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A high-resolution cosmological simulation of a strong gravitational lens

Richings, Jack; Frenk, Carlos; Jenkins, Adrian; Robertson, Andrew; Schaller, Matthieu

A high-resolution cosmological simulation of a strong gravitational lens Thumbnail


Authors

Jack Richings

Matthieu Schaller



Abstract

We present a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation of a 1013 M⊙ galaxy group and its environment (out to 10 times the virial radius) carried out using the EAGLE model of galaxy formation. Exploiting a novel technique to increase the resolution of the dark matter calculation independently of that of the gas, the simulation resolves dark matter haloes and subhaloes of mass 5 × 106 M⊙. It is therefore useful for studying the abundance and properties of the haloes and subhaloes targeted in strong lensing tests of the cold dark matter model. We estimate the halo and subhalo mass functions and discuss how they are affected both by the inclusion of baryons in the simulation and by the environment. We find that the halo and subhalo mass functions have lower amplitude in the hydrodynamical simulation than in its dark-matter-only counterpart. This reflects the reduced growth of haloes in the hydrodynamical simulation due to the early loss of gas by reionization and galactic winds and, additionally, in the case of subhaloes, disruption by enhanced tidal effects within the host halo due to the presence of a massive central galaxy. The distribution of haloes is highly anisotropic reflecting the filamentary character of mass accretion on to the cluster. As a result, there is significant variation in the number of structures with viewing direction. The median number of structures near the centre of the halo, when viewed in projection, is reduced by a factor of 2 when baryons are included.

Citation

Richings, J., Frenk, C., Jenkins, A., Robertson, A., & Schaller, M. (2021). A high-resolution cosmological simulation of a strong gravitational lens. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 501(3), 4657-4668. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa4013

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 22, 2020
Online Publication Date Jan 5, 2021
Publication Date 2021-03
Deposit Date Jul 2, 2021
Publicly Available Date Jul 2, 2021
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 501
Issue 3
Pages 4657-4668
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa4013
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1246188

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2021 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.






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