be in photoionisation equilibrium with a model background flux which is fit to recent observations of the mean optical depth and transmission flux statistics. At redshifts z = 3, 4, and 4.8, we select model quasar positions at the centre of the 20 most massive halos and 100 less massive halos identified in the simulation. From each assumed quasar position we cast 100 random lines of sight for two box length including the changes in the ionisation fractions by the QSO flux field and derive mock Ly{\alpha} spectra. The proximity effect describes the dependence of the mean normalised optical depth {\xi} = {\tau}eff, QSO/{\tau}eff, Ly{\alpha} as a function of the ratio of the ionisation rate by the QSO and the background field, {\omega} = {\Gamma}QSO/{\Gamma}UVB, i.e. the profile {\xi} = (1 + {\omega}/a)-0.5, where a strength parameter a is introduced. The strength parameter measures the deviation from the theoretical background model and is used to quantify any influence of the environmental density field. We reproduce an unbiased measurement of the proximity effect which is not affected by the host halo mass. The scatter between different lines of sight and different quasar host positions increases with decreasing redshift. Around the host halos, we find only a slight average overdensity in the proximity zone at comoving radii of 1 < rc < 10h-1 Mpc. However, a clear power-law correlation of the strength parameter with the average overdensity in rc is found, showing an overestimation of the ionising background in overdense regions and an underestimation in underdense regions.Comment: Accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 15 pages, 12 figure

The Shape-Alignment relation in Λ\LambdaCDM Cosmic Structures

In this paper we study the supercluster - cluster morphological properties using one of the largest ($2\times 512^{3}$ SPH+N-body simulations of large scale structure formation in a $\Lambda$CDM model, based on the publicly available code GADGET. We find that filamentary (prolate-like) shapes are the dominant supercluster and cluster dark matter halo morphological feature, in agreement with previous studies. However, the baryonic gas component of the clusters is predominantly spherical. We investigate the alignment between cluster halos (using either their DM or baryonic components) and their parent supercluster major-axis orientation, finding that clusters show such a preferential alignment. Combining the shape and the alignment statistics, we also find that the amplitude of supercluster - cluster alignment increases although weakly with supercluster filamentariness.Comment: Accepted for puplication in MNRAS, 10 pages, 15 figure

The structure of the ICM from High Resolution SPH simulations

We present results from a set of high (512^3 effective resolution), and ultra-high (1024^3) SPH adiabatic cosmological simulations of cluster formation aimed at studying the internal structure of the intracluster medium (ICM). We derive a self-consistent analytical model of the structure of the intracluster medium (ICM). We discuss the radial structure and scaling relations expected from purely gravitational collapse, and show that the choice of a particular halo model can have important consequences on the interpretation of observational data. The validity of the approximations of hydrostatic equilibrium and a polytropic equation of state are checked against results of our simulations. The properties of the ICM are fully specified when a 'universal' profile is assumed for either the dark or the baryonic component. We also show the first results from an unprecedented large-scale simulation of 500 Mpc/h and 2 times 512^3 gas and dark matter particles. This experiment will make possible a detailed study of the large-scale distribution of clusters as a function of their X-ray properties.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of IAU Colloquium 195: "Outskirts of Galaxy Clusters: intense life in the suburbs", Torino Italy, March 200

Bullet Clusters in the MareNostrum Universe

We estimate the expected distribution of displacements between the dark matter and gas cores in simulated clusters. We use the MareNostrum Universe, one of the largest non radiative, SPH Lambda CDM cosmological simulations. We find that projected 2-D displacements between dark matter and gas, equal or larger than the observed in the Bullet Cluster, are expected in 1% to 2% of the clusters with masses larger than 10^{14} Msun. The 2-D displacement distribution is roughly the same between redshifts 0<z<0.5 when multiplied by a factor of (1+z)^{-1/2}. We conclude that the separations between dark matter and gas as observed in the bullet cluster can be easily found in a Lambda CDM universe. Furthermore we find that the displacement distribution is not very sensitive to the normalization of the power spectrum. Upcoming surveys could extend the measurements of these displacements between dark matter and gas into large samples of hundreds of clusters, providing a potential test for Lambda CDM.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap