scholarly journals Numerical convergence of simulations of galaxy formation: the abundance and internal structure of cold dark matter haloes

2019 ◽  
Vol 488 (3) ◽  
pp. 3663-3684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron D Ludlow ◽  
Joop Schaye ◽  
Richard Bower
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
Particle Number ◽  
Velocity Profiles ◽  
Scaling Relations ◽  
Cosmological Simulations ◽  
Particle Spacing ◽  
Circular Velocity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT We study the impact of numerical parameters on the properties of cold dark matter haloes formed in collisionless cosmological simulations. We quantify convergence in the median spherically averaged circular velocity profiles for haloes of widely varying particle number, as well as in the statistics of their structural scaling relations and mass functions. In agreement with prior work focused on single haloes, our results suggest that cosmological simulations yield robust halo properties for a wide range of gravitational softening parameters, ϵ, provided: (1) ϵ is not larger than a ‘convergence radius’, rconv, which is dictated by two-body relaxation and determined by particle number, and (2) a sufficient number of time-steps are taken to accurately resolve particle orbits with short dynamical times. Provided these conditions are met, median circular velocity profiles converge to within ≈10 per cent for radii beyond which the local two-body relaxation time-scale exceeds the Hubble time by a factor $\kappa \equiv t_{\rm relax}/t_{\rm H}\rm{\,\, \buildrel\gt \over \sim \,\,}0.177$, with better convergence attained for higher κ. We provide analytic estimates of rconv that build on previous attempts in two ways: first, by highlighting its explicit (but weak) softening-dependence and, second, by providing a simpler criterion in which rconv is determined entirely by the mean inter-particle spacing, l, for example better than 10 per cent convergence in circular velocity for $r\rm{\,\, \buildrel\gt \over \sim \,\,}0.05\, l$. We show how these analytic criteria can be used to assess convergence in structural scaling relations for dark matter haloes as a function of their mass or maximum circular speed.

scholarly journals How biased are halo properties in cosmological simulations?

2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (3) ◽  
pp. 3309-3328
Author(s):  
Philip Mansfield ◽  
Camille Avestruz
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Empirical Model ◽  
Empirical Models ◽  
Rotation Curves ◽  
Cosmological Simulations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Practical Convergence ◽  
Halo Population ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT Cosmological N-body simulations have been a major tool of theorists for decades, yet many of the numerical issues that these simulations face are still unexplored. This paper measures numerical biases in these large, dark matter-only simulations that affect the properties of their dark matter haloes. We compare many simulation suites in order to provide several tools for simulators and analysts which help mitigate these biases. We summarize our comparisons with practical ‘convergence limits’ that can be applied to a wide range of halo properties, including halo properties which are traditionally overlooked by the testing literature. We also find that the halo properties predicted by different simulations can diverge from one another at unexpectedly high resolutions. We demonstrate that many halo properties depend strongly on force softening scale and that this dependence leads to much of the measured divergence between simulations. We offer an empirical model to estimate the impact of such effects on the rotation curves of a halo population. This model can serve as a template for future empirical models of the biases in other halo properties.

scholarly journals Black Hole Feeding and Feedback in the Context of Galaxy Formation

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S267) ◽  
pp. 411-420
Author(s):  
Rachel S. Somerville
Keyword(s):  
Black Holes ◽  
Black Hole ◽  
Dark Matter ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Supermassive Black Holes ◽  
Cosmological Simulations ◽  
Evolution Of Galaxies ◽  
The Impact

AbstractI describe ways in which state-of-the-art cosmological simulations are modeling the growth and evolution of supermassive black holes (feeding), and the impact of the energy that they release on galaxies and their surroundings (feedback). I then discuss how this new picture of interconnected co-evolution of galaxies and black holes provides plausible explanations for several of the mysteries that have long vexed theorists studying galaxy formation within the hierarchical cold dark matter paradigm.

scholarly journals The impact of inelastic self-interacting dark matter on the dark matter structure of a Milky Way halo

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Ting Eddie Chua ◽  
Karia Dibert ◽  
Mark Vogelsberger ◽  
Jesús Zavala
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Direct Detection ◽  
Major Axis ◽  
Inelastic Collisions ◽  
Axis Ratio ◽  
Lower Velocity ◽  
The Impact

Abstract We study the effects of inelastic dark matter self-interactions on the internal structure of a simulated Milky Way (MW)-size halo. Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) is an alternative to collisionless cold dark matter (CDM) which offers a unique solution to the problems encountered with CDM on sub-galactic scales. Although previous SIDM simulations have mainly considered elastic collisions, theoretical considerations motivate the existence of multi-state dark matter where transitions from the excited to the ground state are exothermic. In this work, we consider a self-interacting, two-state dark matter model with inelastic collisions, implemented in the Arepo code. We find that energy injection from inelastic self-interactions reduces the central density of the MW halo in a shorter timescale relative to the elastic scale, resulting in a larger core size. Inelastic collisions also isotropize the orbits, resulting in an overall lower velocity anisotropy for the inelastic MW halo. In the inner halo, the inelastic SIDM case (minor-to-major axis ratio s ≡ c/a ≈ 0.65) is more spherical than the CDM (s ≈ 0.4), but less spherical than the elastic SIDM case (s ≈ 0.75). The speed distribution f(v) of dark matter particles at the location of the Sun in the inelastic SIDM model shows a significant departure from the CDM model, with f(v) falling more steeply at high speeds. In addition, the velocity kicks imparted during inelastic collisions produce unbound high-speed particles with velocities up to 500 km s−1 throughout the halo. This implies that inelastic SIDM can potentially leave distinct signatures in direct detection experiments, relative to elastic SIDM and CDM.

scholarly journals The anisotropy of the power spectrum in periodic cosmological simulations

2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (4) ◽  
pp. 5638-5645
Author(s):  
Gábor Rácz ◽  
István Szapudi ◽  
István Csabai ◽  
László Dobos
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Power Spectrum ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Power Spectra ◽  
Cosmological Simulations ◽  
Spherical Collapse ◽  
Lower Amplitude ◽  
Hydrodynamical Simulations

ABSTRACT The classical gravitational force on a torus is anisotropic and always lower than Newton’s 1/r2 law. We demonstrate the effects of periodicity in dark matter only N-body simulations of spherical collapse and standard Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) initial conditions. Periodic boundary conditions cause an overall negative and anisotropic bias in cosmological simulations of cosmic structure formation. The lower amplitude of power spectra of small periodic simulations is a consequence of the missing large-scale modes and the equally important smaller periodic forces. The effect is most significant when the largest mildly non-linear scales are comparable to the linear size of the simulation box, as often is the case for high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations. Spherical collapse morphs into a shape similar to an octahedron. The anisotropic growth distorts the large-scale ΛCDM dark matter structures. We introduce the direction-dependent power spectrum invariant under the octahedral group of the simulation volume and show that the results break spherical symmetry.

scholarly journals 3 per cent-accurate predictions for the clustering of dark matter, haloes, and subhaloes, over a wide range of cosmologies and scales

2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (4) ◽  
pp. 4905-4917
Author(s):  
S Contreras ◽  
R E Angulo ◽  
M Zennaro ◽  
G Aricò ◽  
M Pellejero-Ibañez
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Cosmological Parameters ◽  
Galaxy Surveys ◽  
Circular Velocity ◽  
Initial Application ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Massive Neutrinos ◽  
Dynamical Dark Energy ◽  
Better Than

ABSTRACT Predicting the spatial distribution of objects as a function of cosmology is an essential ingredient for the exploitation of future galaxy surveys. In this paper, we show that a specially designed suite of gravity-only simulations together with cosmology-rescaling algorithms can provide the clustering of dark matter, haloes, and subhaloes with high precision. Specifically, with only three N-body simulations, we obtain the power spectrum of dark matter at z = 0 and 1 to better than 3 per cent precision for essentially all currently viable values of eight cosmological parameters, including massive neutrinos and dynamical dark energy, and over the whole range of scales explored, 0.03 < $k/{h}^{-1}\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ < 5. This precision holds at the same level for mass-selected haloes and for subhaloes selected according to their peak maximum circular velocity. As an initial application of these predictions, we successfully constrain Ωm, σ8, and the scatter in subhalo-abundance-matching employing the projected correlation function of mock SDSS galaxies.

scholarly journals Energy equipartition between stellar and dark matter particles in cosmological simulations results in spurious growth of galaxy sizes

2019 ◽  
Vol 488 (1) ◽  
pp. L123-L128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron D Ludlow ◽  
Joop Schaye ◽  
Matthieu Schaller ◽  
Jack Richings
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Dark Matter Particle ◽  
Mass Resolution ◽  
Particle Mass ◽  
Cosmological Simulations ◽  
Massive Particles ◽  
Energy Equipartition ◽  
Mass Segregation ◽  
Baryonic Mass ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTThe impact of 2-body scattering on the innermost density profiles of dark matter haloes is well established. We use a suite of cosmological simulations and idealized numerical experiments to show that 2-body scattering is exacerbated in situations where there are two species of unequal mass. This is a consequence of mass segregation and reflects a flow of kinetic energy from the more to less massive particles. This has important implications for the interpretation of galaxy sizes in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations, which nearly always model stars with less massive particles than are used for the dark matter. We compare idealized models as well as simulations from the eagle project that differ only in the mass resolution of the dark matter component, but keep subgrid physics, baryonic mass resolution, and gravitational force softening fixed. If the dark matter particle mass exceeds the mass of stellar particles, then galaxy sizes – quantified by their projected half-mass radii, R50 – increase systematically with time until R50 exceeds a small fraction of the redshift-dependent mean interparticle separation, l (${\rm R_{50}} \gtrsim 0.05\times l$). Our conclusions should also apply to simulations that adopt different hydrodynamic solvers, subgrid physics, or adaptive softening, but in that case may need quantitative revision. Any simulation employing a stellar-to-dark matter particle mass ratio greater than unity will escalate spurious energy transfer from dark matter to baryons on small scales.

scholarly journals Predictably missing satellites: subhalo abundances in Milky Way-like haloes

2019 ◽  
Vol 486 (4) ◽  
pp. 4545-4568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E Fielder ◽  
Yao-Yuan Mao ◽  
Jeffrey A Newman ◽  
Andrew R Zentner ◽  
Timothy C Licquia
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Confidence Level ◽  
Mass Concentration ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Scale Factor ◽  
Magellanic Clouds ◽  
Small Scales ◽  
Major Merger ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT On small scales there have been a number of claims of discrepancies between the standard cold dark matter (CDM) model and observations. The ‘missing satellites problem’ infamously describes the overabundance of subhaloes from CDM simulations compared to the number of satellites observed in the Milky Way. A variety of solutions to this discrepancy have been proposed; however, the impact of the specific properties of the Milky Way halo relative to the typical halo of its mass has yet to be explored. Motivated by recent studies that identified ways in which the Milky Way is atypical, we investigate how the properties of dark matter haloes with mass comparable to our Galaxy’s – including concentration, spin, shape, and scale factor of the last major merger – correlate with the subhalo abundance. Using zoom-in simulations of Milky Way-like haloes, we build two models of subhalo abundance as functions of host halo properties. From these models we conclude that the Milky Way most likely has fewer subhaloes than the average halo of the same mass. We expect up to 30 per cent fewer subhaloes with low maximum rotation velocities ($V_{\rm max}^{\rm sat} \sim 10$ km s−1) at the 68 per cent confidence level and up to 52 per cent fewer than average subhaloes with high rotation velocities ($V_{\rm max}^{\rm sat} \gtrsim 30$ km s−1, comparable to the Magellanic Clouds) than would be expected for a typical halo of the Milky Way’s mass. Concentration is the most informative single parameter for predicting subhalo abundance. Our results imply that models tuned to explain the missing satellites problem assuming typical subhalo abundances for our Galaxy may be overcorrecting.

scholarly journals Cold Dark Matter Substructure and the Heating of Galactic Disks

2003 ◽  
Vol 208 ◽  
pp. 391-392
Author(s):  
Andreea S. Font ◽  
Julio F. Navarro
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Dark Matter Halo ◽  
Stellar Disk ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Galactic Disks ◽  
Cosmological Simulations ◽  
A Minor

We investigate recent suggestions that substructure in cold dark matter (CDM) halos has potentially destructive effects on galactic disks. N-body simulations of disk/bulge models of the Milky Way, embedded in a dark matter halo with substructure similar to that found in cosmological simulations, show that tides from substructure halos play only a minor role in the dynamical heating of the stellar disk. This suggests that substructure might not preclude CDM halos from being acceptable hosts of thin stellar disks.

scholarly journals Testing dark energy models with a new sample of strong-lensing systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 498 (4) ◽  
pp. 6013-6033
Author(s):  
Mario H Amante ◽  
Juan Magaña ◽  
V Motta ◽  
Miguel A García-Aspeitia ◽  
Tomás Verdugo
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Cosmological Parameters ◽  
Cosmic Acceleration ◽  
Dark Matter Halo ◽  
Measured Velocity ◽  
Strong Lensing ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Einstein Radius

ABSTRACT Inspired by a new compilation of strong-lensing systems, which consist of 204 points in the redshift range 0.0625 < zl < 0.958 for the lens and 0.196 < zs < 3.595 for the source, we constrain three models that generate a late cosmic acceleration: the ω-cold dark matter model, the Chevallier–Polarski–Linder, and the Jassal–Bagla–Padmanabhan parametrizations. Our compilation contains only those systems with early-type galaxies acting as lenses, with spectroscopically measured stellar velocity dispersions, estimated Einstein radius, and both the lens and source redshifts. We assume an axially symmetric mass distribution in the lens equation, using a correction to alleviate differences between the measured velocity dispersion (σ) and the dark matter halo velocity dispersion (σDM) as well as other systematic errors that may affect the measurements. We have considered different subsamples to constrain the cosmological parameters of each model. Additionally, we generate a mock data of SLS to asses the impact of the chosen mass profile on the accuracy of Einstein radius estimation. Our results show that cosmological constraints are very sensitive to the selected data: Some cases show convergence problems in the estimation of cosmological parameters (e.g. systems with observed distance ratio Dobs < 0.5), others show high values for the χ2 function (e.g. systems with a lens equation Dobs > 1 or high velocity dispersion σ > 276 km s−1). However, we obtained a fiduciary sample with 143 systems, which improves the constraints on each tested cosmological model.

SEARCHING FOR AXIONS AND OTHER EXOTICS WITH DARK MATTER DETECTORS

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (02n03) ◽  
pp. 564-572
Author(s):  
MAXIM POSPELOV
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Standard Model ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
Direct Detection ◽  
Annual Modulation ◽  
The Standard Model ◽  
Detection Capabilities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Particle Decays ◽  
O 10

I consider models of light super-weakly interacting cold dark matter, with [Formula: see text] mass, focusing on bosonic candidates such as pseudoscalars and vectors. I analyze the cosmological abundance, the γ-background created by particle decays, the impact on stellar processes due to cooling, and the direct detection capabilities in order to identify classes of models that pass all the constraints. In certain models, variants of photoelectric (or axioelectric) absorption of dark matter in direct-detection experiments can provide a sensitivity to the superweak couplings to the Standard Model which is superior to all existing indirect constraints. In all models studied, the annual modulation of the direct-detection signal is at the currently unobservable level of O(10-5).

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