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Cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters with feedback from active galactic nuclei: profiles and scaling relations

Pike, Simon R.; Kay, Scott T.; Newton, Richard D.A.; Thomas, Peter A.; Jenkins, Adrian

Cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters with feedback from active galactic nuclei: profiles and scaling relations Thumbnail


Authors

Simon R. Pike

Scott T. Kay

Richard D.A. Newton

Peter A. Thomas



Abstract

We present results from a new set of 30 cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters, including the effects of radiative cooling, star formation, supernova feedback, black hole growth and AGN feedback. We first demonstrate that our AGN model is capable of reproducing the observed cluster pressure profile at redshift, z ≃ 0, once the AGN heating temperature of the targeted particles is made to scale with the final virial temperature of the halo. This allows the ejected gas to reach larger radii in higher mass clusters than would be possible had a fixed heating temperature been used. Such a model also successfully reduces the star formation rate in brightest cluster galaxies and broadly reproduces a number of other observational properties at low redshift, including baryon, gas and star fractions, entropy profiles outside the core and the X-ray luminosity–mass relation. Our results are consistent with the notion that the excess entropy is generated via selective removal of the densest material through radiative cooling; supernova and AGN feedback largely serve as regulation mechanisms, moving heated gas out of galaxies and away from cluster cores. However, our simulations fail to address a number of serious issues; for example, they are incapable of reproducing the shape and diversity of the observed entropy profiles within the core region. We also show that the stellar and black hole masses are sensitive to numerical resolution, particularly the gravitational softening length; a smaller value leads to more efficient black hole growth at early times and a smaller central galaxy.

Citation

Pike, S. R., Kay, S. T., Newton, R. D., Thomas, P. A., & Jenkins, A. (2014). Cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters with feedback from active galactic nuclei: profiles and scaling relations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 445(2), 1774-1796. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu1788

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Dec 1, 2014
Deposit Date Nov 26, 2014
Publicly Available Date Nov 27, 2014
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 445
Issue 2
Pages 1774-1796
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu1788
Keywords Hydrodynamics, Methods: numerical, Galaxies: clusters: general, X-rays: galaxies: clusters.
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1449795
Related Public URLs http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/445/2/1774.full.pdf+html

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.






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