The Tree-Particle-Mesh N-body Gravity Solver

The Tree-Particle-Mesh (TPM) N-body algorithm couples the tree algorithm for directly computing forces on particles in an hierarchical grouping scheme with the extremely efficient mesh based PM structured approach. The combined TPM algorithm takes advantage of the fact that gravitational forces are linear functions of the density field. Thus one can use domain decomposition to break down the density field into many separate high density regions containing a significant fraction of the mass but residing in a very small fraction of the total volume. In each of these high density regions the gravitational potential is computed via the tree algorithm supplemented by tidal forces from the external density distribution. For the bulk of the volume, forces are computed via the PM algorithm; timesteps in this PM component are large compared to individually determined timesteps in the tree regions. Since each tree region can be treated independently, the algorithm lends itself to very efficient parallelization using message passing. We have tested the new TPM algorithm (a refinement of that originated by Xu 1995) by comparison with results from Ferrell & Bertschinger's P^3M code and find that, except in small clusters, the TPM results are at least as accurate as those obtained with the well-established P^3M algorithm, while taking significantly less computing time. Production runs of 10^9 particles indicate that the new code has great scientific potential when used with distributed computing resources.Comment: 24 pages including 9 figures, uses aaspp4.sty; revised to match published versio

Swift observations of the 2006 outburst of the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi: III. X-ray spectral modelling

Following the Swift X-ray observations of the 2006 outburst of the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi, we developed hydrodynamical models of mass ejection from which the forward shock velocities were used to estimate the ejecta mass and velocity. In order to further constrain our model parameters, here we present synthetic X-ray spectra from our hydrodynamical calculations which we compare to the Swift data. An extensive set of simulations was carried out to find a model which best fits the spectra up to 100 days after outburst. We find a good fit at high energies but require additional absorption to match the low energy emission. We estimate the ejecta mass to be in the range (2-5) x 10^{-7} solar masses and the ejection velocity to be greater than 6000 km/s (and probably closer to 10,000 km/s). We also find that estimates of shock velocity derived from gas temperatures via standard model fits to the X-ray spectra are much lower than the true shock velocities.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap

The Amplitude of Mass Fluctuations

We determine the linear amplitude of mass fluctuations in the universe, sigma_8, from the abundance of massive clusters at redshifts z=0.5 to 0.8. The evolution of massive clusters depends exponentially on the amplitude of mass fluctuations and thus provides a powerful measure of this important cosmological parameter. The relatively high abundance of massive clusters observed at z>0.5, and the relatively slow evolution of their abundance with time, suggest a high amplitude of mass fluctuations: sigma_8=0.9 +-10% for Omega_m=0.4, increasing slightly to sigma_8=0.95 for Omega_m=0.25 and sigma_8=1.0 for Omega_m=0.1 (flat CDM models). We use the cluster abundance observed at z=0.5 to 0.8 to derive a normalization relation from the high-redshift clusters, which is only weakly dependent on Omega_m: sigma_8*Omega_m^0.14 = 0.78 +-0.08. When combined with recent constraints from the present-day cluster mass function (sigma_8*Omega_m^0.6=0.33 +-0.03) we find sigma_8=0.98 +-0.1 and Omega_m=0.17 +-0.05. Low sigma_8 values (<0.7) are unlikely; they produce an order of magnitude fewer massive clusters than observed.Comment: 12 pages including 3 figures; updated to match published versio

Accurate Realizations of the Ionized Gas in Galaxy Clusters: Calibrating Feedback

Using the full, three-dimensional potential of galaxy cluster halos (drawn from an N-body simulation of the current, most favored cosmology), the distribution of the X-ray emitting gas is found by assuming a polytropic equation of state and hydrostatic equilibrium, with constraints from conservation of energy and pressure balance at the cluster boundary. The resulting properties of the gas for these simulated redshift zero clusters (the temperature distribution, mass-temperature and luminosity-temperature relations, and the gas fraction) are compared with observations in the X-ray of nearby clusters. The observed properties are reproduced only under the assumption that substantial energy injection from non-gravitational sources has occurred. Our model does not specify the source, but star formation and AGN may be capable of providing this energy, which amounts to 3 to 5 x10^{-5} of the rest mass in stars (assuming ten percent of the gas initially in the cluster forms stars). With the method described here it is possible to generate realistic X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich cluster maps and catalogs from N-body simulations, with the distributions of internal halo properties (and their trends with mass, location, and time) taken into account.Comment: Matches ApJ published version; 30 pages, 7 figure

Spin-polarized surface states close to adatoms on Cu(111)

We present a theoretical study of surface states close to 3d transition metal adatoms (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu) on a Cu(111) surface in terms of an embedding technique using the fully relativistic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method. For each of the adatoms we found resonances in the s-like states to be attributed to a localization of the surface states in the presence of an impurity. We studied the change of the s-like densities of states in the vicinity of the surface state band-edge due to scattering effects mediated via the adatom's d-orbitals. The obtained results show that a magnetic impurity causes spin-polarization of the surface states. In particular, the long-range oscillations of the spin-polarized s-like density of states around an Fe adatom are demonstrated.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Peridynamic Galerkin method: an attractive alternative to finite elements

This work presents a meshfree particle scheme designed for arbitrary deformations that possess the accuracy and properties of the Finite-Element-Method. The accuracy is maintained even with arbitrary particle distributions. Mesh-based methods mostly fail if requirements on the location of evaluation points are not satisfied. Hence, with this new scheme not only the range of loadings can be increased but also the pre-processing step can be facilitated compared to the FEM. The key to this new meshfree method lies in the fulfillment of essential requirements for spatial discretization schemes. The new approach is based on the correspondence theory of Peridynamics. Some modifications of this framework allows for a consistent and stable formulation. By applying the peridynamic differentiation concept, it is also shown that the equations of the correspondence theory can be derived from the weak form. Likewise, it is demonstrated that special moving least square shape functions possess the Kronecker-δ property. Thus, Dirichlet boundary conditions can be directly applied. The positive performance of this new meshfree method, especially in comparison to the Finite-Element-Method, is shown in the calculation of several test cases. In order to guarantee a fair comparison enhanced finite element formulations are also used. The test cases include the patch test, an eigenmode analysis as well as the investigation of loadings in the context of large deformations. © 2022, The Author(s)