How do baryonic effects on the cosmic matter distribution vary with scale and local density environment?
Abstract
In this study, we investigate how the baryonic effects vary with scale and local density environment mainly by utilizing a novel statistic, the environment-dependent wavelet power spectrum (env-WPS). With four state-of-the-art cosmological simulation suites, EAGLE, SIMBA, Illustris, and IllustrisTNG, we compare the env-WPS of the total matter density field between the hydrodynamic and dark matter-only (DMO) runs at $z=0$. We find that the clustering is most strongly suppressed in the emptiest environment of $\rho_\mathrm{m}/\bar\rho_\mathrm{m}<0.1$ with maximum amplitudes $\sim67-89$ per cent on scales $\sim1.86-10.96\ h\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, and less suppressed in higher density environments on small scales (except Illustris). In the environments of $\rho_\mathrm{m}/\bar\rho_\mathrm{m}\geqslant0.316$ ($\geqslant10$ in EAGLE), the feedbacks also lead to enhancement features at intermediate and large scales, which is most pronounced in the densest environment of $\rho_\mathrm{m}/\bar\rho_\mathrm{m}\geqslant100$ and reaches a maximum $\sim 7-15$ per cent on scales $\sim0.87-2.62\ h\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ (except Illustris). The baryon fraction of the local environment decreases with increasing density, denoting the feedback strength, and potentially explaining some differences between simulations. We also measure the volume and mass fractions of local environments, which are affected by $\gtrsim 1$ per cent due to baryon physics. In conclusion, our results reveal that the baryonic processes can change the overall cosmic structure greatly over the scales of $k>0.1\ h\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$. These findings warrant further investigation and confirmation by using much larger or more numerous simulations, comparing different cosmic structure classifications, or altering a specific process in the simulation, e.g. the star formation, black hole accretion, stellar feedback or active galactic nucleus feedback.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- October 2023
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.2310.20278
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2310.20278
- Bibcode:
- 2023arXiv231020278W
- Keywords:
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- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 9 figures, and 3 tables