3,053 research outputs found
Simulations of Clusters of Galaxies
The degree of complexity and, to a somewhat lesser degree, realism in
simulations has advanced rapidly in the past few years. The simplest approach -
modeling a cluster as collisionless dark matter and collisonal, non--radiative
gas is now fairly well established. One of the most fruitful results of this
approach is the {\sl morphology--cosmology connection} for X-ray clusters.
Simulations have provided the means to make concrete predictions for the X-ray
morphologies of clusters in cosmologies with different , with the
result that low cosmologies fair rather poorly when compared to
observations. Another result concerns the accuracy of \xray binding mass
estimates. The standard, hydrostatic, isothermal model estimator is found to be
accurate to typically better than at radii where the density contrast is
between and . More complicated approaches, which attempt to
explicitly follow galaxy formation within the proto--cluster environment are
slowly being realized. The key issue of {\sl dynamical biasing} of the galaxy
population within a cluster is being probed, but conclusive answers are
lacking. The dynamics of multi--phase gas, including conversion of cold, dense
gas into stars and the feedback therefrom, is the largest obstacle hindering
progress. An example demonstrating the state--of--the--art in this area is
presented.Comment: to appear in Proceedings of the XIVth Moriond Astrophysics Meeting.
10 pages, uuencoded, compressed postscript file includes figures (~1 Mb after
unpacked
Clues to galaxy activity from rich cluster simulations
New simulations of rich cluster evolution are used to evaluate the first infall hypothesis of Gunn and Dressler - the idea that the enhanced fraction of active galaxies seen in high redshift clusters is due to a one-time burst of star formation triggered by the rapid rise in external pressure as a galaxy plows into the hot intracluster medium (ICM). Using three-dimensional simulations which contain both baryonic gas and collisionless dark material, local static pressure histories for test orbits of galaxies are generated and a simple trigger threshold based on dP/dt/P sub ISM is applied to define an active fraction of the population. The results lend qualitative and quantitative support to the first infall interpretation
Gas dynamic simulations of galaxy formation
Results are presented from a simulation modeling the formation of a group of galaxies in a 'standard' cold, dark matter universe with delta = 1, h sub 0 = 50 km/(s(Mpc)), baryon fraction omega sub b = 0.1 and spectrum normalization sigma sub 8 = 0.6 (bias parameter b = 1.7). Initial conditions are generated within a periodic box with comoving length 16 Mpc in a manner constrained to produce a small cluster of total mass approximately 10 exp 14 solar mass. Two sets of 643 particles are used to model the dark matter and baryon fluids. Each gas particle represents 1.08 x 10 exp -8 solar mass, implying an L* galaxy is resolved by approximately 1000 particles. The system is evolved self-consistently in three dimensions using the combined N-body/hydrodynamic scheme P3MSPH up to a final redshift z = 1. Evolving to the present is prohibited by the fact that the mean density in the simulated volume is above critical and the entire volume would be going nonlinear beyond this point, We are currently analyzing another run with somewhat poorer mass resolution which was evolved to the present
The Lx-T Relation and Intracluster Gas Fractions of X-ray Clusters
We re-examine the X-ray luminosity-temperature relation using a nearly
homogeneous data set of 24 clusters selected for statistically accurate
temperature measurements and absence of strong cooling flows. The data exhibit
a remarkably tight power-law relation between bolometric luminosity and
temperature with a slope 2.88 \pm 0.15. With reasonable assumptions regarding
cluster structure, we infer an upper limit on fractional variations in the
intracluster gas fraction <(\delta\fgas/\fgas)^2)^1/2 \le 15%. Imaging data
from the literature are employed to determine absolute values of fgas within
spheres encompassing density contrast 500 and 200 with respect to the critical
density. Comparing binding mass estimates based on the virial theorem (VT) and
the hydrostatic, betamodel (BM), we find a temperature-dependent discrepancy in
fgas between the two methods caused by sytematic variation of the outer slope
parameter beta with temperature. There is evidence that cool clusters have a
lower mean gas fraction that hot clusters, but it is not possible to assess the
statistical significance of this effect in the present dataset. The temperature
dependance of the ICM density structure, coupled with the increase of the gas
fraction with T in the VT aproach, explains the steepening of the Lx-T
relation. The small variation about the mean gas fraction within this majority
sub-population of clusters presents an important constraint for theories of
galaxy formation and supports arguments against an Einstein-deSitter universe
based on the population mean gas fraction and primordial nucleosynthesis. The
apparent trend of lower gas fractions and more extended atmospheres in low T
systems are consistent with expectations of models incorporating the effects of
galactic winds on the ICM. ABRIDGEDComment: 11 pages, 4 figures, uses mn.sty and epsf.sty, accepted for
publication in MNRAS; minor modifications: discussion added on CF LX (Sec.
3.1);comparison with Allen & Fabian L-T results (Sec.3.1 & Sec.4.4);
statistics precised (3.1), discussion clarified (Sec. 2.2,Sec. 4.4); slight
mistake in the r-T and M-T relation calibration corrected and thus fgas in
Fig.3, Fig 4, Tab 2 slightly change
Sensitivity of galaxy cluster dark energy constraints to halo modeling uncertainties
We perform a sensitivity study of dark energy constraints from galaxy cluster
surveys to uncertainties in the halo mass function, bias and the
mass-observable relation. For a set of idealized surveys, we evaluate
cosmological constraints as priors on sixteen nuisance parameters in the halo
modeling are varied. We find that surveys with a higher mass limit are more
sensitive to mass-observable uncertainties while surveys with low mass limits
that probe more of the mass function shape and evolution are more sensitive to
mass function errors. We examine the correlations among nuisance and
cosmological parameters. Mass function parameters are strongly positively
(negatively) correlated with Omega_DE (w). For the mass-observable parameters,
Omega_DE is most sensitive to the normalization and its redshift evolution
while w is more sensitive to redshift evolution in the variance. While survey
performance is limited mainly by mass-observable uncertainties, the current
level of mass function error is responsible for up to a factor of two
degradation in ideal cosmological constraints. For surveys that probe to low
masses (10^13.5 h^-1 M_sun), even percent-level constraints on model nuisance
parameters result in a degradation of ~ sqrt{2} (2) on Omega_DE (w) relative to
perfect knowledge.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted by PR
Structure in a Loitering Universe
We study the formation of structure for a universe that undergoes a recent
loitering phase. We compare the nonlinear mass distribution to that in a
standard, matter dominated cosmology. The statistical aspects of the clustered
matter are found to be robust to changes in the expansion law, an exception
being that the peculiar velocities are lower by a factor of in the
loitering model. Further, in the loitering scenario, nonlinear growth of
perturbation occurs more recently () than in the matter dominated
case. Differences in the high redshift appearances of the two models will
result but observable consequences depend critically on the chosen form, onset
and duration of the loitering phase.Comment: 8 pages, (uses revtex.sty), 5 figures not included, available on
request, UM AC 92-
Galaxy Tracers and Velocity Bias
This paper examines several methods of tracing galaxies in N-body simulations
and their effects on the derived galaxy statistics, especially measurements of
velocity bias. Using two simulations with identical initial conditions, one
following dark matter only and the other following dark matter and baryons,
both collisionless and collisional methods of tracing galaxies are compared to
one another and against a set of idealized criteria. None of the collisionless
methods proves satisfactory, including an elaborate scheme developed here to
circumvent previously known problems. The main problem is that galactic
overdensities are both secularly and impulsively disrupted while orbiting in
cluster potentials. With dissipation, the baryonic tracers have much higher
density contrasts and much smaller cross sections, allowing them to remain
distinct within the cluster potential. The question remains whether the
incomplete physical model introduces systematic biases. Statistical measures
determined from simulations can vary significantly based solely on the galaxy
tracing method utilized. The two point correlation function differs most on
sub-cluster scales with generally good agreement on larger scales. Pairwise
velocity dispersions show less uniformity on all scales addressed here. All
tracing methods show a velocity bias to varying degrees, but the predictions
are not firm: either the tracing method is not robust or the statistical
significance has not been demonstrated. Though theoretical arguments suggest
that a mild velocity bias should exist, simulation results are not yet
conclusive.Comment: ApJ, in press, 23 pages, plain TeX, 8 of 13 figures included, all
PostScript figures (4.8 MB) available via anonymous ftp from
ftp://astro.princeton.edu/summers/tracers . Also available as POPe-616 on
http://astro.princeton.edu/~library/prep.htm
Mass Estimates of X-Ray Clusters
We use cosmological gas dynamic simulations to investigate the accuracy of
galaxy cluster mass estimates based on X-ray observations. The experiments
follow the formation of clusters in different cosmological models and include
the effects of gravity, pressure gradients, and hydrodynamical shocks. A subset
of our ensemble also allows for feedback of mass and energy from galactic winds
into the intracluster medium. We find that mass estimates based on the
hydrostatic, isothermal beta-model are remarkably accurate when evaluated at
radii where the cluster mean density is between 500-2500 times the critical
density. Applied to 174 artificial ROSAT images constructed from the
simulations, the distribution of the estimated-to-true mass ratio is nearly
unbiased and has a standard deviation of 14-29%. The scatter can be
considerably reduced (to 8-15%) by using an alternative mass estimator that
exploits the tightness of the mass-temperature relation found in the
simulations. The improvement over beta-model estimates is due to the
elimination of the variance contributed by the gas outer slope parameter. We
discuss these findings and their implications for recent measurements of
cluster baryon fractions.Comment: TeX, 24p; 11 Postscript figs. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
A Model for Multi-property Galaxy Cluster Statistics
The massive dark matter halos that host groups and clusters of galaxies have
observable properties that appear to be log-normally distributed about
power-law mean scaling relations in halo mass. Coupling this assumption with
either quadratic or cubic approximations to the mass function in log space, we
derive closed-form expressions for the space density of halos as a function of
multiple observables as well as forms for the low-order moments of properties
of observable-selected samples. Using a Tinker mass function in a {\Lambda}CDM
cosmology, we show that the cubic analytic model reproduces results obtained
from direct, numerical convolution at the 10 percent level or better over
nearly the full range of observables covered by current observations and for
redshifts extending to z = 1.5. The model provides an efficient framework for
estimating effects arising from selection and covariance among observable
properties in survey samples.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, uses on-line mass function calculator
http://hmf.icrar.org/. Submitted to MNRA
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