The impact of baryonic physics on the subhalo mass function and implications for gravitational lensing

TL;DR

This study examines how baryonic physics influences the subhalo mass function in galaxy simulations and assesses implications for gravitational lensing observations, highlighting differences between hydrodynamical and dark matter only models.

Contribution

It compares two hydrodynamical simulations, EAGLE and Illustris, revealing how baryonic physics alters subhalo populations and their detectability in lensing observations.

Findings

Baryons reduce subhalo numbers, especially at low masses.

Variations depend on baryonic feedback models.

EAGLE simulations align with observational data, Illustris does not.

Abstract

We investigate the impact of baryonic physics on the subhalo population by analyzing the results of two recent hydrodynamical simulations (EAGLE and Illustris), which have very similar configuration, but a different model of baryonic physics. We concentrate on haloes with a mass between $10^{12.5}$ and $10^{14}M_{\odot}h^{-1}$ and redshift between 0.2 and 0.5, comparing with observational results and subhalo detections in early-type galaxy lenses. We compare the number and the spatial distribution of subhaloes in the fully hydro runs and in their dark matter only counterparts, focusing on the differences between the two simulations. We find that the presence of baryons reduces the number of subhaloes, especially at the low mass end ($\leq 10^{10}M_{\odot}h^{-1}$), by different amounts depending on the model. The variations in the subhalo mass function are strongly dependent on those in the halo mass function, which is shifted by the effect of stellar and AGN feedback. Finally, we search for analogues of the observed lenses (SLACS) in the simulations, selecting them in velocity dispersion and dynamical properties. We use the selected galaxies to quantify detection expectations based on the subhalo populations in the different simulations, calculating the detection probability and the predicted values for the projected dark matter fraction in subhaloes $f_{DM}$ and the slope of the mass function $\alpha$. We compare these values with those derived from subhalo detections in observations and conclude that the dark-matter-only and hydro EAGLE runs are both compatible with observational results, while results from the hydro Illustris run do not lie within the errors.