The apparent distribution of large-scale structures in the Universe is sensitive to the velocity/potential of the sources as well as the potential along the line of sight through the mapping from ...real space to redshift space (redshift-space distortions, RSD). Since odd multipoles of the halo cross-correlation function vanish when considering standard Doppler RSD, the dipole is a sensitive probe of relativistic and wide-angle effects. We build a catalogue of ten million haloes (Milky Way size to galaxy-cluster size) from the full-sky light cone of a new ‘RayGalGroupSims’ N-body simulation which covers a volume of (2.625 h^−1 Gpc)^3 with 4096^3 particles. Using ray-tracing techniques, we find the null geodesics connecting all the sources to the observer. We then self-consistently derive all the relativistic contributions (in the weak-field approximation) to RSD: Doppler, transverse Doppler, gravitational, lensing and integrated Sachs–Wolfe. It allows us, for the first time, to disentangle all contributions to the dipole from linear to non-linear scales. At large scale, we recover the linear predictions dominated by a contribution from the divergence of neighbouring line of sights. While the linear theory remains a reasonable approximation of the velocity contribution to the dipole at non-linear scales it fails to reproduce the potential contribution below 30–60 h^−1 Mpc (depending on the halo mass). At scales smaller than ∼10 h^−1 Mpc, the dipole is dominated by the asymmetry caused by the gravitational redshift. The transition between the two regimes is mass dependent as well. We also identify a new non-trivial contribution from the non-linear coupling between potential and velocity terms.
ABSTRACT
Using the motion of accreting particles on to haloes in cosmological N-body simulations, we study the radial phase-space structures of cold dark matter (CDM) haloes. In CDM cosmology, ...formation of virialized haloes generically produces radial caustics, followed by multistream flows of accreted dark matter inside the haloes. In particular, the radius of the outermost caustic called the splashback radius exhibits a sharp drop in the slope of the density profile. Here, we focus on the multistream structure of CDM haloes inside the splashback radius. To analyse this, we use and extend the SPARTA algorithm developed by Diemer. By tracking the particle trajectories accreting on to the haloes, we count their number of apocentre passages, which is then used to reveal the multistream flows of the dark matter particles. The resultant multistream structure in radial phase space is compared with the prediction of the self-similar solution by Fillmore & Goldreich for each halo. We find that $\sim \!30{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the simulated haloes satisfy our criteria to be regarded as being well fitted to the self-similar solution. The fitting parameters in the self-similar solution characterize physical properties of the haloes, including the mass accretion rate and the size of the outermost caustic (i.e. the splashback radius). We discuss in detail the correlation of these fitting parameters and other measures directly extracted from the N-body simulation.
ABSTRACT
Redshift-space distortions (RSD) in galaxy redshift surveys generally break both the isotropy and homogeneity of galaxy distribution. While the former aspect is particularly highlighted as a ...probe of growth of structure induced by gravity, the latter aspect, often quoted as wide-angle RSD but ignored in most of the cases, will become important and critical to account for as increasing the statistical precision in next-generation surveys. However, the impact of wide-angle RSD has been mostly studied using linear perturbation theory. In this paper, employing the Zel’dovich approximation, i.e. first-order Lagrangian perturbation theory for gravitational evolution of matter fluctuations, we present a quasi-linear treatment of wide-angle RSD, and compute the cross-correlation function. The present formalism consistently reproduces linear theory results, and can be easily extended to incorporate relativistic corrections (e.g. gravitational redshift).
The ever increasing size and complexity of data coming from simulations of cosmic structure formation demand equally sophisticated tools for their analysis. During the past decade, the art of object ...finding in these simulations has hence developed into an important discipline itself. A multitude of codes based upon a huge variety of methods and techniques have been spawned yet the question remained as to whether or not they will provide the same (physical) information about the structures of interest. Here we summarize and extent previous work of the 'halo finder comparison project': we investigate in detail the (possible) origin of any deviations across finders. To this extent, we decipher and discuss differences in halo-finding methods, clearly separating them from the disparity in definitions of halo properties. We observe that different codes not only find different numbers of objects leading to a scatter of up to 20 per cent in the halo mass and V
max function, but also that the particulars of those objects that are identified by all finders differ. The strength of the variation, however, depends on the property studied, e.g. the scatter in position, bulk velocity, mass and the peak value of the rotation curve is practically below a few per cent, whereas derived quantities such as spin and shape show larger deviations. Our study indicates that the prime contribution to differences in halo properties across codes stems from the distinct particle collection methods and - to a minor extent - the particular aspects of how the procedure for removing unbound particles is implemented. We close with a discussion of the relevance and implications of the scatter across different codes for other fields such as semi-analytical galaxy formation models, gravitational lensing and observables in general.
A number of studies have shown that the convective stability criterion for the intracluster medium (ICM) is very different from the Schwarzchild criterion, due to the effects of anlsotropic thermal ...conduction and cosmic rays. Building on these studies, we develop a model of the ICM in which a central active galactic nucleus (AGN) accretes hot intracluster plasma at the Bondi rate and produces cosmic rays that cause the ICM to become convectively unstable. The resulting convection heats the intracluster plasma and regulates its temperature and density profiles. By adjusting a single parameter in the model (the size of the cosmic-ray acceleration region), we are able to achieve a good match to the observed density and temperature profiles in a sample of eight clusters. Our results suggest that convection is an important process in cluster cores. An interesting feature of our solutions is that the cooling rate is more sharply peaked about the cluster center than is the convective heating rate. As a result, in several of the clusters in our sample, a compact cooling flow arises in the central region with a size r sub(d)that is typically a few kpc. The cooling flow matches onto a Bondi flow at smaller radii. The mass accretion rate in the Bondi flow is equal to, and controlled by, the rate at which mass flows in through the cooling flow. Our solutions suggest that the AGN regulates the mass accretion rate in these clusters by controlling r sub(d): if the AGN power rises above the equilibrium level, r sub(d) decreases, the mass accretion rate drops, and the AGN power drops back down to the equilibrium level.
ABSTRACT
In order to probe modifications of gravity at cosmological scales, one needs accurate theoretical predictions. N-body simulations are required to explore the non-linear regime of structure ...formation but are very time consuming. In this work, we release a new public emulator, dubbed e-mantis, that performs an accurate and fast interpolation between the predictions of f(R) modified gravity cosmological simulations, run with ecosmog. We sample a wide 3D parameter space given by the current background scalar field value $10^{-7}\lt \left|f_{R_0}\right|\lt 10^{-4}$, matter density 0.24 < Ωm < 0.39, and primordial power spectrum normalization 0.6 < σ8 < 1.0, with 110 points sampled from a Latin hypercube. For each model we perform pairs of f(R)CDM and ΛCDM simulations covering an effective volume of $\left(560 \, h^{-1}\, \mathrm{Mpc}\right)^3$ with a mass resolution of ∼2 × 1010h−1M⊙. We build an emulator for the matter power spectrum boost B(k) = Pf(R)(k)/PΛCDM(k) using a Gaussian process regression method. The boost is mostly independent of h, ns, and Ωb, which reduces the dimensionality of the relevant cosmological parameter space. Additionally, it is more robust against statistical and systematic errors than the raw power spectrum, thus strongly reducing our computational needs. According to our dedicated study of numerical systematics, the resulting emulator has an estimated maximum error of 3 per cent across the whole cosmological parameter space, for scales $0.03 \ h\, \mathrm{Mpc}^{-1} \lt k \lt 7 \ h\, \mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, and redshifts 0 < z < 2, while in most cases the accuracy is better than 1 per cent. Such an emulator could be used to constrain f(R) gravity with weak lensing analyses.
ABSTRACT
It has been recently recognized that the observational relativistic effects, mainly arising from the light propagation in an inhomogeneous universe, induce the dipole asymmetry in the ...cross-correlation function of galaxies. In particular, the dipole asymmetry at small scales is shown to be dominated by the gravitational redshift effects. In this paper, we exploit a simple analytical description for the dipole asymmetry in the cross-correlation function valid at quasi-linear regime. In contrast to the previous model, a new prescription involves only 1D integrals, providing a faster way to reproduce the results obtained by Saga et al. Using the analytical model, we discuss the detectability of the dipole signal induced by the gravitational redshift effect from upcoming galaxy surveys. The gravitational redshift effect at small scales enhances the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the dipole, and in most of the cases considered, the S/N is found to reach a maximum at z ≈ 0.5. We show that current and future surveys such as DESI and SKA provide an idealistic data set, giving a large S/N of 10–20. Two potential systematics arising from off-centred galaxies are also discussed (transverse Doppler effect and diminution of the gravitational redshift effect), and their impacts are found to be mitigated by a partial cancellation between two competitive effects. Thus, the detection of the dipole signal at small scales is directly linked to the gravitational redshift effect, and should provide an alternative route to test gravity.
The dark matter halo sparsity provides a direct observational proxy of the halo mass profile, characterizing halos in terms of the ratio of masses within radii which enclose two different ...overdensities. Previous numerical simulation analyses have shown that at a given redshift the halo sparsity carries cosmological information encoded in the halo mass profile. Moreover, its ensemble averaged value can be inferred from prior knowledge of the halo mass function at the overdensities of interest. Here, we present a detailed study of the ensemble average properties of the halo sparsity. In particular, using halo catalogs from high-resolution N-body simulations, we show that its ensemble average value can be estimated from the ratio of the averages of the inverse halo masses as well as the ratio of the averages of the halo masses at the overdensity of interests. This can be relevant for galaxy clusters data analyses. As an example, we have estimated the average sparsity properties of galaxy clusters from the LoCuSS and HIFLUGCS datasets respectively. The results suggest that the expected consistency of the different average sparsity estimates can provide a test of the robustness of mass measurements in galaxy cluster samples.
The environmental dependence of galaxy clustering encodes information about the physical processes governing the growth of cosmic structure. We analyse the baryon acoustic peak as a function of ...environment in the galaxy correlation function of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey CMASS sample. Dividing the sample into three sub-sets by smoothed local overdensity, we detect acoustic peaks in the six separate autocorrelation and cross-correlation functions of the sub-samples. Fitting models to these correlation functions, calibrated by mock galaxy and dark matter catalogues, we find that the inferred distance scale is independent of environment, and consistent with the result of analysing the combined sample. The shape of the baryon acoustic feature, and the accuracy of density-field reconstruction in the Zeldovich approximation, varies with environment. By up-weighting underdense regions and down-weighting overdense regions in their contribution to the full-sample correlation function, by up to |$50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$|, we achieve a fractional improvement of a few per cent in the precision of baryon acoustic oscillation fits to the CMASS data and mock catalogues: the scatter in the preferred-scale fits to the ensemble of mocks improves from |$1.45{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| to |$1.34{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| (pre-reconstruction) and |$1.03{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| to |$1.00{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| (post-reconstruction). These results are consistent with the notion that the acoustic peak is sharper in underdense environments.
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