https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/685594/file/1130605.pdf

Review of Particle Physics

WMAP precision data enable accurate testing of cosmological models. We find that the emerging standard model of cosmology, a flat � -dominated universe seeded by a nearly scale-invariant adiabatic Gaussian fluctuations, fits the WMAP data. For the WMAP data only, the best-fit parameters are h ¼ 0:72 � 0:05, � bh 2 ¼ 0:024 � 0:001, � mh 2 ¼ 0:14 � 0:02, � ¼ 0:166 þ0:076 � 0:071 , ns ¼ 0:99 � 0:04, and � 8 ¼ 0:9 � 0:1. With parameters fixed only by WMAP data, we can fit finer scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) measure- ments and measurements of large-scale structure (galaxy surveys and the Lyforest). This simple model is also consistent with a host of other astronomical measurements: its inferred age of the universe is consistent with stellar ages, the baryon/photon ratio is consistent with measurements of the (D/H) ratio, and the inferred Hubble constant is consistent with local observations of the expansion rate. We then fit the model parameters to a combination of WMAP data with other finer scale CMB experiments (ACBAR and CBI), 2dFGRS measurements, and Lyforest data to find the model's best-fit cosmological parameters: h ¼ 0:71 þ0:04 � 0:03 , � bh 2 ¼ 0:0224 � 0:0009, � mh 2 ¼ 0:135 þ0:008 � 0:009 , � ¼ 0:17 � 0:06, ns(0.05 Mpc � 1 )=0 :93 � 0:03, and � 8 ¼ 0:84 � 0:04. WMAP's best determination of � ¼ 0:17 � 0:04 arises directly from the temperature- polarization (TE) data and not from this model fit, but they are consistent. These parameters imply that the age of the universe is 13:7 � 0:2 Gyr. With the Lyforest data, the model favors but does not require a slowly varying spectral index. The significance of this running index is sensitive to the uncertainties in the Ly� forest. By combining WMAP data with other astronomical data, we constrain the geometry of the universe, � tot ¼ 1:02 � 0:02, and the equation of state of the dark energy, w < � 0:78 (95% confidence limit assuming w �� 1). The combination of WMAP and 2dFGRS data constrains the energy density in stable neutrinos: � � h 2 < 0:0072 (95% confidence limit). For three degenerate neutrino species, this limit implies that their mass is less than 0.23 eV (95% confidence limit). The WMAP detection of early reionization rules out warm dark matter. Subject headings: cosmic microwave background — cosmological parameters — cosmology: observations — early universe On-line material: color figure

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First year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations: Determination of cosmological parameters

High resolution N-body simulations show that the density profiles of dark matter halos formed in the standard CDM cosmogony can be fit accurately by scaling a simple “universal” profile. Regardless of their mass, halos are nearly isothermal over a large range in radius, but significantly shallower than r -2 near the center and steeper than r -2 in the outer regions. The characteristic overdensity of a halo correlates strongly with halo mass in a manner consistent with the mass dependence of the epoch of halo formation. Matching the shape of the rotation curves of disk galaxies with this halo structure requires (i) disk mass-to-light ratios to increase systematically with luminosity, (ii) halo circular velocities to be systematically lower than the disk rotation speed, and (iii) that the masses of halos surrounding bright galaxies depend only weakly on galaxy luminosity. This offers an attractive explanation for the puzzling lack of correlation between luminosity and dynamics in observed samples of binary galaxies and of satellite companions of bright spiral galaxies, suggesting that the structure of dark matter halos surrounding bright spirals is similar to that of cold dark matter halos.

The Structure of cold dark matter halos

We discuss the cosmological simulation code GADGET-2, a new massively parallel TreeSPH code, capable of following a collisionless fluid with the N-body method, and an ideal gas by means of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). Our implementation of SPH manifestly conserves energy and entropy in regions free of dissipation, while allowing for fully adaptive smoothing lengths. Gravitational forces are computed with a hierarchical multipole expansion, which can optionally be applied in the form of a TreePM algorithm, where only short-range forces are computed with the ‘tree’ method while long-range forces are determined with Fourier techniques. Time integration is based on a quasi-symplectic scheme where long-range and short-range forces can be integrated with different time-steps. Individual and adaptive short-range time-steps may also be employed. The domain decomposition used in the parallelization algorithm is based on a space-filling curve, resulting in high flexibility and tree force errors that do not depend on the way the domains are cut. The code is efficient in terms of memory consumption and required communication bandwidth. It has been used to compute the first cosmological N-body simulation with more than 10 10 dark matter particles, reaching a homogeneous spatial dynamic range of 10 5 per dimension in a three-dimensional box. It has also been used to carry out very large cosmological SPH simulations that account for radiative cooling and star formation, reaching total particle numbers of more than 250 million. We present the algorithms used by the code and discuss their accuracy and performance using a number of test problems. GADGET-2 is publicly released to the research community. Ke yw ords: methods: numerical ‐ galaxies: interactions ‐ dark matter.

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The Cosmological simulation code GADGET-2

A simple cosmological model with only six parameters (matter density, Omega_m h^2, baryon density, Omega_b h^2, Hubble Constant, H_0, amplitude of fluctuations, sigma_8, optical depth, tau, and a slope for the scalar perturbation spectrum, n_s) fits not only the three year WMAP temperature and polarization data, but also small scale CMB data, light element abundances, large-scale structure observations, and the supernova luminosity/distance relationship. Using WMAP data only, the best fit values for cosmological parameters for the power-law flat LCDM model are (Omega_m h^2, Omega_b h^2, h, n_s, tau, sigma_8) = 0.1277+0.0080-0.0079, 0.02229+-0.00073, 0.732+0.031-0.032, 0.958+-0.016, 0.089+-0.030, 0.761+0.049-0.048). The three year data dramatically shrink the allowed volume in this six dimensional parameter space. Assuming that the primordial fluctuations are adiabatic with a power law spectrum, the WMAP data_alone_ require dark matter, and favor a spectral index that is significantly less than the Harrison-Zel'dovich-Peebles scale-invariant spectrum (n_s=1, r=0). Models that suppress large-scale power through a running spectral index or a large-scale cut-off in the power spectrum are a better fit to the WMAP and small scale CMB data than the power-law LCDM model: however, the improvement in the fit to the WMAP data is only Delta chi^2 = 3 for 1 extra degree of freedom. The combination of WMAP and other astronomical data yields significant constraints on the geometry of the universe, the equation of state of the dark energy, the gravitational wave energy density, and neutrino properties. Consistent with the predictions of simple inflationary theories, we detect no significant deviations from Gaussianity in the CMB maps.

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Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) three year results: implications for cosmology

Very high energy (VHE, i.e. & 10 GeV) photons from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), as high as 90 GeV in rest frame energy, have been detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). This provides hope for a high statistics GRB detection by a ground-based instrument in the VHE domain. We here report on our estimates of the expected GRB detection rate and -ray rate (in case of detection) for the next generation ground-based Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs): the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Moreover, we investigated the effect critical design parameters of CTA have on our predictions and we compare the performance of various observing strategies for the array pointing. Our estimations are based on a phenomenological model which uses temporal and spectral information from GRBs detected by Fermi-LAT as well as other instruments operating at lower energy. While detection of VHE emission from GRBs has eluded ground-based instruments thus far, our results suggest it should be within reach of CTA with a rate between 0.35 and 1.6 GRBs/year depending on the characteristics of the true GRB population and the performance that CTA will eventually achieve.

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Prospects of GRB observations for CTA from a phenomenological model

A new Monte‐Carlo radiative‐transfer code, Sunrise, is used to study the effects of dust in N‐body/hydrodynamic simulations of interacting galaxies. Dust has a profound effect on the appearance of the simulated galaxies. At peak luminosities, ∼ 90% of the bolometric luminosity is absorbed, and the dust obscuration scales with luminosity in such a way that the brightness at UV/visual wavelengths remains roughly constant. A general relationship between the fraction of energy absorbed and the ratio of bolometric luminosity to baryonic mass is found.Comparing to observations, the simulations are found to follow a relation similar to the observed IRX‐β relation found by Meurer et al. when similar luminosity objects are considered. The highest‐luminosity simulated galaxies depart from this relation and occupy the region where local (U)LIRGs are found. This agreement is contingent on the presence of Milky‐Way‐like dust, while SMC‐like dust results in far too red a UV continuum slope to match observations.The sim...

Simulations of Dust in Interacting Galaxies

We investigate the properties of damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAS) in semi-analytic models, focusing on whether the models can reproduce the kinematic properties of low-ionization metal lines described by Prochaska & Wolfe (1997b, 1998). We explore a variety of approaches for modelling the radial distribution of the cold neutral gas associated with the galaxies in our models, and find that our results are very sensitive to this ingredient. If we use an approach based on Fall & Efstathiou (1980), in which the sizes of the discs are determined by conservation of angular momentum, we find that the majority of the DLAS correspond to a single galactic disc. These models generically fail to reproduce the observed distribution of velocity widths. In alternative models in which the gas discs are considerably more extended, a significant fraction of DLAS arise from lines of sight intersecting multiple gas discs in a common halo. These models produce kinematics that fit the observational data, and also seem to agree well with the results of recent hydrodynamical simulations. Thus we conclude that Cold Dark Matter based models of galaxy formation can be reconciled with the kinematic data, but only at the expense of the standard assumption that DLAS are produced by rotationally supported gas discs whose sizes are determined by conservation of angular momentum. We suggest that the distribution of cold gas at high redshift may be dominated by another process, such as tidal streaming due to mergers.

What Damped Ly-alpha Systems Tell Us About the Radial Distribution of Cold Gas at High Redshift

Previously we have shown that it is possible to account for the kinematic properties of damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAS) in the context of semi-analytic models In these models, hierarchical structure formation is approximated by constructing a merger tree for each dark matter halo A natural consequence is that every virialized halo may contain not only a central galaxy, but also a number of satellite galaxies as determined by its merging history Thus the kinematics of the DLAS arise from the combined effects of the internal rotation of gas disks and the motions between gas disks within a common halo Here we investigate the sensitivity of this model to some of the assumptions made previously, including the modeling of satellite dynamics, the scale height of the gas, and the cosmology

Damped Ly-alpha Systems in Semi-Analytic Models: Sensitivity to dynamics, disk properties, and cosmology

We present techniques for identifying and analyzing galaxy groups and show that they provide a powerful discriminator between cosmological models. We apply these to high-resolution PM N-body simulations of structure formation in CHDM (cold/hot/baryon fractions=.6/.3/.1, b=1.5 (COBE norm) and two CDM models; b=1.5 and b=1.0 (COBE norm). Groups are identified with the Nolthenius (1993) algorithm. We find: (1) Properties of groups are a powerful and robust discriminator between these Gaussian models whose spatial and velocity properties differ on Mpc scales. We test robustness against several methods for assigning luminosity to dark matter halos, for merging CfA1 galaxies, and for breaking up massive over-mergers (2) When allowance is made for the high large scale power P(k) present in the CfA1 data, CHDM at our $\Omnu=0.30$ produces slightly too many groups and groups too high a fraction of the galaxies, while the fraction grouped in CDM is far too low. Lowering $\Omnu$ would appear to produce close agreement with all measures, save one: for all simulations, median group sizes are x1.4-1.7 larger than equivalently selected CfA1 groups. (3) The standard group M/L method gives $\Omega\simeq 0.1$ for CHDM and CfA1, and $\Omega\simeq 0.35$ for CDM. A conspiracy of three effects produce these very low values, and we conclude that low observed $\Omega$'s need not argue for a low $\Omega$ universe. When overmergers are broken up, the median virial- to-DM mass of 3D selected groups is $\sim1$ for all simulations. $M_{DM}>10^{14}\Msun$ groups appear virialized in all simulations. Global velocity biases $b_v$ are similar to previous studies. Within 3D-selected groups, CHDM and CDM b=1.5 show a stronger bias of $b_v=0.7-0.8$, while CDM b=1.0 shows group $b_v$'s $\simeq 1$.

Joel R. Primack

Papers

Prospects of GRB observations for CTA from a phenomenological model

Simulations of Dust in Interacting Galaxies

What Damped Ly-alpha Systems Tell Us About the Radial Distribution of Cold Gas at High Redshift

Damped Ly-alpha Systems in Semi-Analytic Models: Sensitivity to dynamics, disk properties, and cosmology

Galaxy Group Analysis - a Robust Discriminator between Cosmological Models: Cold+HOT Dark Matter and CDM Confront Cfa1