Substructures in hydrodynamical cluster simulations

TL;DR

This study extends a substructure identification algorithm to hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters, revealing how baryonic physics and gas stripping influence subhalo properties and their hot gas content.

Contribution

It introduces a modified SUBFIND algorithm for hydrodynamical simulations and analyzes the effects of baryonic physics on subhalo structures in galaxy clusters.

Findings

Hot gas is efficiently stripped from subhalos in clusters.

Baryonic condensation leads to more compact stellar cores.

Only about 1% of subhalos retain hot gas within cluster virial radii.

Abstract

The abundance and structure of dark matter subhalos has been analyzed extensively in recent studies of dark matter-only simulations, but comparatively little is known about the impact of baryonic physics on halo substructures. We here extend the SUBFIND algorithm for substructure identification such that it can be reliably applied to dissipative hydrodynamical simulations that include star formation. This allows, in particular, the identification of galaxies as substructures in simulations of clusters of galaxies, and a determination of their content of gravitationally bound stars, dark matter, and hot and cold gas. Using a large set of cosmological cluster simulations, we present a detailed analysis of halo substructures in hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters, focusing in particular on the influence both of radiative and non-radiative gas physics, and of non-standard physics such as thermal conduction and feedback by galactic outflows. We also examine the impact of numerical nuisance parameters such as artificial viscosity parameterizations. We find that diffuse hot gas is efficiently stripped from subhalos when they enter the highly pressurized cluster atmosphere. This has the effect of decreasing the subhalo mass function relative to a corresponding dark matter-only simulation. These effects are mitigated in radiative runs, where baryons condense in the central subhalo regions and form compact stellar cores. However, in all cases, only a very small fraction, of the order of one percent, of subhalos within the cluster virial radii preserve a gravitationally bound hot gaseous atmosphere. (abridged)