RHAPSODY-G simulations II - Baryonic growth and metal enrichment in massive galaxy clusters

TL;DR

This study uses detailed simulations of massive galaxy clusters to analyze their stellar and metallic properties, highlighting the importance of AGN feedback and the potential for improved modeling to match observations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of baryonic growth and metal enrichment in simulated galaxy clusters, emphasizing the role of AGN feedback and the regulator model for metallicity.

Findings

Simulations show metallicities are lower than observed by a factor of two.

Cool core clusters have steeper metallicity gradients than non-cool core clusters.

Metallicity can be explained by a regulator model balancing stellar yields and gas accretion.

Abstract

We study the evolution of the stellar component and the metallicity of both the intracluster medium and of stars in massive ($M_{\rm vir}\approx 6\times 10^{14}$ M$_{\odot}/h$) simulated galaxy clusters from the Rhapsody-G suite in detail and compare them to observational results. The simulations were performed with the AMR code RAMSES and include the effect of AGN feedback at the sub-grid level. AGN feedback is required to produce realistic galaxy and cluster properties and plays a role in mixing material in the central regions and regulating star formation in the central galaxy. In both our low and high resolution runs with fiducial stellar yields, we find that stellar and ICM metallicities are a factor of two lower than in observations. We find that cool core clusters exhibit steeper metallicity gradients than non-cool core clusters, in qualitative agreement with observations. We verify that the ICM metallicities measured in the simulation can be explained by a simple "regulator" model in which the metallicity is set by a balance of stellar yield and gas accretion. It is plausible that a combination of higher resolution and higher metal yield in AMR simulation would allow the metallicity of simulated clusters to match observed values; however this hypothesis needs to be tested with future simulations. Comparison to recent literature highlights that results concerning the metallicity of clusters and cluster galaxies might depend sensitively on the scheme chosen to solve the hydrodynamics.