Galaxy shapes and intrinsic alignments in the MassiveBlack-II simulation
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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
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EMMA: an adaptive mesh refinement cosmological simulation code with radiative transfer
EMMA is a cosmological simulation code aimed at investigating the reionization epoch. It handles simultaneously collisionless and gas dynamics, as well as radiative transfer physics using a moment-based description with the M1 approximation. Field quantities are stored and computed on an adaptive three-dimensional mesh and the spatial resolution can be dynamically modified based on physically motivated criteria. Physical processes can be coupled at all spatial and temporal scales. We also introduce a new and optional approximation to handle radiation: the light is transported at the resolution of the non-refined grid and only once the dynamics has been fully updated, whereas thermo-chemical processes are still tracked on the refined elements. Such an approximation reduces the overheads induced by the treatment of radiation physics. A suite of standard tests are presented and passed by EMMA, providing a validation for its future use in studies of the reionization epoch. The code is parallel and is able to use graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate hydrodynamics and radiative transfer calculations. Depending on the optimizations and the compilers used to generate the CPU reference, global GPU acceleration factors between ×3.9 and ×16.9 can be obtained. As a result, vectorization and transfer operations currently prevent better GPU performance and we expect that future optimizations and hardware evolution will lead to greater accelerations.
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Luminosity function of [OII] emission-line galaxies in the MassiveBlack-II simulation
We examine the luminosity function (LF) of [OII] emission-line galaxies in the high-resolution cosmological simulation MassiveBlack-II (MBII). From the spectral energy distribution of each galaxy, we select a sub-sample of star-forming galaxies at 0.06 ≤ z ≤ 3.0 using the [OII] emission line luminosity L([OII]). We confirm that the specific star formation rate matches that in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. We show that the [OII] LF at z = 1.0 from the MBII shows good agreement with the LFs from several surveys below L([OII]) = 10 43.0 erg s –1 while the low redshifts (z ≤ 0.3) show an excess in the prediction of bright [OII] galaxies, but still displaying a good match with observations below L([OII]) = 10 41.6 erg s –1 . Based on the validity in reproducing the properties of [OII] galaxies at low redshift (z ≤ 1), we forecast the evolution of the [OII] LF at high redshift (z ≤ 3), which can be tested by upcoming surveys such as the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. The slopes of the LFs at bright and faint ends range from –3 to –2 showing minima at z = 2. The slope of the bright end evolves approximately as (z + 1) –1 at z ≤ 2 while the faint end evolves as ~3(z + 1) –1 at 0.6 ≤ z ≤ 2. In addition, a similar analysis is applied for the evolution of [OIII] LFs, which is to be explored in the forthcoming survey Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope-Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets. As a result, we show that the auto-correlation function of [OII] and [OIII] emitting galaxies shows a rapid evolution from z = 2 to 1.
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Non-linear violent disc instability with high Toomre's Q in high-redshift clumpy disc galaxies
We utilize zoom-in cosmological simulations to study the nature of violent disc instability in clumpy galaxies at high redshift, z = 1–5. Our simulated galaxies are not in the ideal state assumed in Toomre instability, of linear fluctuations in an isolated, uniform, rotating disc. There, instability is characterized by a Q parameter below unity, and lower when the disc is thick. Instead, the high-redshift discs are highly perturbed. Over long periods they consist of non-linear perturbations, compact massive clumps and extended structures, with new clumps forming in interclump regions. This is while the galaxy is subject to frequent external perturbances. We compute the local, two-component Q parameter for gas and stars, smoothed on a ~1 kpc scale to capture clumps of 10 8-9 M ⊙ . The Q < 1 regions are confined to collapsed clumps due to the high surface density there, while the interclump regions show Q significantly higher than unity. Tracing the clumps back to their relatively smooth Lagrangian patches, we find that Q prior to clump formation typically ranges from unity to a few. This is unlike the expectations from standard Toomre instability. We discuss possible mechanisms for high- Q clump formation, e.g. rapid turbulence decay leading to small clumps that grow by mergers, non-axisymmetric instability, or clump formation induced by non-linear perturbations in the disc. Alternatively, the high- Q non-linear VDI may be stimulated by the external perturbations such as mergers and counter-rotating streams. In conclusion, the high Q may represent excessive compressive modes of turbulence, possibly induced by tidal interactions.
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The MassiveBlack-II simulation: The evolution of haloes and galaxies to z ~ 0
We investigate the properties and clustering of halos, galaxies and blackholes to z = 0 in the high resolution hydrodynamical simulation MassiveBlack-II (MBII). MBII evolves a ΛCDM cosmology in a cubical comoving volume V box = (100Mpc/h)³. It is the highest resolution simulation of this size which includes a self-consistent model for star formation, black hole accretion and associated feedback. We provide a simulation browser web application which enables interactive search and tagging of the halos, subhalos and their properties and publicly release our galaxy catalogs to the scientific community. Our analysis of the halo mass function in MBII reveals that baryons have strong effects with changes in the halo abundance of 20–35% below the knee of the mass function (M halo 10 13.2 M ⊙ h at z = 0) when compared to dark-matter-only simulations. We provide a fitting function for the halo MF out to redshift z = 11 and discuss its limitations.
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Universal clustering of dark matter in phase space
We have recently introduced a novel statistical measure of dark matter clustering in phase space, the particle phase-space average density (P 2 SAD). In a two-paper series, we studied the structure of P 2 SAD in the Milky Way-size Aquarius haloes, constructed a physically motivated model to describe it, and illustrated its potential as a powerful tool to predict signals sensitive to the nanostructure of dark matter haloes. In this work, we report a remarkable universality of the clustering of dark matter in phase space as measured by P 2 SAD within the subhaloes of host haloes across different environments covering a range from dwarf-size to cluster-size haloes (10 10 –10 15 M ⊙ ). Simulations show that the universality of P 2 SAD holds for more than seven orders of magnitude, over a 2D phase space, covering over three orders of magnitude in distance/velocity, with a simple functional form that can be described by our model. Invoking the universality of P 2 SAD, we can accurately predict the non-linear power spectrum of dark matter at small scales all the way down to the decoupling mass limit of cold dark matter particles. As an application, we compute the subhalo boost to the annihilation of dark matter in a wide range of host halo masses.
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Rhapsody-G simulations I: the cool cores, hot gas and stellar content of massive galaxy clusters
We present the rhapsody-g suite of cosmological hydrodynamic zoom simulations of 10 massive galaxy clusters at the M vir ~10 15 M ⊙ scale. These simulations include cooling and subresolution models for star formation and stellar and supermassive black hole feedback. The sample is selected to capture the whole gamut of assembly histories that produce clusters of similar final mass. We present an overview of the successes and shortcomings of such simulations in reproducing both the stellar properties of galaxies as well as properties of the hot plasma in clusters. In our simulations, a long-lived cool-core/non-cool-core dichotomy arises naturally, and the emergence of non-cool cores is related to low angular momentum major mergers. Nevertheless, the cool-core clusters exhibit a low central entropy compared to observations, which cannot be alleviated by thermal active galactic nuclei feedback. For cluster scaling relations, we find that the simulations match well the M 500 –Y 500 scaling of Planck Sunyaev–Zeldovich clusters but deviate somewhat from the observed X-ray luminosity and temperature scaling relations in the sense of being slightly too bright and too cool at fixed mass, respectively. Stars are produced at an efficiency consistent with abundance-matching constraints and central galaxies have star formation rates consistent with recent observations. In conclusion, while our simulations thus match various key properties remarkably well, we conclude that the shortcomings strongly suggest an important role for non-thermal processes (through feedback or otherwise) or thermal conduction in shaping the intracluster medium.
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Sample variance in the local measurements of the Hubble constant
The current >3σ tension between the Hubble constant H 0 measured from local distance indicators and from cosmic microwave background is one of the most highly debated issues in cosmology, as it possibly indicates new physics or unknown systematics. In this work, we explore whether this tension can be alleviated by the sample variance in the local measurements, which use a small fraction of the Hubble volume. We use a large-volume cosmological N-body simulation to model the local measurements and to quantify the variance due to local density fluctuations and sample selection. We explicitly take into account the inhomogeneous spatial distribution of type Ia supernovae. Despite the faithful modelling of the observations, our results confirm previous findings that sample variance in the local Hubble constant ($H$ $^{loc}_{0}$) measurements is small; we find σ ($H$ $^{loc}_{0}$)=0.31km s -1 Mpc -1 a nearly negligible fraction of the ~6 km s -1 Mpc -1 necessary to explain the difference between the local and global H 0 measurements. While the H 0 tension could in principle be explained by our local neighbourhood being a underdense region of radius ~150 Mpc, the extreme required underdensity of such a void (δ ≃ -0.8) makes it very unlikely in a ΛCDM universe, and it also violates existing observational constraints. Furthermore, sample variance in a ΛCDM universe cannot appreciably alleviate the tension in H 0 measurements even after taking into account the inhomogeneous selection of type Ia supernovae.
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Beyond assembly bias: exploring secondary halo biases for cluster-size haloes
Secondary halo bias, commonly known as ‘assembly bias’, is the dependence of halo clustering on a halo property other than mass. This prediction of the Λ Cold Dark Matter cosmology is essential to modelling the galaxy distribution to high precision and interpreting clustering measurements. As the name suggests, different manifestations of secondary halo bias have been thought to originate from halo assembly histories. We show conclusively that this is incorrect for cluster-size haloes. We present an up-to-date summary of secondary halo biases of high-mass haloes due to various halo properties including concentration, spin, several proxies of assembly history, and subhalo properties. While concentration, spin, and the abundance and radial distribution of subhaloes exhibit significant secondary biases, properties that directly quantify halo assembly history do not. In fact, the entire assembly histories of haloes in pairs are nearly identical to those of isolated haloes. In general, a global correlation between two halo properties does not predict whether or not these two properties exhibit similar secondary biases. For example, assembly history and concentration (or subhalo abundance) are correlated for both paired and isolated haloes, but follow slightly different conditional distributions in these two cases. Lastly, this results in a secondary halo bias due to concentration (or subhalo abundance), despite the lack of assembly bias in the strict sense for cluster-size haloes. Due to this complexity, caution must be exercised in using any one halo property as a proxy to study the secondary bias due to another property.
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Microlensing as a possible probe of event-horizon structure in quasars
In quasars which are lensed by galaxies, the point-like images sometimes show sharp and uncorrelated brightness variations (microlensing). These brightness changes are associated with the innermost region of the quasar passing through a complicated pattern of caustics produced by the stars in the lensing galaxy. In this paper, we study whether the universal properties of optical caustics could enable extraction of shape information about the central engine of quasars. We present a toy model with a crescent-shaped source crossing a fold caustic. The silhouette of a black hole over an accretion disk tends to produce roughly crescent sources. When a crescent-shaped source crosses a fold caustic, the resulting light curve is noticeably different from the case of a circular luminosity profile or Gaussian source. Furthermore, with good enough monitoring data, the crescent parameters, apart from one degeneracy, can be recovered.
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Spatial clustering of dark matter haloes: secondary bias, neighbour bias, and the influence of massive neighbours on halo properties
Here, we explore the phenomenon commonly known as halo assembly bias, whereby dark matter haloes of the same mass are found to be more or less clustered when a second halo property is considered, for haloes in the mass range 3.7 × 10 11 –5.0 × 10 13 h –1 M ⊙ . Using the Large Suite of Dark Matter Simulations (LasDamas) we consider nine commonly used halo properties and find that a clustering bias exists if haloes are binned by mass or by any other halo property. This secondary bias implies that no single halo property encompasses all the spatial clustering information of the halo population. The mean values of some halo properties depend on their halo's distance to a more massive neighbour. Halo samples selected by having high values of one of these properties therefore inherit a neighbour bias such that they are much more likely to be close to a much more massive neighbour. This neighbour bias largely accounts for the secondary bias seen in haloes binned by mass and split by concentration or age. However, haloes binned by other mass-like properties still show a secondary bias even when the neighbour bias is removed. The secondary bias of haloes selected by their spin behaves differently than that for other halo properties, suggesting that the origin of the spin bias is different than of other secondary biases .
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Simulating radiative magnetohydrodynamical flows with astrobear : implementation and applications of non-equilibrium cooling
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(ISM:) Herbig-Haro objects↗
HOCO formation in astrochemical environments by radical-induced H-abstraction from formic acid
Rate constants for the radical-induced hydrogen abstraction from formic acid, HCOOH, are presented here. Only those reactions leading to the formation of HOCO were investigated. The astrochemically relevant radicals OH, NH 2 , and H were considered to induce the H-abstraction. Tunnelling was taken into account by using the instanton method for rate constant calculations. For reactions relevant on grain surfaces, the unimolecular rate constant is of particular importance. For the reactions with OH and NH 2 , a corresponding deep pre-reactive minimum can be found that contributes to the barrier height and thus slows down the reaction. In general though, abstraction induced by OH radicals is found to be the fastest. The reaction with the H atoms becomes increasingly important at low temperatures, because of the narrow barrier through which tunnelling is efficient. In conclusion, the reaction with NH 2 radicals has both a high and broad barrier and consequently shows significantly smaller low-temperature rate constants.
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
Dark matter haloes in the multicomponent model – II. Density profiles of galactic haloes
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Dark matter haloes in the multicomponent model – I. Substructure
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The dynamics of stellar discs in live dark-matter haloes
Recent developments in computer hardware and software enable researchers to simulate the self-gravitating evolution of galaxies at a resolution comparable to the actual number of stars. Here we present the results of a series of such simulations. In this study, we performed N-body simulations of disc galaxies with between 100 and 500 million particles over a wide range of initial conditions. Our calculations include a live bulge, disc, and dark-matter halo, each of which is represented by self-gravitating particles in the N-body code. The simulations are performed using the gravitational N-body tree-code BONSAI running on the Piz Daint supercomputer. We find that the time-scale over which the bar forms increases exponentially with decreasing disc-mass fraction and that the bar formation epoch exceeds a Hubble time when the disc-mass fraction is ~0.35. These results can be explained with the swing-amplification theory. The condition for the formation of m = 2 spirals is consistent with that for the formation of the bar, which is also an m = 2 phenomenon. We further argue that the non-barred grand-design spiral galaxies are transitional, and that they evolve to barred galaxies on a dynamical time-scale. We also confirm that the disc-mass fraction and shear rate are important parameters for the morphology of disc galaxies. The former affects the number of spiral arms and the bar formation epoch, and the latter determines the pitch angle of the spiral arms.
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CGM properties in VELA and NIHAO simulations; the OVI ionization mechanism: dependence on redshift, halo mass, and radius
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