Simulations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Power Spectrum with Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback

We explore how radiative cooling, supernova feedback, cosmic rays, and a new model of the energetic feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) affect the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) power spectra. To do this, we use a suite of hydrodynamical TreePM-SPH simulations of the cosmic web in large periodic boxes and tailored higher resolution simulations of individual galaxy clusters. Our AGN feedback simulations match the recent universal pressure profile and cluster mass scaling relations of the REXCESS X-ray cluster sample better than previous analytical or numerical approaches. For multipoles ell <~ 2000, our power spectra with and without enhanced feedback are similar, suggesting that theoretical uncertainties over that range are relatively small, although current analytic and semi-analytic approaches overestimate this SZ power. We find the power at high 2000-10, 000 multipoles in which the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and South Pole Telescope (SPT) probe is sensitive to the feedback prescription, and hence can constrain the theory of intracluster gas, in particular for the highly uncertain redshifts >0.8. The apparent tension between σ₈ from primary cosmic microwave background power and from analytic SZ spectra inferred using ACT and SPT data is lessened with our AGN feedback spectra.