Hydrodynamical simulations of realistic massive cluster populations
Abstract
Galaxy clusters are seeded by density fluctuations in the early Universe and grow via hierarchical collapse to become the most massive virialised objects we observed today. They are powerful probes that study both cosmology and astrophysical processes. Their internal structure at the current epoch is the result of a non-trivial interplay between gravitational collapse and the energy fed into the intra-cluster medium (ICM) by star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN). These processes shape the ICM during its formation at high redshift, but current observations of galaxy clusters are limited to z<0.5. The resolution and sensitivity of textit{Athena+} will allow it to study galaxy clusters in unprecedented detail. It will constrain cluster properties, such as its entropy, temperature and gas fraction, out to z∼2, enabling it to investigate the progenitors of today's massive clusters and observing the evolution of the properties of the ICM for the first time. Athena+ will produce a significant change in our understanding of the formation of galaxy clusters. Recently the theoretical modelling of clusters has advanced significantly and issues, such as the 'cooling catastophea', have been overcome by including feedback from star formation and AGN. We present the MAssive ClusterS and Intercluster Structures (MACSIS) project. The MACSIS project is a representative sample of 390 of galaxy clusters, with M_{FOF} > 10(15} M_{⊙) , re-simulated using the cosmo-OWLS model (Le Brun et al. 2014, McCarthy et al. in prep.) to extend it to the most massive and rarest objects. We demonstrate that this sample reproduces the scaling relations, with intrinsic scatter, observed with current instruments at low redshift. Under the hierarchical paradigm, the progenitors of these systems will be the first objects to collapse at high redshift and we examine to z=2 how the scaling relations of these massive objects evolve with redshift. Finally, we investigate methods of defining a relaxed subsample of clusters and study the bias introduced by restricting the analysis to relaxed haloes only.
- Publication:
-
Exploring the Hot and Energetic Universe: The first scientific conference dedicated to the Athena X-ray observatory
- Pub Date:
- September 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015eheu.conf...41B