Formation Of Dark Matter Halos Research Articles

Predicting dark matter halo formation in N-body simulations with deep regression networks

ABSTRACT Dark matter haloes play a fundamental role in cosmological structure formation. The most common approach to model their assembly mechanisms is through N-body simulations. In this work, we present an innovative pathway to predict dark matter halo formation from the initial density field using a Deep Learning algorithm. We implement and train a Deep Convolutional Neural Network to solve the task of retrieving Lagrangian patches from which dark matter haloes will condense. The volumetric multilabel classification task is turned into a regression problem by means of the Euclidean distance transformation. The network is complemented by an adaptive version of the watershed algorithm to form the entire protohalo identification pipeline. We show that splitting the segmentation problem into two distinct subtasks allows for training smaller and faster networks, while the predictive power of the pipeline remains the same. The model is trained on synthetic data derived from a single full N-body simulation and achieves deviations of ∼10 per cent when reconstructing the dark matter halo mass function at z = 0. This approach represents a promising framework for learning highly non-linear relations in the primordial density field. As a practical application, our method can be used to produce mock dark matter halo catalogues directly from the initial conditions of N-body simulations.

Collapse of spherical overdensities in superfluid models of dark matter

Aims. We intend to understand cosmological structure formation within the framework of superfluid models of dark matter with finite temperatures. Of particular interest is the evolution of small-scale structures where the pressure and superfluid properties of the dark matter fluid are prominent. We compare the growth of structures in these models with the standard cold dark matter paradigm and non-superfluid dark matter. Methods. The equations for superfluid hydrodynamics were computed numerically in an expanding ΛCDM background with spherical symmetry; the effect of various superfluid fractions, temperatures, interactions, and masses on the collapse of structures was taken into consideration. We derived the linear perturbation of the superfluid equations, giving further insights into the dynamics of the superfluid collapse. Results. We found that while a conventional dark matter fluid with self-interactions and finite temperatures experiences a suppression in the growth of structures on smaller scales, as expected due to the presence of pressure terms, a superfluid can collapse much more efficiently than was naively expected due to its ability to suppress the growth of entropy perturbations and thus gradients in the thermal pressure. We also found that the cores of the dark matter halos initially become more superfluid during the collapse, but eventually reach a point where the superfluid fraction falls sharply. The formation of superfluid dark matter halos surrounded by a normal fluid dark matter background is therefore disfavored by the present work.

21-cm observations and warm dark matter models

Observations of the redshifted 21-cm signal (in absorption or emission) allow us to peek into the epoch of "dark ages" and the onset of reionization. These data can provide a novel way to learn about the nature of dark matter, in particular about the formation of small size dark matter halos. However, the connection between the formation of structures and 21-cm signal requires knowledge of stellar to total mass relation, escape fraction of UV photons, and other parameters that describe star formation and radiation at early times. This baryonic physics depends on the properties of dark matter and in particular in warm-dark-matter (WDM) models, star formation may follow a completely different scenario, as compared to the cold-dark-matter case. We use the recent measurements by the EDGES [J. D. Bowman, A. E. E. Rogers, R. A. Monsalve, T. J. Mozdzen, and N. Mahesh, An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in thesky-averaged spectrum,Nature (London) 555, 67 (2018).] to demonstrate that when taking the above considerations into account, the robust WDM bounds are in fact weaker than those given by the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest method and other structure formation bounds. In particular, we show that resonantly produced 7 keV sterile neutrino dark matter model is consistent with these data. However, a holistic approach to modelling of the WDM universe holds great potential and may in the future make 21-cm data our main tool to learn about dark matter clustering properties.

An interpretable machine-learning framework for dark matter halo formation

ABSTRACT We present a generalization of our recently proposed machine-learning framework, aiming to provide new physical insights into dark matter halo formation. We investigate the impact of the initial density and tidal shear fields on the formation of haloes over the mass range 11.4 ≤ log (M/M⊙) ≤ 13.4. The algorithm is trained on an N-body simulation to infer the final mass of the halo to which each dark matter particle will later belong. We then quantify the difference in the predictive accuracy between machine-learning models using a metric based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence. We first train the algorithm with information about the density contrast in the particles’ local environment. The addition of tidal shear information does not yield an improved halo collapse model over one based on density information alone; the difference in their predictive performance is consistent with the statistical uncertainty of the density-only based model. This result is confirmed as we verify the ability of the initial conditions-to-halo mass mapping learnt from one simulation to generalize to independent simulations. Our work illustrates the broader potential of developing interpretable machine-learning frameworks to gain physical understanding of non-linear large-scale structure formation.

Gravitational collapse of baryonic and dark matter

A massive star undergoes a continual gravitational collapse when the pressures inside the collapsing star become insufficient to balance the pull of gravity. The Physics of gravitational collapse of stars is well studied. Using general relativistic techniques, one can show that the final fate of such a catastrophic collapse can be a black hole or a naked singularity, depending on the initial conditions of gravitational collapse. While stars are made of baryonic matter whose collapse is well studied, there is good indirect evidence that another type of matter, known as dark matter, plays an important role in the formation of large-scale structures in the universe, such as galaxies. It is estimated that some 85% of the total matter in the universe is dark matter. Since the particle constituent of dark matter is not known yet, the gravitational collapse of dark matter is less explored. Here, we consider first some basic properties of baryonic matter and dark matter collapse. Then, we discuss the final fate of gravitational collapse for different types of matter fields and the nature of the singularity which can be formed as an endstate of gravitational collapse. We then present a general relativistic technique to form equilibrium configurations, and argue that this can be thought of as a general relativistic analog of the standard virialization process. We suggest a modification, where the top-hat collapse model of primordial dark-matter halo formation is modified using the general relativistic technique of equilibrium. We also explain why this type of collapse process is more likely to happen in the dark-matter fields.

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Environmental Dependence of the Mgb/ – Relation for Nearby Galaxies

Abstract We use a sample of ∼3000 galaxies from the MaNGA MPL-7 internal data release to study the α abundance distribution within low-redshift galaxies. We use the Lick index ratio Mgb/ as an α abundance indicator to study relationships between the α abundance distribution and galaxy properties such as effective stellar velocity dispersion within 0.3 effective radii (σ *), galaxy environment, and dark matter halo formation time (z f ). We find that (1) all galaxies show a tight correlation between Mgb/ and (2) “old” (Hβ < 3) low-σ * galaxies in high local density environment and inner regions within galaxy groups are enhanced in Mgb/ , while “young” (Hβ > 3) galaxies and high-mass galaxies show no or less environmental dependence; (3) “old” galaxies with high-z f show enhanced Mgb/ over low- and medium-z f ; and (4) Mgb/ gradients are close to zero and show dependence on σ * but no obvious dependence on the environment or z f . Our study indicates that stellar velocity dispersion or galaxy mass is the main parameter driving the Mgb/ enhancement, although environments appear to have modest effects, particularly for low- and medium-mass galaxies.

Sensitivity of dark matter haloes to their accretion histories

We apply our recently proposed "quadratic genetic modification" approach to generating and testing the effects of alternative mass accretion histories for a single $\Lambda$CDM halo. The goal of the technique is to construct different formation histories, varying the overall contribution of mergers to the fixed final mass. This enables targeted studies of galaxy and dark matter halo formation's sensitivity to the smoothness of mass accretion. Here, we focus on two dark matter haloes, each with four different mass accretion histories. We find that the concentration of both haloes systematically decreases as their merger history becomes smoother. This causal trend tracks the known correlation between formation time and concentration parameters in the overall halo population. At fixed formation time, we further establish that halo concentrations are sensitive to the order in which mergers happen. This ability to study an individual halo's response to variations in its history is highly complementary to traditional methods based on emergent correlations from an extended halo population.

Formation and structure of ultralight bosonic dark matter halos

We simulate the formation and evolution of ultralight bosonic dark matter halos from cosmological initial conditions. Using zoom-in techniques we are able to resolve the detailed interior structure of the halos. We observe the formation of solitonic cores and confirm the core-halo mass relation previously found by Schive et al. The cores exhibit strong quasi-normal oscillations that remain largely undamped on evolutionary timescales. On the other hand, no conclusive growth of the core mass by condensation or relaxation can be detected. In the incoherent halo surrounding the cores, the scalar field density profiles and velocity distributions show no significant deviation from collisionless N-body simulations on scales larger than the coherence length. Our results are consistent with the core properties being determined mainly by the coherence length at the time of virialization, whereas the Schr\"odinger-Vlasov correspondence explains the halo properties when averaged on scales greater than the coherence length.

Dependence of GAMA galaxy halo masses on the cosmic web environment from 100 deg2of KiDS weak lensing data

Galaxies and their dark matter haloes are part of a complex network of mass structures, collectively called the cosmic web. Using the tidal tensor prescription these structures can be classified into four cosmic environments: voids, sheets, filaments and knots. As the cosmic web may influence the formation and evolution of dark matter haloes and the galaxies they host, we aim to study the effect of these cosmic environments on the average mass of galactic haloes. To this end we measure the galaxy-galaxy lensing profile of 91,195 galaxies, within 0.039 < z < 0.263, from the spectroscopic Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, using ~100 square degrees of overlapping data from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS). In each of the four cosmic environments we model the contributions from group centrals, satellites and neighbouring groups to the stacked galaxy-galaxy lensing profiles. After correcting the lens samples for differences in the stellar mass distribution, we find no dependence of the average halo mass of central galaxies on their cosmic environment. We do find a significant increase in the average contribution of neighbouring groups to the lensing profile in increasingly dense cosmic environments. We show, however, that the observed effect can be entirely attributed to the galaxy density at much smaller scales (within 4 Mpc/h), which is correlated with the density of the cosmic environments. Within our current uncertainties we find no direct dependence of galaxy halo mass on their cosmic environment.

Hierarchical Formation of Dark Matter Halos near the Cutoff Scale and Their Impact on Indirect Detections

AbstractThe smallest dark matter halos are formed first in the early universe (e.g., Hofmann et al. 2001; Berezinsky et al. 2003; Ishiyama et al. 2010). We present results of very large cosmological N-body simulations of the hierarchical formation and evolution of halos over a wide mass range, beginning from the formation of the smallest halos. In the largest simulation, the motions of 40963 particles in comoving boxes of side lengths 400 pc and 200 pc were followed. The particle masses were 3.4 × 10−11M⊙ and 4.3 × 10−12M⊙, ensuring that halos at the cutoff scale were represented by 30,000 and 230,000 particles, respectively. We found that the central density cusp is much steeper in these halos than in larger halos (dwarf-galaxy-sized to cluster-sized halos), and scales as ρ ∝ r-(1.5–1.3). The cusp slope gradually becomes shallower as the halo mass increases.The slope of halos 50 times more massive than the smallest halo is approximately −1.3. No strong correlation exists between inner slope and the collapse epoch. The cusp slope of halos above the cutoff scale seems to be reduced primarily due to major merger processes. The concentration, estimated at the present universe, is predicted to be 60–70, consistent with theoretical models and earlier simulations, and ruling out simple power law mass-concentration relations. Such halos could still exist in the present universe with the same steep density profiles. Strongly depending on the subhalo mass function and the adopted concentration model, the steeper inner cusps of halos near the cutoff scale enhance the annihilation luminosity of a Milky Way sized halo between 12 to 67 (Ishiyama 2014).

Scale Free Processes in Galaxy Formation

AbstractAccording to the ΛCDM paradigm of cosmology, galaxies form at the centers of dark matter (DM) halos. While galaxy formation involves complex baryonic physics, the formation of DM halos is governed solely by gravity and cosmology. As a result, many of their properties exhibit a near scale-free behaviour, self-similar in either halo mass, cosmic time or both. This is especially true in the Einstein-de Sitter (EdS) regime, valid at redshifts z ≳ 1, when cosmological scaling relations become particularly simple, and in the narrow mass range of normal galaxies, where the fluctuation power spectrum can be approximated by a power law. Since many galaxy properties are strongly correlated with halo mass, they tend to exhibit a self-similar behaviour as well. A partial list of self-similar properties include the mass function of DM halos, the structure of the cosmic web, the accretion/merger rate of matter onto halos, the density profiles of DM halos and their angular momentum, which eventually determines the galaxy structure. We briefly review these below, and comment on how they can be used in conjunction with simple toy models to gain insight into galaxy formation.

Predicting galaxy star formation rates via the co-evolution of galaxies and haloes

In this paper, we test the age matching hypothesis that the star formation rate (SFR) of a galaxy of fixed stellar mass is determined by its dark matter halo formation history, and as such, that more quiescent galaxies reside in older halos. This simple model has been remarkably successful at predicting color-based galaxy statistics at low redshift as measured in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). To further test this method with observations, we present new SDSS measurements of the galaxy two-point correlation function and galaxy-galaxy lensing as a function of stellar mass and SFR, separated into quenched and star-forming galaxy samples. We find that our age matching model is in excellent agreement with these new measurements. We also employ a galaxy group finder and show that our model is able to predict: (1) the relative SFRs of central and satellite galaxies, (2) the SFR-dependence of the radial distribution of satellite galaxy populations within galaxy groups, rich groups, and clusters and their surrounding larger scale environments, and (3) the interesting feature that the satellite quenched fraction as a function of projected radial distance from the central galaxy exhibits an ~ r^-.15 slope, independent of environment. The accurate prediction for the spatial distribution of satellites is intriguing given the fact that we do not explicitly model satellite-specific processes after infall, and that in our model the virial radius does not mark a special transition region in the evolution of a satellite, contrary to most galaxy evolution models. The success of the model suggests that present-day galaxy SFR is strongly correlated with halo mass assembly history.

Relaxation of dark matter halos: how to match observational data?

We show that moderate energy relaxation in the formation of dark matter halos invariably leads to profiles that match those observed in the central regions of galaxies. The density profile of the central region is universal and insensitive to either the seed perturbation shape or the details of the relaxation process. The profile has a central core; the multiplication of the central density by the core radius is almost independent of the halo mass, in accordance with observations. In the core area the density distribution behaves as an Einasto profile with low index ($n\sim 0.5$); it has an extensive region with $\rho\propto r^{-2}$ at larger distances. This is exactly the shape that observations suggest for the central region of galaxies. On the other hand, this shape does not fit the galaxy cluster profiles. A possible explanation of this fact is that the relaxation is violent in the case of galaxy clusters; however, it is not violent enough when galaxies or smaller dark matter structures are considered. We discuss the reasons for this.

Hierarchical formation of Dark Matter Halos near the Free Streaming Scale, and Their Implications on Indirect Dark Matter Search

AbstractThe smallest dark matter halos are formed first in the early universe. According to recent studies, the central density cusp is much steeper in these halos than in larger halos and scales as ρ ∝ r−(1.5−1.3). We present results of very large cosmological N-body simulations of the hierarchical formation and evolution of halos over a wide mass range, beginning from the formation of the smallest halos. We confirmed early studies that the inner density cusps are steeper in halos at the free streaming scale. The cusp slope gradually becomes shallower as the halo mass increases. The slope of halos 50 times more massive than the smallest halo is approximately -1.3. The concentration parameter is nearly independent of halo mass, and ruling out simple power law mass-concentration relations. The steeper inner cusps of halos near the free streaming scale enhance the annihilation luminosity of a Milky Way sized halo between 12 to 67%.

Cosmological signatures of tilted isocurvature perturbations: reionization and 21cm fluctuations

We investigate cosmological signatures of uncorrelatedisocurvature perturbations whose power spectrum is blue-tilted withspectral index 2≲p≲4. Such an isocurvature powerspectrum can promote early formation of small-scale structure, notablydark matter halos and galaxies, and may thereby resolve the shortage ofionizing photons suggested by observations of galaxies at high redshifts(z ≃ 7−8) but that are required to reionize the universe at z ∼ 10. We mainly focus on how the formation of dark matter halos can bemodified. Based on the Δχ2 analysis with other cosmologicalparameters being fixed, weexplore the connection between the spectral shape of CMBanisotropies and the reionization optical depth as a powerful probe of ahighly blue-tilted isocurvature primordial power spectrum. We alsostudy the consequences for 21cm line fluctuations due to neutralhydrogens in minihalos.Combination of measurements of the reionizationoptical depth and 21cm line fluctuations will provide complementaryprobes of a highly blue-tilted isocurvature power spectrum.

Anomalous diffusion models for the formation of dark matter haloes

We studied the formation of dark matter haloes in terms of the excursion set model in the case of Gaussian density perturbations. We used a more general form for the autocorrelation function of overdensities than that corresponds to a k-sharp filter and applying a path integral approach we constructed first crossing distributions, and consequently mass functions of dark matter haloes. The resulting first crossing distributions depend on a Hurst exponent H. Thus, normal diffusion models (H = 1), subdiffusion models with (H < 1) and superdiffusion models with (H > 1) are predicted. We found values of the parameters so that all models approximate very well the multiplicity functions resulting from N-body simulations. Finally, we calculated distributions of formation redshifts and compared them with the predictions of N-body simulations too. We found that the above models are not able to predict better fits for the distributions of formation redshifts than other well-known analytical models. Thus, the question about the existence of an analytical model that can satisfactorily reproduce both multiplicity functions and formation times distributions derived in N-body simulations remains unanswered.

The inhomogeneous reionization of the local intergalactic medium by metal-poor globular clusters

We present detailed radiative transfer simulations of the reionization history of the Milky Way by metal-poor globular clusters. We identify potential metal-poor globular cluster candidates within the Aquarius simulation using dark matter halo velocity dispersions. We calculate the local ionization fields via a photon-conserving, three dimensional non-equilibrium chemistry code and allow the model to propagate through to the present day. The key feature of the model is that globular cluster formation is suppressed if the local gas is ionized. We find that our spatial treatment of the ionization field leads to drastically different numbers and spatial distributions when compared to models where globular cluster formation is simply truncated at a given redshift. We find that it is possible for metal-poor globular clusters to have formed via the dark matter halo formation channel as our secondary model (delayed formation) combined with truncation at z = 10 produces radial distributions statistically consistent with that of the Milky Way metal-poor globular clusters. If globular clusters do indeed form within high-redshift dark matter halos, if only in-part, their contributions to the reionization of the local (i.e. 2^3 h^-3 Mpc^3 centred on the host galaxy) volume and mass by redshift 10 could be as high as 98% and 90%, respectively. In our photon poorest model, this contribution drops to 60% and 50%. The surviving clusters in all models have a narrow average age range (mean = 13.34 Gyr, \sigma = 0.04 Gyr) consistent with current ages estimates of the Milky Way metal-poor globular clusters. We also test a simple dynamical destruction model and estimate that ~60% of all metal-poor globular clusters formed at high redshift have since been destroyed via tidal interactions with the host galaxy.

Multiplicity functions of dark matter haloes from fractional Brownian motion

We studied the formation of dark matter haloes assuming a Fractional Brownian Motion (FBM) of trajectories in the plane (S,δ). S is the variance of the smoothed overdensity δ. The values of δ are calculated using a filter of radius R that defines a mass scale M, and thus S is considered as a function of mass M. Focusing on a specific point of the initial Universe and calculating δ as a function of the radius R of the filter a random walk on the plane (S,δ) is established. If the above evolution is a FBM motion then there exist correlations between various mass scales. These correlations depend on a Hurst exponent H. Various mass scales are not correlated for H=1 and the evolution is reduced to the classical Brownian motion. Following Zhang and Hui (Astrophys. J. 641:641, 2006), we constructed a Volterra integral equation for the distribution of trajectories after a first crossing of an ellipsoidal barrier. The integral equation is solved numerically and multiplicity functions of dark matter haloes were derived and compared to the results of N-body simulations. Our results show that for H=1.05 the resulting multiplicity functions are in excellent agreement, much better than the agreement predicted by any other model, with the predictions of N-body simulations. This shows that FBM model is a very promising tool for the study of the formation of structures in the Universe.

星系中心大黑洞的宇宙学演化

In the cosmological model of the hierarchical structure formation of dark matter halos, the black holes residing at the center of galaxies continue merging and accreting, following the merging of the dark matter halos. Based on the extended Press-Schechter formalism, we have developed a Monte Carlo algorithm with the self-adaptive time step, which could be used to reconstruction the merging tree of dark matter halos. Having introduced the evolutionary history of massive black holes, especially the two kinds of accretion modes: the direct accretion modes which includes the standard thin accretion disk model and the magnetohydrodynamic accretion disk model and the chaotic accretion model, we investigate the cosmological evolution of the spin and masses of massive black holes. Comparing with the observed luminosity function of active galactic nuclei, it is found that the magnetohydrodynamic accretion disk model describe the growth of massive black holes better than the other accretion models. We have also study the evolution of the binaries of massive black holes, and find that the circum-disk of the black hole binaries significantly affect the distribution of their mass ratio.

Dissipation of dark matter

Fluids often display dissipative properties. We explore dissipation in the form of bulk viscosity in the cold dark matter fluid. We constrain this model using current data from supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations and the cosmic microwave background. Considering the isotropic and homogeneous background only, viscous dark matter is allowed to have a bulk viscosity $\ensuremath{\lesssim}{10}^{7}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{Pa}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\mathrm{s}$, also consistent with the expected integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect (which plagues some models with bulk viscosity). We further investigate the small-scale formation of viscous dark matter halos, which turns out to place significantly stronger constraints on dark matter viscosity. The existence of dwarf galaxies is guaranteed only for much smaller values of dark matter viscosity, $\ensuremath{\lesssim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{Pa}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\mathrm{s}$.