No Arabic abstract
We extend the two-dimensional Cartesian shapelet formalism to d-dimensions. Concentrating on the three-dimensional case, we derive shapelet-based equations for the mass, centroid, root-mean-square radius, and components of the quadrupole moment and moment of inertia tensors. Using cosmological N-body simulations as an application domain, we show that three-dimensional shapelets can be used to replicate the complex sub-structure of dark matter halos and demonstrate the basis of an automated classification scheme for halo shapes. We investigate the shapelet decomposition process from an algorithmic viewpoint, and consider opportunities for accelerating the computation of shapelet-based representations using graphics processing units (GPUs).
The development of methods and algorithms to solve the $N$-body problem for classical, collisionless, non-relativistic particles has made it possible to follow the growth and evolution of cosmic dark matter structures over most of the Universes history. In the best studied case $-$ the cold dark matter or CDM model $-$ the dark matter is assumed to consist of elementary particles that had negligible thermal velocities at early times. Progress over the past three decades has led to a nearly complete description of the assembly, structure and spatial distribution of dark matter haloes, and their substructure in this model, over almost the entire mass range of astronomical objects. On scales of galaxies and above, predictions from this standard CDM model have been shown to provide a remarkably good match to a wide variety of astronomical data over a large range of epochs, from the temperature structure of the cosmic background radiation to the large-scale distribution of galaxies. The frontier in this field has shifted to the relatively unexplored subgalactic scales, the domain of the central regions of massive haloes, and that of low-mass haloes and subhaloes, where potentially fundamental questions remain. Answering them may require: (i) the effect of known but uncertain baryonic processes (involving gas and stars), and/or (ii) alternative models with new dark matter physics. Here we present a review of the field, focusing on our current understanding of dark matter structure from $N$-body simulations and on the challenges ahead.
Using estimates of dark halo masses from satellite kinematics, weak gravitational lensing, and halo abundance matching, combined with the Tully-Fisher and Faber-Jackson relations, we derive the mean relation between the optical, V_opt, and virial, V_200, circular velocities of early- and late-type galaxies at redshift z~0. For late-type galaxies V_opt ~ V_200 over the velocity range V_opt=90-260 km/s, and is consistent with V_opt = V_maxh (the maximum circular velocity of NFW dark matter haloes in the concordance LCDM cosmology). However, for early-type galaxies V_opt e V_200, with the exception of early-type galaxies with V_opt simeq 350 km/s. This is inconsistent with early-type galaxies being, in general, globally isothermal. For low mass (V_opt < 250 km/s) early-types V_opt > V_maxh, indicating that baryons have modified the potential well, while high mass (V_opt > 400 km/s) early-types have V_opt < V_maxh. Folding in measurements of the black hole mass - velocity dispersion relation, our results imply that the supermassive black hole - halo mass relation has a logarithmic slope which varies from ~1.4 at halo masses of ~10^{12} Msun/h to ~0.65 at halo masses of 10^{13.5} Msun/h. The values of V_opt/V_200 we infer for the Milky Way and M31 are lower than the values currently favored by direct observations and dynamical models. This offset is due to the fact that the Milky Way and M31 have higher V_opt and lower V_200 compared to typical late-type galaxies of the same stellar masses. We show that current high resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations are unable to form galaxies which simultaneously reproduce both the V_opt/V_200 ratio and the V_opt-M_star (Tully-Fisher/Faber-Jackson) relation.
N-body simulations predict that dark matter haloes are described by specific density profiles on both galactic- and cluster-sized scales. Weak gravitational lensing through the measurements of their first and second order properties, shear and flexion, is a powerful observational tool for investigating the true shape of these profiles. One of the three-parameter density profiles recently favoured in the description of dark matter haloes is the Einasto profile. We present exact expressions for the shear and the first and second flexions of Einasto dark matter haloes derived using a Mellin-transform formalism in terms of the Fox H and Meijer G functions, that are valid for general values of the Einasto index. The resulting expressions can be written as series expansions that permit us to investigate the asymptotic behaviour of these quantities. Moreover, we compare the shear and flexion of the Einasto profile with those of different mass profiles including the singular isothermal sphere, the Navarro-Frenk-White profile, and the Sersic profile. We investigate the concentration and index dependences of the Einasto profile, finding that the shear and second flexion could be used to determine the halo concentration, whilst for the Einasto index the shear and first and second flexions may be employed. We also provide simplified expressions for the weak lensing properties and other lensing quantities in terms of the generalized hypergeometric function.
We study the empirical relation between an astronomical objects angular momentum $J$ and mass $M$, $J=beta M^alpha$, the $J-M$ relation, using N-body simulations. In particular, we investigate the time evolution of the $J-M$ relation to study how the initial power spectrum and cosmological model affect this relation, and to test two popular models of its origin - mechanical equilibrium and tidal torque theory. We find that in the $Lambda$CDM model, $alpha$ starts with a value of $sim 1.5$ at high redshift $z$, increases monotonically, and finally reaches $5/3$ near $z=0$, whereas $beta$ evolves linearly with time in the beginning, reaches a maximum and decreases, and stabilizes finally. A three-regime scheme is proposed to understand this newly observed picture. We show that the tidal torque theory accounts for this time evolution behaviour in the linear regime, whereas $alpha=5/3$ comes from the virial equilibrium of haloes. The $J-M$ relation in the linear regime contains the information of the power spectrum and cosmological model. The $J-M$ relations for haloes in different environments and with different merging histories are also investigated to study the effects of a halos non-linear evolution. An updated and more complete understanding of the $J-M$ relation is thus obtained.
Using $N$-body simulations ($Nsim 10^6 - 10^7$), we examine how a non-axisymmetric dark halo affects the dynamical evolution of the structure in collisionless (stellar) discs. We demonstrate how the model parameters such as mass of the halo, initial conditions in the disc and the halo axes ratio affect morphology and kinematics of the stellar discs. We show that a non-axisymmetric halo can generate a large-scale spiral density pattern in the embedded stellar disc. The pattern is observed in the disc for many periods of its revolution, even if the disc is gravitationally over-stable. The growth of the spiral arms is not accompanied by significant dynamical heating of the disc, irrelevant to its initial parameters. We also investigate transformation of the dark halos shape driven by the long-lived spiral pattern in the disc . We show that the analysis of the velocity field in the stellar disc and in the spiral pattern gives us a possibility to figure out the spatial orientation of the triaxial-shaped dark halo and to measure the triaxiality.