Clustering Of Dark Matter Halos Research Articles

Reversing arrested development: a new method to address halo assembly bias

ABSTRACT Halo assembly bias is a phenomenon whereby the clustering of dark matter haloes is dependent on halo properties, such as age, at fixed mass. Understanding the origin of assembly bias is important for interpreting the clustering of galaxies and constraining cosmological models. One proposed explanation for the origin of assembly bias is the truncation of mass accretion in low-mass haloes in the presence of more massive haloes, called ‘arrested development’. Haloes undergoing arrested development would have older measured ages and exhibit stronger clustering than equal mass haloes that have not undergone arrested development. We propose a new method to test the validity of this explanation for assembly bias and correct for it in cosmological N-body simulations. The method is based on the idea that the early mass accretion history of a halo, before arrested development takes effect, can be used to predict the late-time evolution of the halo in the absence of arrested development. We implement this idea by fitting a model to the early portion of halo accretion histories and extrapolating to late times. We then calculate ‘corrected’ masses and ages for haloes based on this extrapolation and investigate how this impacts the assembly bias signal. We find that correcting for arrested development this way leads to a factor of two reduction in the strength of the assembly bias signal across a range of low-halo masses. This result provides new evidence that arrested development is a cause of assembly bias and validates our approach to mitigating the effect.

The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: Exploring halo assembly bias with X-ray-selected superclusters

Numerical simulations indicate that the clustering of dark matter halos is not only dependent on the halo masses but has a secondary dependence on other properties, such as the assembly history of the halo. This phenomenon, known as the halo assembly bias (HAB), has been found mostly on galaxy scales; observational evidence on larger scales is scarce. In this work, we propose a novel method for exploring HAB on cluster scales using large samples of superclusters. Leveraging the largest-ever X-ray galaxy cluster and supercluster samples obtained from the first SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey, we constructed two subsamples of galaxy clusters that consist of supercluster members and isolated clusters, respectively. After correcting for the selection effects on redshift, mass, and survey depth, we computed the excess in the concentration of the intracluster gas of isolated clusters with respect to supercluster members, defined as δcgas ≡ cgas, ISO/cgas, SC − 1, to investigate the environmental effect on the concentration of clusters, a sign of HAB on cluster scales. We find that the average gas mass concentration of isolated clusters is a few percent higher than that of supercluster members, with a maximum significance of 2.8σ. The result for δcgas varies with the overdensity ratio, f, in supercluster identification, cluster mass proxies, and mass and redshift ranges but remains positive in almost all the measurements. We measure slightly larger δcgas when adopting a higher f for supercluster identification. The δcgas is also higher for low-mass and low-redshift clusters. We performed weak lensing analyses to compare the total mass concentration of the two classes and find a similar trend in total mass concentration as obtained from the gas mass concentration. Our results are consistent with the prediction of HAB on cluster scales, where halos located in denser environments are less concentrated; this trend is stronger for halos with lower masses and at lower redshifts. These phenomena can be explained by the fact that clusters in denser environments, such as superclusters, have experienced more mergers than isolated clusters in their assembling history. This work paves the way to explore HAB with X-ray superclusters and demonstrates that large samples of superclusters with X-ray and weak-lensing data can advance our understanding of the evolution of the large-scale structure.

Mass reconstruction and noise reduction with cosmic-web environments

ABSTRACT The clustering of galaxies and their connections to their initial conditions is a major means by which we learn about cosmology. However, the stochasticity between galaxies and their underlying matter field is a major limitation for precise measurements of galaxy clustering. Efforts have been made with an optimal weighting scheme to reduce this stochasticity using the mass-dependent clustering of dark matter haloes. Here, we show that this is not optimal. We demonstrate that the cosmic-web environments (voids, sheets, filaments, and knots) of haloes, when combined linearly with the linear bias, provide extra information for reducing stochasticity in terms of two-point statistics. Using the environmental information alone can increase the signal-to-noise of clustering by a factor of 3 better than the white-noise level at the scales of the baryon acoustic oscillations. The information about the environment and halo mass are complementary. Their combination increases the signal-to-noise by another factor of 2-3. The information about the cosmic web correlates with other properties of haloes, including halo concentrations and tidal forces – all are related to the assembly bias of haloes.

Graph model for the clustering of dark matter halos

Graph model for the clustering of dark matter halos

The intrinsic alignment of red galaxies in DES Y1 redMaPPer galaxy clusters

ABSTRACT Clusters of galaxies trace the most non-linear peaks in the cosmic density field. The weak gravitational lensing of background galaxies by clusters can allow us to infer their masses. However, galaxies associated with the local environment of the cluster can also be intrinsically aligned due to the local tidal gradient, contaminating any cosmology derived from the lensing signal. We measure this intrinsic alignment in Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 redMaPPer clusters. We find evidence of a non-zero mean radial alignment of galaxies within clusters between redshifts 0.1–0.7. We find a significant systematic in the measured ellipticities of cluster satellite galaxies that we attribute to the central galaxy flux and other intracluster light. We attempt to correct this signal, and fit a simple model for intrinsic alignment amplitude (AIA) to the measurement, finding AIA = 0.15 ± 0.04, when excluding data near the edge of the cluster. We find a significantly stronger alignment of the central galaxy with the cluster dark matter halo at low redshift and with higher richness and central galaxy absolute magnitude (proxies for cluster mass). This is an important demonstration of the ability of large photometric data sets like DES to provide direct constraints on the intrinsic alignment of galaxies within clusters. These measurements can inform improvements to small-scale modelling and simulation of the intrinsic alignment of galaxies to help improve the separation of the intrinsic alignment signal in weak lensing studies.

Nonrelativistic Boson stars as N-body quantum systems

In this work, we show that the structural configuration of a collection of generic nonrelativistic bosons forming a gravitationally bound Bose–Einstein condensate can be interpreted as a nonrelativistic boson star. With the approach followed in this work, we can analyze with a concise and straightforward procedure the equilibrium properties of nonrelativistic boson stars viewed as a Bose–Einstein condensate. The system’s behavior is obtained by analyzing its fundamental constituent properties, i.e. the associated single-particle properties. Additionally, we show that by expressing the corresponding Newtonian gravitational potential, under certain circumstances, as a harmonic oscillator potential one, we can describe the conditions in which the nonrelativistic boson star can form equilibrium configurations. In order to analyze the boson star’s structural configuration, we employ four different ansätzes commonly used in the literature. These ansätzes allow us to compare the cloud’s structural properties of the boson star, which leads us to obtain several gravitational equilibrium configurations from compact objects matching the size of typical stars to gigantic systems comparable to the size of galaxy cluster dark matter halos. Finally, we show that these ansätzes predict, qualitatively speaking, the same structural and gravitational equilibrium configurations for different values of the parameters involved.

On the influence of halo mass accretion history on galaxy properties and assembly bias

ABSTRACT Halo assembly bias is the secondary dependence of the clustering of dark matter haloes on their assembly histories at fixed halo mass. This established dependence is expected to manifest itself on galaxy clustering, a potential effect commonly known as galaxy assembly bias. Using the IllustrisTNG300 magnetohydrodynamical simulation, we analyse the dependence of the properties and clustering of galaxies on the specific mass accretion history of their hosting haloes (sMAH). We first show that several halo and galaxy properties strongly correlate with the slope of the sMAH (β) at fixed halo mass. Haloes with increasingly steeper β increment their masses faster early on, and their hosted galaxies present larger stellar-to-halo mass ratios, lose their gas faster, reach the peak of their star formation histories at higher redshift, and become quenched earlier. We also demonstrate that β provides a more stable link to these key galaxy formation properties than other broadly employed halo proxies, such as formation time. Finally, we measure the secondary dependence of galaxy clustering on β at fixed halo mass. By tracing back the evolution of individual haloes, we show that the amplitude of the galaxy assembly bias signal for the progenitors of z = 0 galaxies increases with redshift, reaching a factor of 2 at z = 1 for haloes of Mhalo = 1011.5–1012 h−1 M⊙. The measurement of the evolution of assembly bias along the merger tree provides a new theoretical perspective to the study of secondary bias. Our findings have also important implications for the generation of mock catalogues for upcoming cosmological surveys.

The cosmological dependence of halo and galaxy assembly bias

ABSTRACT One of the main predictions of excursion set theory is that the clustering of dark matter haloes only depends on halo mass. However, it has been long established that the clustering of haloes also depends on other properties, including formation time, concentration, and spin; this effect is commonly known as halo assembly bias (HAB). We use a suite of gravity-only simulations to study the dependence of HAB on cosmology; these simulations cover cosmological parameters spanning 10σ around state-of-the-art best-fitting values, including standard extensions of the ΛCDM paradigm such as neutrino mass and dynamical dark energy. We find that, when studying the peak height-bias relation, the strength of HAB presents variations smaller than 0.05 dex across all cosmologies studied for concentration- and spin-selected haloes, letting us conclude that the dependence of HAB upon cosmology is negligible. We then study the dependence of galaxy assembly bias (i.e. the manifestation of HAB in galaxy clustering) on cosmology using subhalo abundance matching. We find that galaxy assembly bias also presents very small dependence upon cosmology (∼ 2 per cent–4 per cent of the total clustering); on the other hand, we find that the dependence of this signal on the galaxy formation parameters of our galaxy model is much stronger. Taken together, these results let us conclude that the dependence of halo and galaxy assembly bias on cosmology is practically negligible.

Nonperturbative halo clustering from cosmological density peaks

Associating the formation sites of haloes with the maxima of the smoothed linear density field, we present nonperturbative predictions for the Lagrangian and evolved halo correlation functions that are valid at all separations. In Lagrangian space, we find significant deviations from the perturbative bias calculation at small scales, in particular, a pronounced exclusion region where $\ensuremath{\xi}=\ensuremath{-}1$ for maxima of unequal height. Our predictions are in good agreement with the Lagrangian clustering of dark matter proto-haloes reconstructed from $N$-body simulations. Our predictions for the mean infall and velocity dispersion of haloes, which differ from the local bias expansion, show a similar level of agreement with simulations. Finally, we displace the initial density peaks according to the Zeldovich approximation in order to predict the late-time clustering of dark matter haloes. While we are able to reproduce the early evolution of this conserved set of tracers, our approximation fails at the collapse epoch ($z=0$) on nonlinear scales $r\ensuremath{\lesssim}10{h}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{Mpc}$, emphasizing the need for a nonperturbative treatment of the halo displacement field.

Clustering and redshift-space distortions in modified gravity models with massive neutrinos

Abstract Modified gravity and massive neutrino cosmologies are two of the most interesting scenarios that have been recently explored to account for possible observational deviations from the concordance Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model. In this context, we investigated the large-scale structure of the Universe by exploiting the dustgrain-pathfinder simulations that implement, simultaneously, the effects of f(R) gravity and massive neutrinos. To study the possibility of breaking the degeneracy between these two effects, we analysed the redshift-space distortions in the clustering of dark matter haloes at different redshifts. Specifically, we focused on the monopole and quadrupole of the two-point correlation function, both in real and redshift space. The deviations with respect to ΛCDM model have been quantified in terms of the linear growth rate parameter. We found that redshift-space distortions provide a powerful probe to discriminate between ΛCDM and modified gravity models, especially at high redshifts (z ≳ 1), even in the presence of massive neutrinos.

Constraining dark matter-neutrino interactions with IceCube-170922A

Astrophysical neutrinos travel long distances from their sources to the Earth traversing dark matter halos of clusters of galaxies and that of our own Milky Way. The interaction of neutrinos with dark matter may affect the flux of neutrinos. The recent multi-messenger observation of a high energy neutrino, IceCube-170922A, can give a robust upper bound $\sigma /M_{dm} \lesssim 5.1\times 10^{-23} {\rm cm}^2 /$GeV on the interaction between neutrino and dark matter at a neutrino energy of 290 TeV allowing 90\% suppression. Combining the constraints from CMB and LSS at different neutrino energies, we can constrain models of dark matter-neutrino interactions.

The secondary spin bias of dark matter haloes

We investigate the role of angular momentum in the clustering of dark matter haloes. We make use of data from two high-resolution N-body simulations spanning over four orders of magnitude in halo mass, from $10^{9.8}$ to $10^{14}\ h^{-1}\ \text{M}_\odot$. We explore the hypothesis that mass accretion in filamentary environments alters the angular momentum of a halo, thereby driving a correlation between the spin parameter $\lambda$ and the strength of clustering. However, we do not find evidence that the distribution of matter on large scales is related to the spin of haloes. We find that a halo's spin is correlated with its age, concentration, sphericity, and mass accretion rate. Removing these correlations strongly affects the strength of secondary spin bias at low halo masses. We also find that high spin haloes are slightly more likely to be found near another halo of comparable mass. These haloes that are found near a comparable mass neighbour - a \textit{twin} - are strongly spatially biased. We demonstrate that this \textit{twin bias}, along with the relationship between spin and mass accretion rates, statistically accounts for halo spin secondary bias.

TheThreeHundred Project: ram pressure and gas content of haloes and subhaloes in the phase-space plane

We use TheThreeHundred project, a suite of 324 resimulated massive galaxy clusters embedded in a broad range of environments, to investigate (i) how the gas content of surrounding haloes correlates with phase-space position at $z=0$, and (ii) to investigate the role that ram pressure plays in this correlation. By stacking all 324 normalised phase-space planes containing 169287 haloes and subhaloes, we show that the halo gas content is tightly correlated with phase-space position. At $\sim\,1.5-2\,\text{R}_{\text{200}}$ of the cluster dark matter halo, we find an extremely steep decline in the halo gas content of infalling haloes and subhaloes irrespective of cluster mass, possibly indicating the presence of an accretion shock. We also find that subhaloes are particularly gas-poor, even in the cluster outskirts, which could indicate active regions of ongoing pre-processing. By modelling the instantaneous ram pressure experienced by each halo and subhalo at $z=0$, we show that the ram pressure intensity is also well correlated with phase-space position, which is again irrespective of cluster mass. In fact, we show that regions in the phase-space plane with high differential velocity between a halo or subhalo and its local gas environment, are almost mutually exclusive with high halo gas content regions. This suggests a causal link between the gas content of objects and the instantaneous ram pressure they experience, where the dominant factor is the differential velocity.

Dwarf Galaxies as Cosmological Probes

AbstractThe Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) paradigm makes specific predictions for the abundance, structure, substructure and clustering of dark matter halos, the sites of galaxy formation. These predictions can be directly tested, in the low-mass halo regime, by dark matter-dominated dwarf galaxies. A number of potential challenges to LCDM have been identified when confronting the expected properties of dwarfs with observation. I review our understanding of a few of these issues, including the “missing satellites” and the “too-big-to-fail” problems, and argue that neither poses an insurmountable challenge to LCDM. Solving these problems requires that most dwarf galaxies inhabit halos of similar mass, and that there is a relatively sharp minimum halo mass threshold to form luminous galaxies. These predictions are eminently falsifiable. In particular, LCDM predicts a large number of “dark” low-mass halos, some of which should have retained enough primordial gas to be detectable in deep 21 cm or Hα surveys. Detecting this predicted population of “mini-halos” would be a major discovery and a resounding success for LCDM on small scales.

Gravitational lensing detection of an extremely dense environment around a galaxy cluster

Galaxy clusters form at the highest-density nodes of the cosmic web1,2. The clustering of dark matter halos hosting these galaxy clusters is enhanced relative to the general mass distribution, with the matter density beyond the virial region being strongly correlated to the halo mass (halo bias)3. Halo properties other than mass can further enhance the halo clustering (secondary bias)4–7. Observational campaigns have ascertained the halo bias8–10, but efforts to detect this secondary bias for massive halos have been inconclusive11–13. Here, we report the analysis of the environment bias in a sample of massive clusters, selected through the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect by the Planck mission14,15, focusing on the detection of the environment dark matter correlated to a single cluster, PSZ2 G099.86+58.45. The gravitational lensing signal of the outskirts is very large and can be traced up to 30 megaparsecs with a high signal-to-noise ratio (about 3.4), implying environment matter density in notable excess of the cosmological mean. Our finding reveals this system to be extremely rare in the current paradigm of structure formation and, implies that enhancing mechanisms around high-mass halos can be very effective. Future lensing surveys will probe the surroundings of single haloes, enabling the study of their formation and evolution of structure. The strong gravitational lensing signal around the massive cluster PSZ2 G099.86+58.45 indicates environment matter density in notable excess of the cosmological mean and implies that enhancing mechanisms around high-mass halos can be very effective.

Spatial clustering of dark matter haloes: secondary bias, neighbour bias, and the influence of massive neighbours on halo properties

We explore the phenomenon commonly known as halo assembly bias, whereby dark matter halos of the same mass are found to be more or less clustered when a second halo property is considered, for halos in the mass range $3.7 \times 10^{11} \; h^{-1} \mathrm{M_{\odot}} - 5.0 \times 10^{13} \; h^{-1} \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$. Using the Large Suite of Dark Matter Simulations (LasDamas) we consider nine commonly used halo properties and find that a clustering bias exists if halos are binned by mass or by any other halo property. This secondary bias implies that no single halo property encompasses all the spatial clustering information of the halo population. The mean values of some halo properties depend on their halo's distance to a more massive neighbor. Halo samples selected by having high values of one of these properties therefore inherit a neighbor bias such that they are much more likely to be close to a much more massive neighbor. This neighbor bias largely accounts for the secondary bias seen in halos binned by mass and split by concentration or age. However, halos binned by other mass-like properties still show a secondary bias even when the neighbor bias is removed. The secondary bias of halos selected by their spin behaves differently than that for other halo properties, suggesting that the origin of the spin bias is different than of other secondary biases.

Understanding Large-scale Structure in the SSA22 Protocluster Region Using Cosmological Simulations∗

Abstract We investigate the nature and evolution of large-scale structure within the SSA22 protocluster region at z = 3.09 using cosmological simulations. A redshift histogram constructed from current spectroscopic observations of the SSA22 protocluster reveals two separate peaks at z = 3.065 (blue) and z = 3.095 (red). Based on these data, we report updated overdensity and mass calculations for the SSA22 protocluster. We find and for the blue and red peaks, respectively, and for the entire region. These overdensities correspond to masses of , , and for the red, blue, and total peaks, respectively. We use the Small MultiDark Planck (SMDPL) simulation to identify comparably massive protoclusters, and uncover the underlying structure and ultimate fate of the SSA22 protocluster. For this analysis, we construct mock redshift histograms for each simulated protocluster, quantitatively comparing them with the observed SSA22 data. We find that the observed double-peaked structure in the SSA22 redshift histogram corresponds not to a single coalescing cluster, but rather the proximity of a protocluster and at least one cluster progenitor. Such associations in the SMDPL simulation are easily understood within the framework of hierarchical clustering of dark matter halos. We finally find that the opportunity to observe such a phenomenon is incredibly rare, with an occurrence rate of .

CLUSTERING OF EXTREMELY RED OBJECTS IN THE SUBARU GTO 2DEG2 FIELD

We study the angular correlation function of bright (<TEX>$K_s{\leq}19.5$</TEX>) Extremely Red Objects (EROs) selected in the Subaru GTO 2<TEX>$deg^2$</TEX> field. By applying the color selection criteria of <TEX>$R-K_s$</TEX> > 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0, we identify 9055, 4270, and 1777 EROs, respectively. The number density is consistent with similar studies on the optical - NIR color selected red galaxies. The angular correlation functions are derived for EROs with different limiting magnitude and different <TEX>$R-K_s$</TEX> color cut. When we assume that the angular correlation function <TEX>$w({\theta})$</TEX> follows a form of a power-law (i.e., <TEX>$w({\theta})=A{\theta}^{-{\delta}}$</TEX>), the value of the amplitude A was larger for brighter EROs compared to the fainter EROs. The result suggests that the brighter, thus more massive high-redshift galaxies, are clustered more strongly compared to the less massive galaxies. Assuming that EROs have redshift distribution centered at <z> ~ 1.1 with <TEX>${\sigma}_z=0.15$</TEX>, the spatial correlation length <TEX>$r_0$</TEX> of the EROs estimated from the observed angular correlation function ranges <TEX>${\sim}6-10h^{-1}Mpc$</TEX>. A comparison with the clustering of dark matter halos in numerical simulation suggests that the EROs are located in most massive dark matter halos and could be progenitors of <TEX>$L_{\ast}$</TEX> elliptical galaxies.

Understanding the non-linear clustering of high-redshift galaxies

We incorporate the non-linear clustering of dark matter halos, as modelled by Jose et al. (2016) into the halo model to better understand the clustering of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) in the redshift range $z=3-5$. We find that, with this change, the predicted LBG clustering increases significantly on quasi-linear scales ($0.1 \leq r\,/\,h^{-1} \,{\rm Mpc} \leq 10$) compared to that in the linear halo bias model. This in turn results in an increase in the clustering of LBGs by an order of magnitude on angular scales $5" \leq \theta \leq 100"$. Remarkably, the predictions of our new model on the whole remove the systematic discrepancy between the linear halo bias predictions and the observations. The correlation length and large scale galaxy bias of LBGs are found to be significantly higher in the non-linear halo bias model than in the linear halo bias model. The resulting two-point correlation function retains an approximate power-law form in contrast with that computed using the linear halo bias theory. We also find that the non-linear clustering of LBGs increases with increasing luminosity and redshift. Our work emphasizes the importance of using non-linear halo bias in order to model the clustering of high-z galaxies to probe the physics of galaxy formation and extract cosmological parameters reliably.

Lyα Absorbers and the Coma Cluster

Abstract The spatial and kinematic distribution of warm gas in and around the Coma Cluster is presented through observations of Lyα absorbers using background QSOs. Updates to the Lyα absorber distribution found in Yoon et al. for the Virgo Cluster are also presented. At 0.2–2.0R vir of Coma we identify 14 Lyα absorbers ( ) toward 5 sightlines and no Lyα absorbers along 3 sightlines within . For both Coma and Virgo, most Lyα absorbers are found outside the virial radius or beyond 1σ v consistent with them largely representing the infalling intergalactic medium. The few exceptions in the central regions can be associated with galaxies. The Lyα absorbers avoid the hot ICM, consistent with the infalling gas being shock heated within the cluster. The massive dark matter halos of clusters do not show the increasing column density with decreasing impact parameter relationship found for the smaller mass galaxy halos. In addition, while the covering fraction within R vir is lower for clusters than galaxies, beyond R vir the covering fraction is somewhat higher for clusters. The velocity dispersion of the absorbers compared to the galaxies is higher for Coma, consistent with the absorbers tracing additional turbulent gas motions in the cluster outskirts. The results are overall consistent with cosmological simulations, with the covering fraction being high in the observations standing out as the primary discrepancy.