No Arabic abstract
We present a study of the galaxy population predicted by hydrodynamical simulations for a set of 19 galaxy clusters based on the GADGET-2 Tree+SPH code. These simulations include gas cooling, star formation, a detailed treatment of stellar evolution and chemical enrichment, as well as SN energy feedback in the form of galactic winds. We compute the spectro-photometric properties of the simulated galaxies. All simulations have been performed for two choices of the stellar initial mass function: a standard Salpeter IMF, and a top-heavier IMF. Several of the observational properties of the galaxy population in nearby clusters are reproduced fairly well by simulations. A Salpeter IMF is successful in accounting for the slope and the normalization of the color-magnitude relation for the bulk of the galaxy population. Simulated clusters have a relation between mass and optical luminosity which generally agrees with observations, both in normalization and slope. We find that galaxies are generally bluer, younger and more star forming in the cluster outskirts, thus reproducing the observational trends. However, simulated clusters have a total number of galaxies which is significantly smaller than the observed one, falling short by about a factor 2-3. Finally, the brightest cluster galaxies are always predicted to be too massive and too blue, when compared to observations, due to gas overcooling in the core cluster regions, even in the presence of a rather efficient SN feedback.
Using N-body+hydro simulations we study relations between the local environments of galaxies on 0.5 Mpc scale and properties of the luminous components of galaxies. Our numerical simulations include effects of star formation and supernova feedback in different cosmological scenarios: the standard Cold Dark Matter model, the Broken Scale Invariance model (BSI), and a model with cosmological constant (LCDM). In this paper, we concentrate on the effects of environment on colors and morphologies of galaxies, on the star formation rate and on the relation between the total luminosity of a galaxy and its circular velocity. We demonstrate a statistically significant theoretical relationship between morphology and environment. In particular, there is a strong tendency for high-mass galaxies and for elliptical galaxies to form in denser environments, in agreement with observations. We find that in models with denser environments (CDM scenario) ~ 13 % of the galactic halos can be identified as field ellipticals, according to their colors. In simulations with less clustering (BSI and LCDM), the fraction of ellipticals is considerably lower (~ 2-3 %). The strong sensitivity of morphological type to environment is rather remarkable because our results are applicable to ``field galaxies and small groups. If all galaxies in our simulations are included, we find a statistically significant dependence of the galaxy luminosity - circular velocity relation on dark matter overdensity within spheres of radius 0.5 Mpc, for the CDM simulations. But if we remove ``elliptical galaxies from our analysis to mimic the Tully-Fisher relation for spirals, then no dependence is found in any model.
We present cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters aimed at studying the process of metal enrichment of the intra--cluster medium (ICM). These simulations have been performed by implementing a detailed model of chemical evolution in the Tree-SPH gd code. This model allows us to follow the metal release from SNII, SNIa and AGB stars, by properly accounting for the lifetimes of stars of different mass, as well as to change the stellar initial mass function (IMF), the lifetime function and the stellar yields. As such, our implementation of chemical evolution represents a powerful instrument to follow the cosmic history of metal production. The simulations presented here have been performed with the twofold aim of checking numerical effects, as well as the impact of changing the model of chemical evolution and the efficiency of stellar feedback.
We study the imprints of AGN feedback and physical viscosity on the properties of galaxy clusters using hydrodynamical simulation models carried out with the TreeSPH code GADGET-2. Besides self-gravity of dark matter and baryons, our approach includes radiative cooling and heating processes of the gas component and a multiphase model for star formation and SNe feedback. Additionally, we introduce a prescription for physical viscosity in GADGET-2, based on a SPH discretization of the Navier-Stokes and general heat transfer equations. Adopting the Braginskii parameterization for the shear viscosity coefficient, we explore how gas viscosity influences the properties of AGN-driven bubbles. We also introduce a novel, self-consistent AGN feedback model where we simultaneously follow the growth and energy release of massive black holes embedded in a cluster environment. We assume that black holes accreting at low rates with respect to the Eddington limit are in a radiatively inefficient regime, and that most of the feedback energy will appear in a mechanical form. Thus, we introduce AGN-driven bubbles into the ICM with properties, such as radius and energy content, that are directly linked to the black hole physics. This model leads to a self-regulated mechanism for the black hole growth and overcomes the cooling flow problem in host halos, ranging from the scale of groups to that of massive clusters. (Abridged)
We analyze the structural and dynamical properties of disk-like objects formed in fully consistent cosmological simulations with an inefficient star formation algorithm. Comparison with data of similar observable properties of spiral galaxies gives satisfactory agreement.
We investigate the impact of chameleon-type f(R) gravity models on the properties of galaxy clusters and groups. Our f(R) simulations follow for the first time also the hydrodynamics of the intracluster and intragroup medium. This allows us to assess how f(R) gravity alters the X-ray scaling relations of clusters and how hydrostatic and dynamical mass estimates are biased when modifications of gravity are ignored in their determination. We find that velocity dispersions and intracluster medium temperatures are both increased by up to 1/3 in f(R) gravity in low-mass halos, while the difference disappears in massive objects. The mass scale of the transition depends on the background value f_R0 of the scalar degree of freedom. These changes in temperature and velocity dispersion alter the mass-temperature and X-ray luminosity-temperature scaling relations and bias dynamical and hydrostatic mass estimates that do not explicitly account for modified gravity towards higher values. Recently, a relative enhancement of X-ray compared to weak lensing masses was found by the Planck Collaboration (2013). We demonstrate that an explanation for this offset may be provided by modified gravity and the associated bias effects, which interestingly are of the required size. Finally, we find that the abundance of subhalos at fixed cluster mass is only weakly affected by f(R) gravity.