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Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Series

Cosmology : theory

Articles 1 - 24 of 24

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

From Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing To Cosmological Parameters, J Yoo, Jl Tinker, Dh Weinberg, Z Zheng, N Katz, R Dave Jan 2006

From Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing To Cosmological Parameters, J Yoo, Jl Tinker, Dh Weinberg, Z Zheng, N Katz, R Dave

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Galaxy-galaxy lensing uses the weak distortion of background sources to measure the mean excess surface density profile, ΔΣ(r), around a sample of foreground lensing galaxies. We develop a method for combining ΔΣ(r) with the galaxy-galaxy correlation function ξgg(r) to constrain the matter density parameter Ωm and the matter fluctuation amplitude σ8, going beyond the linear biasing model to reach the level of accuracy demanded by current and future measurements. We adopt the halo occupation distribution (HOD) framework and test its applicability to this problem by examining the effects of …


Probing Galaxy Formation With He Ii Cooling Lines, Yj Yang, Ai Zabludoff, R Dave, Dj Eisenstein, Pa Pinto, N Katz, Dh Weinberg, Ej Barton Jan 2006

Probing Galaxy Formation With He Ii Cooling Lines, Yj Yang, Ai Zabludoff, R Dave, Dj Eisenstein, Pa Pinto, N Katz, Dh Weinberg, Ej Barton

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Using high-resolution cosmological simulations, we study hydrogen and helium gravitational cooling radiation from gas accretion by young galaxies. We focus on the He II cooling lines, which arise from gas with a different temperature history (Tmax ~ 105 K) than H I line-emitting gas. We examine whether three major atomic cooling lines, H I λ1216, He II λ1640, and He II λ304, are observable, finding that Lyα and He II λ1640 cooling emission at z = 2-3 are potentially detectable with deep narrowband (R > 100) imaging and/or spectroscopy from the ground. While the expected strength of …


On The Origin Of Cold Dark Matter Halo Density Profiles, Y Lu, Hj Mo, N Katz, Md Weinberg Jan 2006

On The Origin Of Cold Dark Matter Halo Density Profiles, Y Lu, Hj Mo, N Katz, Md Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

N-body simulations predict that cold dark matter (CDM) halo-assembly occurs in two phases: (i) a fast-accretion phase with a rapidly deepening potential well; and (ii) a slow-accretion phase characterized by a gentle addition of mass to the outer halo with little change in the inner potential well. We demonstrate, using one-dimensional simulations, that this two-phase accretion leads to CDM haloes of the Navarro, Frenk & White (NFW) form and provides physical insight into the properties of the mass-accretion history that influence the final profile. Assuming that the velocities of CDM particles are effectively isotropized by fluctuations in the gravitational potential …


Theoretical Models Of The Halo Occupation Distribution: Separating Central And Satellite Galaxies, Z Zheng, Aa Berlind, Dh Weinberg, Aj Benson, Cm Baugh, S Cole, R Dave, Cs Frenk, N Katz, Cg Lacey Jan 2005

Theoretical Models Of The Halo Occupation Distribution: Separating Central And Satellite Galaxies, Z Zheng, Aa Berlind, Dh Weinberg, Aj Benson, Cm Baugh, S Cole, R Dave, Cs Frenk, N Katz, Cg Lacey

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

The halo occupation distribution (HOD) describes the relation between galaxies and dark matter at the level of individual dark matter halos. The properties of galaxies residing at the centers of halos differ from those of satellite galaxies because of differences in their formation histories. Using a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation and a semianalytic (SA) galaxy formation model, we examine the separate contributions of central and satellite galaxies to the HOD, more specifically to the probability P(N|M) that a halo of virial mass M contains N galaxies of a particular class. In agreement with earlier …


Interpreting The Relationship Between Galaxy Luminosity, Color, And Environment, Aa Berlind, Mr Blanton, Dw Hogg, Dh Weinberg, R Dave, Dj Eisenstein, N Katz Jan 2005

Interpreting The Relationship Between Galaxy Luminosity, Color, And Environment, Aa Berlind, Mr Blanton, Dw Hogg, Dh Weinberg, R Dave, Dj Eisenstein, N Katz

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We study the relationship between galaxy luminosity, color, and environment in a cosmological simulation of galaxy formation. Using a simple prescription to assign colors and luminosities to simulated galaxies, we compare the predicted relationship with that observed for SDSS galaxies and find that the model successfully predicts most of the qualitative features seen in the data, but also shows some interesting differences. Specifically, the simulation predicts that the local density around bright red galaxies is a strong increasing function of luminosity, but does not depend much on color at fixed luminosity. Moreover, we show that these trends are due to …


Measuring The Halo Mass Of Z Similar To 3 Damped Ly Alpha Absorbers From The Absorber-Galaxy Cross-Correlation, N Bouche, Jp Gardner, N Katz, Dh Weinberg, R Dave, Jd Lowenthal Jan 2005

Measuring The Halo Mass Of Z Similar To 3 Damped Ly Alpha Absorbers From The Absorber-Galaxy Cross-Correlation, N Bouche, Jp Gardner, N Katz, Dh Weinberg, R Dave, Jd Lowenthal

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We test the reliability of a method to measure the mean halo mass of absorption-line systems such as damped Lyα absorbers (DLAs). The method is based on measuring the ratio of the cross-correlation between DLAs and galaxies to the autocorrelation of the galaxies themselves, which is (in linear theory) the ratio of their bias factor . We show that the ratio of the projected cross- and autocorrelation functions [wdg(rθ)/wgg(rθ)] is also the ratio of their bias factor, irrespective of the galaxy distribution, provided that one uses the same …


Simulation Of Soft X-Ray Emission Lines From The Missing Baryons, Tt Fang, Rac Croft, Wt Sanders, J Houck, R Dave, N Katz, Dh Weinberg, L Hernquist Jan 2005

Simulation Of Soft X-Ray Emission Lines From The Missing Baryons, Tt Fang, Rac Croft, Wt Sanders, J Houck, R Dave, N Katz, Dh Weinberg, L Hernquist

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We study the soft X-ray emission (0.1-1 keV) from the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) in a hydrodynamic simulation of a cold dark matter universe. Our main goal is to investigate how such emission can be explored with a combination of imaging and spectroscopy and to motivate future X-ray missions. We first present high-resolution images of the X-ray emission in several energy bands in which emission from different ion species dominates. We pick three different areas to study the high-resolution spectra of X-rays from the WHIM: (1) a galaxy group, (2) a filament, and (3) an underluminous region. By taking into …


Ly Alpha Flux Power Spectrum And Its Covariance, H Zhan, R Dave, D Eisenstein, N Katz Jan 2005

Ly Alpha Flux Power Spectrum And Its Covariance, H Zhan, R Dave, D Eisenstein, N Katz

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We analyse the flux power spectrum and its covariance using simulated Lyα forests. We find that pseudo-hydro techniques are good approximations of hydrodynamical simulations at high redshift. However, the pseudo-hydro techniques fail at low redshift because they are insufficient for characterizing some components of the low-redshift intergalactic medium, notably the warm–hot intergalactic medium. Hence, to use the low-redshift Lyα flux power spectrum to constrain cosmology, one would need realistic hydrodynamical simulations. By comparing (one-dimensional) mass statistics with flux statistics, we show that the non-linear transform between density and flux quenches the fluctuations so that the flux power spectrum is much …


Galaxy Clustering And Galaxy Bias In A Lambda Cdm Universe, Dh Weinberg, R Dave, N Katz, L Hernquist Jan 2004

Galaxy Clustering And Galaxy Bias In A Lambda Cdm Universe, Dh Weinberg, R Dave, N Katz, L Hernquist

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We investigate galaxy clustering and the correlations between galaxies and mass in the ΛCDM cosmological model (inflationary cold dark matter with Ωm = 0.4, ΩΛ = 0.6, h = 0.65, n = 0.95, and σ8 = 0.8), using a large, smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation (SPH; with 2 × 1443 particles in a 50 h-1 Mpc cube). Simulated galaxies can be unambiguously identified as clumps of stars and cold gas a few kpc to a few tens of kpc across, residing in extended halos of hot gas and dark matter; the space density of the resolved …


X-Ray Absorption By The Low-Redshift Intergalactic Medium: A Numerical Study Of The Lambda Cold Dark Matter Model, Xl Chen, Dh Weinberg, N Katz, R Dave Jan 2003

X-Ray Absorption By The Low-Redshift Intergalactic Medium: A Numerical Study Of The Lambda Cold Dark Matter Model, Xl Chen, Dh Weinberg, N Katz, R Dave

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Using a hydrodynamic simulation of a cold dark matter universe with a cosmological constant, we investigate the "X-ray forest" absorption imprinted on the spectra of background quasars by the intervening intergalactic medium (IGM), at redshift z 0. In agreement with previous studies, we find that O VII and O VIII produce the strongest absorption features. The strong oxygen absorbers that might be detectable with Chandra or XMM-Newton arise in gas with T ~ 105.5-106.5 K and overdensities δ 100 that are characteristic of galaxy groups. Future X-ray missions could detect weaker oxygen absorption produced by gas with …


The Halo Occupation Distribution And The Physics Of Galaxy Formation, Aa Berlind, Dh Weinberg, Aj Benson, Cm Baugh, S Cole, R Dave, Cs Frenk, A Jenkins, N Katz, Cg Lacey Jan 2003

The Halo Occupation Distribution And The Physics Of Galaxy Formation, Aa Berlind, Dh Weinberg, Aj Benson, Cm Baugh, S Cole, R Dave, Cs Frenk, A Jenkins, N Katz, Cg Lacey

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

The halo occupation distribution (HOD) describes the bias between galaxies and dark matter by specifying (1) the probability P(N|M) that a halo of virial mass M contains N galaxies of a particular class and (2) the relative spatial and velocity distributions of galaxies and dark matter within halos. We calculate and compare the HODs predicted by a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation of a ΛCDM cosmological model (cold dark matter with a cosmological constant) and by a semianalytic galaxy formation model applied to the same cosmology. Although the two methods predict different galaxy mass functions, …


The Influence Of Omega(B) On High-Redshift Structure, Jp Gardner, N Katz, L Hernquist, Dh Weinberg Jan 2003

The Influence Of Omega(B) On High-Redshift Structure, Jp Gardner, N Katz, L Hernquist, Dh Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We analyze high-redshift structure in three hydrodynamic simulations that have identical initial conditions and cosmological parameters and differ only in the value of the baryon density parameter, Ωb = 0.02, 0.05, and 0.125. Increasing Ωb does not change the fraction of baryons in the diffuse (unshocked) phase of the intergalactic medium, but it increases cooling rates and therefore transfers some baryons from the shocked intergalactic phase to the condensed phase associated with galaxies. Predictions of Lyα forest absorption are almost unaffected by changes in Ωb at velocity scales greater than 5 km s-1 (our resolution limit), …


Bar-Driven Dark Halo Evolution: A Resolution Of The Cusp-Core Controversy, Md Weinberg, N Katz Jan 2002

Bar-Driven Dark Halo Evolution: A Resolution Of The Cusp-Core Controversy, Md Weinberg, N Katz

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Simulations predict that the dark matter halos of galaxies should have central cusps, while those inferred from observed galaxies do not have cusps. We demonstrate, using both linear perturbation theory and n-body simulations, that a disk bar, which should be ubiquitous in forming galaxies, can produce cores in cuspy cold dark matter profiles within five bar orbital times. Simulations of forming galaxies suggest that one of Milky Way size could have a 10 kpc primordial bar; this bar will remove the cusp out to ~2.5 kpc in ~1.5 Gyr, while the disk would lose only ~8% of its original angular …


X-Ray Scaling Relations Of Galaxy Groups In A Hydrodynamic Cosmological Simulation, R Dave, N Katz, Dh Weinberg Jan 2002

X-Ray Scaling Relations Of Galaxy Groups In A Hydrodynamic Cosmological Simulation, R Dave, N Katz, Dh Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We examine the scalings of X-ray luminosity, temperature, and dark matter or galaxy velocity dispersion for galaxy groups in a ΛCDM cosmological simulation, which incorporates gravity, gas dynamics, radiative cooling, and star formation, but no substantial nongravitational heating. In agreement with observations, the simulated LX-σ and LX-TX relations are steeper than those predicted by adiabatic simulations or self-similar models, with LX σ4.4 and LX T for massive groups and significantly steeper relations below a break at σ 180 km s-1 (TX 0.7 keV). The TX-σ relation …


Noise-Driven Evolution In Stellar Systems - Ii. A Universal Halo Profile, Md Weinberg Jan 2001

Noise-Driven Evolution In Stellar Systems - Ii. A Universal Halo Profile, Md Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Disc instabilities such as arm and bar formation, minor mergers and tidal encounters drive a galaxy from equilibrium. Using the theory that describes the evolution of a galaxy halo as a result of stochastic fluctuations developed in the companion paper to this one, we show that this sort of noise evolves a halo toward a standard profile, independent of its initial profile and concentration. This process can substantially redistribute the mass in dark-matter haloes in the 10 Gyr since formation. Three different noise processes are studied: (i) a bombardment by blobs of mass that are small compared to the halo …


Cooling Radiation And The Ly Alpha Luminosity Of Forming Galaxies, Ma Fardal, N Katz, Jp Gardner, L Hernquist, Dh Weinberg, R Dave Jan 2001

Cooling Radiation And The Ly Alpha Luminosity Of Forming Galaxies, Ma Fardal, N Katz, Jp Gardner, L Hernquist, Dh Weinberg, R Dave

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We examine the cooling radiation from forming galaxies in hydrodynamic simulations of the LCDM model (cold dark matter with a cosmological constant), focusing on the Lyα line luminosities of high-redshift systems. Primordial composition gas condenses within dark matter potential wells, forming objects with masses and sizes comparable to the luminous regions of observed galaxies. As expected, the energy radiated in this process is comparable to the gravitational binding energy of the baryons, and the total cooling luminosity of the galaxy population peaks at z 2. However, in contrast to the classical picture of gas cooling from the ~106 K …


Metal Enrichment Of The Intergalactic Medium In Cosmological Simulations, A Aguirre, L Hernquist, J Schaye, N Katz, Dh Weinberg, J Gardner Jan 2001

Metal Enrichment Of The Intergalactic Medium In Cosmological Simulations, A Aguirre, L Hernquist, J Schaye, N Katz, Dh Weinberg, J Gardner

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Observations have established that the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) at z ~ 3 is enriched to ~10-2.5 solar metallicity and that the hot gas in large clusters of galaxies (ICM) is enriched to - Z at z = 0. Metals in the IGM may have been removed from galaxies (in which they presumably form) during dynamical encounters between galaxies, by ram-pressure stripping, by supernova-driven winds, or as radiation-pressure-driven dust efflux. This study develops a method of investigating the chemical enrichment of the IGM and of galaxies, using already completed cosmological simulations. To these simulations we add dust and (gaseous) …


Hydrodynamic Simulation Of The Cosmological X-Ray Background, Rac Croft, T Di Matteo, L Hernquist, N Katz, Ma Fardal, Dh Weinberg Jan 2001

Hydrodynamic Simulation Of The Cosmological X-Ray Background, Rac Croft, T Di Matteo, L Hernquist, N Katz, Ma Fardal, Dh Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We use a hydrodynamic simulation of an inflationary cold dark matter model with a cosmological constant to predict properties of the extragalactic X-ray background (XRB). We focus on emission from the intergalactic medium (IGM), with particular attention to diffuse emission from warm-hot gas that lies in relatively smooth filamentary structures between galaxies and galaxy clusters. We also include X-rays from point sources associated with galaxies in the simulation, and we make maps of the angular distribution of the emission. Although much of the X-ray luminous gas has a filamentary structure, the filaments are not evident in the simulated maps because …


Noise-Driven Evolution In Stellar Systems - I. Theory, Md Weinberg Jan 2001

Noise-Driven Evolution In Stellar Systems - I. Theory, Md Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We present a theory for describing the evolution of a galaxy caused by stochastic events such as weak mergers, transient spiral structure, orbiting blobs, etc. This noise excites large-scale patterns that drive the evolution of the galactic density profile. In a dark matter halo, the repeated stochastic perturbations preferentially ring the lowest-order modes with only a very weak dependence on the details of their source. The subsequent redistribution of halo mass is determined only by the mechanics of these modes. The halo profile then evolves toward a universal asymptotic form for a wide variety of noise sources. Such a convergence …


Constraints On Cosmological Parameters From The Ly Alpha Forest Power Spectrum And Cobe Dmr, J Phillips, Dh Weinberg, Rac Croft, L Hernquist, N Katz, M Pettini Jan 2001

Constraints On Cosmological Parameters From The Ly Alpha Forest Power Spectrum And Cobe Dmr, J Phillips, Dh Weinberg, Rac Croft, L Hernquist, N Katz, M Pettini

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We combine COBE DMR measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy with a recent measurement of the mass power spectrum at redshift z = 2.5 from Lyα forest data to derive constraints on cosmological parameters and test the inflationary cold dark matter (CDM) scenario of structure formation. By treating the inflationary spectral index n as a free parameter, we are able to find successful fits to the COBE and Lyα forest constraints in Ωm = 1 models with and without massive neutrinos and in low-Ωm models with and without a cosmological constant. Within each class of model, the …


Enrichment Of The Intergalactic Medium By Radiation Pressure-Driven Dust Efflux, A Aguirre, L Hernquist, N Katz, J Gardner, D Weinberg Jan 2001

Enrichment Of The Intergalactic Medium By Radiation Pressure-Driven Dust Efflux, A Aguirre, L Hernquist, N Katz, J Gardner, D Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

The presence of metals in hot cluster gas and in Lyα absorbers, as well as the mass-metallicity relation of observed galaxies, suggest that galaxies lose a significant fraction of their metals to the intergalactic medium (IGM). Theoretical studies of this process have concentrated on metal removal by dynamical processes or supernova-driven winds. Here we investigate the enrichment of the IGM by the expulsion of dust grains from galaxies by radiation pressure. We use already completed cosmological simulations to which we add dust, assuming that most dust can reach the equilibrium point between radiation pressure and gravitational forces. We find that …


Closing In On Omega(M): The Amplitude Of Mass Fluctuations From Galaxy Clusters And The Ly Alpha Forest, Dh Weinberg, Rac Croft, L Hernquist, N Katz, M Pettini Jan 1999

Closing In On Omega(M): The Amplitude Of Mass Fluctuations From Galaxy Clusters And The Ly Alpha Forest, Dh Weinberg, Rac Croft, L Hernquist, N Katz, M Pettini

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We estimate the present-day value of the matter density parameter ΩM by combining constraints from the galaxy cluster mass function with Croft et al.'s recent measurement of the mass power spectrum, P(k), from Lyα forest data. The key assumption of the method is that cosmic structure formed by gravitational instability from Gaussian primordial fluctuations. For a specified value of ΩM, matching the observed cluster mass function then fixes the value of σ8, the rms amplitude of mass fluctuations in 8 h-1 Mpc spheres, and it thus determines the normalization of P …


The Clustering Of High-Redshift Galaxies In The Cold Dark Matter Scenario, N Katz, L Hernquist, Dh Weinberg Jan 1999

The Clustering Of High-Redshift Galaxies In The Cold Dark Matter Scenario, N Katz, L Hernquist, Dh Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We investigate the clustering of high-redshift galaxies in five variants of the cold dark matter (CDM) scenario, using hydrodynamic cosmological simulations that resolve the formation of systems with circular velocities vc ≥ 100 km s-1 (Ω = 1) or vc ≥ 70 km s-1 (Ω = 0.4). Although the five models differ in their cosmological parameters and in the shapes and amplitudes of their mass power spectra, they predict remarkably similar galaxy clustering at z = 2, 3, and 4. The galaxy correlation functions show almost no evolution over this redshift range, even though the mass …


Cosmological Simulations With Scale-Free Initial Conditions. I. Adiabatic Hydrodynamics, Jm Owen, Dh Weinberg, Ae Evrard, L Hernquist, N Katz Jan 1998

Cosmological Simulations With Scale-Free Initial Conditions. I. Adiabatic Hydrodynamics, Jm Owen, Dh Weinberg, Ae Evrard, L Hernquist, N Katz

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We analyze hierarchical structure formation based on scale-free initial conditions in an Einstein-de Sitter universe, including a baryonic component with Ωbary = 0.05. We present three independent, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations, performed at two resolutions (323 and 643 dark matter and baryonic particles) and with two different SPH codes (TreeSPH and P3MSPH). Each simulation is based on identical initial conditions, which consist of Gaussian-distributed initial density fluctuations that have a power spectrum P(k) k-1. The baryonic material is modeled as an ideal gas subject only to shock heating and adiabatic heating …