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The Effects Of Gasdynamics, Cooling, Star Formation, And Numerical Resolution In Simulations Of Cluster Formation, Gf Lewis, A Babul, N Katz, T Quinn, L Hernquist, Dh Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We present the analysis of a suite of simulations of a Virgo-mass galaxy cluster. Undertaken within the framework of standard cold dark matter cosmology, these simulations were performed at differing resolutions and with increasingly complex physical processes, with the goal of identifying the effects of each on the evolution of the cluster. We focus on the cluster at the present epoch and examine properties including the radial distributions of density, temperature, entropy, and velocity. We also map "observable" projected properties such as the surface mass density, X-ray surface brightness, and Sunyaev-Zeldovich signature. We identify significant differences between the simulations, which …