Large-scale mass distribution in the Illustris simulation

TL;DR

This study uses the Illustris simulation to analyze the distribution of baryons and dark matter across large-scale structures like haloes, filaments, and voids, revealing the majority of baryons are in warm-hot intergalactic medium and affected by feedback processes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed quantitative analysis of baryon and dark matter distribution in large-scale structures using the Illustris simulation, highlighting the impact of feedback mechanisms.

Findings

49% of dark matter and 23% of baryons in haloes

45% of dark matter and 46% of baryons in filaments

53.9% of baryons in warm-hot intergalactic medium

Abstract

Observations at low redshifts thus far fail to account for all of the baryons expected in the Universe according to cosmological constraints. A large fraction of the baryons presumably resides in a thin and warm-hot medium between the galaxies, where they are difficult to observe due to their low densities and high temperatures. Cosmological simulations of structure formation can be used to verify this picture and provide quantitative predictions for the distribution of mass in different large-scale structure components. Here we study the distribution of baryons and dark matter at different epochs using data from the Illustris simulation. We identify regions of different dark matter density with the primary constituents of large-scale structure, allowing us to measure mass and volume of haloes, filaments and voids. At redshift zero, we find that 49 % of the dark matter and 23 % of the baryons are within haloes more massive than the resolution limit of $2\times 10^8$ M$_\odot$. The filaments of the cosmic web host a further 45 % of the dark matter and 46 % of the baryons. The remaining 31 % of the baryons reside in voids. The majority of these baryons have been transported there through active galactic nuclei feedback. We note that the feedback model of Illustris is too strong for heavy haloes, therefore it is likely that we are overestimating this amount. Categorizing the baryons according to their density and temperature, we find that 17.8 % of them are in a condensed state, 21.6 % are present as cold, diffuse gas, and 53.9 % are found in the state of a warm-hot intergalactic medium.