scholarly journals Understanding the large inferred Einstein radii of observed low-mass galaxy clusters

2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (4) ◽  
pp. 4706-4712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Robertson ◽  
Richard Massey ◽  
Vincent Eke

ABSTRACT We assess a claim that observed galaxy clusters with mass ${\sim}10^{14} \mathrm{\, M_\odot }$ are more centrally concentrated than predicted in lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM). We generate mock strong gravitational lensing observations, taking the lenses from a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, and analyse them in the same way as the real Universe. The observed and simulated lensing arcs are consistent with one another, with three main effects responsible for the previously claimed inconsistency. First, galaxy clusters containing baryonic matter have higher central densities than their counterparts simulated with only dark matter. Secondly, a sample of clusters selected because of the presence of pronounced gravitational lensing arcs preferentially finds centrally concentrated clusters with large Einstein radii. Thirdly, lensed arcs are usually straighter than critical curves, and the chosen image analysis method (fitting circles through the arcs) overestimates the Einstein radii. After accounting for these three effects, ΛCDM predicts that galaxy clusters should produce giant lensing arcs that match those in the observed Universe.

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 369 (6509) ◽  
pp. 1347-1351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Meneghetti ◽  
Guido Davoli ◽  
Pietro Bergamini ◽  
Piero Rosati ◽  
Priyamvada Natarajan ◽  
...  

Cold dark matter (CDM) constitutes most of the matter in the Universe. The interplay between dark and luminous matter in dense cosmic environments, such as galaxy clusters, is studied theoretically using cosmological simulations. Observations of gravitational lensing are used to characterize the properties of substructures—the small-scale distribution of dark matter—in clusters. We derive a metric, the probability of strong lensing events produced by dark-matter substructure, and compute it for 11 galaxy clusters. The observed cluster substructures are more efficient lenses than predicted by CDM simulations, by more than an order of magnitude. We suggest that systematic issues with simulations or incorrect assumptions about the properties of dark matter could explain our results.


2019 ◽  
Vol 488 (3) ◽  
pp. 3646-3662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Robertson ◽  
David Harvey ◽  
Richard Massey ◽  
Vincent Eke ◽  
Ian G McCarthy ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We present bahamas-SIDM, the first large-volume, $(400 \, h^{-1} \mathrm{\, Mpc})^{3}$, cosmological simulations including both self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) and baryonic physics. These simulations are important for two primary reasons: (1) they include the effects of baryons on the dark matter distribution and (2) the baryon particles can be used to make mock observables that can be compared directly with observations. As is well known, SIDM haloes are systematically less dense in their centres, and rounder, than CDM haloes. Here, we find that that these changes are not reflected in the distribution of gas or stars within galaxy clusters, or in their X-ray luminosities. However, gravitational lensing observables can discriminate between DM models, and we present a menu of tests that future surveys could use to measure the SIDM interaction strength. We ray-trace our simulated galaxy clusters to produce strong lensing maps. Including baryons boosts the lensing strength of clusters that produce no critical curves in SIDM-only simulations. Comparing the Einstein radii of our simulated clusters with those observed in the CLASH survey, we find that at velocities around $1000 \mathrm{\, km \, s^{-1}}$ an SIDM cross-section of $\sigma /m \gtrsim 1 \, \mathrm{cm^2 \, g^{-1}}$ is likely incompatible with observed cluster lensing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Man Ho Chan

Abstract Galaxy clusters are good targets for examining our understanding of cosmology. Apart from numerical simulations and gravitational lensing, X-ray observation is the most common and conventional way to analyze the gravitational structures of galaxy clusters. Therefore, it is valuable to have simple analytical relations that can connect the observed distribution of the hot, X-ray-emitting gas to the structure of the dark matter in the clusters as derived from simulations. In this article, we apply a simple framework that can analytically connect the hot gas empirical parameters with the standard parameters in the cosmological cold dark matter model. We have theoretically derived two important analytic relations, r s ≈ 3 r c and ρ s ≈ 9 β kT / 8 π Gm g r c 2 , which can easily relate the dark matter properties in galaxy clusters with the hot gas properties. This can give a consistent picture describing gravitational astrophysics for galaxy clusters by the hot gas and cold dark matter models.


2021 ◽  
Vol 504 (1) ◽  
pp. 648-653
Author(s):  
Nilanjan Banik ◽  
Jo Bovy

ABSTRACT Stellar tidal streams are sensitive tracers of the properties of the gravitational potential in which they orbit and detailed observations of their density structure can be used to place stringent constraints on fluctuations in the potential caused by, e.g. the expected populations of dark matter subhaloes in the standard cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm. Simulations of the evolution of stellar streams in live N-body haloes without low-mass dark matter subhaloes, however, indicate that streams exhibit significant perturbations on small scales even in the absence of substructure. Here, we demonstrate, using high-resolution N-body simulations combined with sophisticated semi-analytical and simple analytical models, that the mass resolutions of 104–$10^5\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$ commonly used to perform such simulations cause spurious stream density variations with a similar magnitude on large scales as those expected from a CDM-like subhalo population and an order of magnitude larger on small, yet observable, scales. We estimate that mass resolutions of ${\approx}100\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$ (${\approx}1\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$) are necessary for spurious, numerical density variations to be well below the CDM subhalo expectation on large (small) scales. That streams are sensitive to a simulation’s particle mass down to such small masses indicates that streams are sensitive to dark matter clustering down to these low masses if a significant fraction of the dark matter is clustered or concentrated in this way, for example, in MACHO models with masses of 10–$100\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$.


2021 ◽  
Vol 502 (2) ◽  
pp. 2364-2380
Author(s):  
Nilanjan Banik ◽  
Jo Bovy ◽  
Gianfranco Bertone ◽  
Denis Erkal ◽  
T J L de Boer

ABSTRACT New data from the Gaia satellite, when combined with accurate photometry from the Pan-STARRS survey, allow us to accurately estimate the properties of the GD-1 stream. Here, we analyse the stellar density variations in the GD-1 stream and show that they cannot be due to known baryonic structures such as giant molecular clouds, globular clusters, or the Milky Way’s bar or spiral arms. A joint analysis of the GD-1 and Pal 5 streams instead requires a population of dark substructures with masses ≈107–$10^9 \ \rm {M}_{\odot }$. We infer a total abundance of dark subhaloes normalized to standard cold dark matter $n_{\rm sub}/n_{\rm sub, CDM} = 0.4 ^{+0.3}_{-0.2}$ (68 per cent), which corresponds to a mass fraction contained in the subhaloes $f_{\rm {sub}} = 0.14 ^{+0.11}_{-0.07} {{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, compatible with the predictions of hydrodynamical simulation of cold dark matter with baryons.


2018 ◽  
Vol 614 ◽  
pp. A8 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Chirivì ◽  
S. H. Suyu ◽  
C. Grillo ◽  
A. Halkola ◽  
I. Balestra ◽  
...  

Exploiting the powerful tool of strong gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters to study the highest-redshift Universe and cluster mass distributions relies on precise lens mass modelling. In this work, we aim to present the first attempt at modelling line-of-sight (LOS) mass distribution in addition to that of the cluster, extending previous modelling techniques that assume mass distributions to be on a single lens plane. We have focussed on the Hubble Frontier Field cluster MACS J0416.1–2403, and our multi-plane model reproduces the observed image positions with a rms offset of ~0.′′53. Starting from this best-fitting model, we simulated a mock cluster that resembles MACS J0416.1–2403 in order to explore the effects of LOS structures on cluster mass modelling. By systematically analysing the mock cluster under different model assumptions, we find that neglecting the lensing environment has a significant impact on the reconstruction of image positions (rms ~0.′′3); accounting for LOS galaxies as if they were at the cluster redshift can partially reduce this offset. Moreover, foreground galaxies are more important to include into the model than the background ones. While the magnification factor of the lensed multiple images are recovered within ~10% for ~95% of them, those ~5% that lie near critical curves can be significantly affected by the exclusion of the lensing environment in the models. In addition, LOS galaxies cannot explain the apparent discrepancy in the properties of massive sub-halos between MACS J0416.1–2403 and N-body simulated clusters. Since our model of MACS J0416.1–2403 with LOS galaxies only reduced modestly the rms offset in the image positions, we conclude that additional complexities would be needed in future models of MACS J0416.1–2403.


2004 ◽  
Vol 604 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Sand ◽  
Tommaso Treu ◽  
Graham P. Smith ◽  
Richard S. Ellis

2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (3) ◽  
pp. 2941-2953 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anchal Saxena ◽  
Suman Majumdar ◽  
Mohd Kamran ◽  
Matteo Viel

ABSTRACT The nature of dark matter sets the timeline for the formation of first collapsed haloes and thus affects the sources of reionization. Here, we consider two different models of dark matter: cold dark matter (CDM) and thermal warm dark matter (WDM), and study how they impact the epoch of reionization (EoR) and its 21-cm observables. Using a suite of simulations, we find that in WDM scenarios, the structure formation on small scales gets suppressed, resulting in a smaller number of low-mass dark matter haloes compared to the CDM scenario. Assuming that the efficiency of sources in producing ionizing photons remains the same, this leads to a lower number of total ionizing photons produced at any given cosmic time, thus causing a delay in the reionization process. We also find visual differences in the neutral hydrogen (H i) topology and in 21-cm maps in case of the WDM compared to the CDM. However, differences in the 21-cm power spectra, at the same neutral fraction, are found to be small. Thus, we focus on the non-Gaussianity in the EoR 21-cm signal, quantified through its bispectrum. We find that the 21-cm bispectra (driven by the H i topology) are significantly different in WDM models compared to the CDM, even for the same mass-averaged neutral fractions. This establishes that the 21-cm bispectrum is a unique and promising way to differentiate between dark matter models, and can be used to constrain the nature of the dark matter in the future EoR observations.


2001 ◽  
Vol 563 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weihsueh A. Chiu ◽  
Nickolay Y. Gnedin ◽  
Jeremiah P. Ostriker

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