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The uniformity and time-invariance of the intra-cluster metal distribution in galaxy clusters from the IllustrisTNG simulations
- Source :
- arXiv, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2018.
-
Abstract
- The distribution of metals in the intra-cluster medium encodes important information about the enrichment history and formation of galaxy clusters. Here we explore the metal content of clusters in IllustrisTNG - a new suite of galaxy formation simulations building on the Illustris project. Our cluster sample contains 20 objects in TNG100 - a ~(100 Mpc)^3 volume simulation with 2x1820^3 resolution elements, and 370 objects in TNG300 - a ~(300 Mpc)^3 volume simulation with 2x2500^3 resolution elements. The z=0 metallicity profiles agree with observations, and the enrichment history is consistent with observational data going beyond z~1, showing nearly no metallicity evolution. The abundance profiles vary only minimally within the cluster samples, especially in the outskirts with a relative scatter of ~15%. The average metallicity profile flattens towards the center, where we find a logarithmic slope of -0.1 compared to -0.5 in the outskirts. Cool core clusters have more centrally peaked metallicity profiles (~0.8 solar) compared to non-cool core systems (~0.5 solar), similar to observational trends. Si/Fe and O/Fe radial profiles follow positive gradients. The outer abundance profiles do not evolve below z~2, whereas the inner profiles flatten towards z=0. More than ~80% of the metals in the intra-cluster medium have been accreted from the proto-cluster environment, which has been enriched to ~0.1 solar already at z~2. We conclude that the intra-cluster metal distribution is uniform among our cluster sample, nearly time-invariant in the outskirts for more than 10 Gyr, and forms through a universal enrichment history.<br />Comment: 21 pages, 16 figures. MNRAS accepted. The IllustrisTNG project website can be found at http://www.tng-project.org/
- Subjects :
- Physics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
010308 nuclear & particles physics
Metallicity
Illustris project
methods: numerical, cosmology: theory
Astronomy
FOS: Physical sciences
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
01 natural sciences
Metal
Space and Planetary Science
Abundance (ecology)
visual_art
Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
0103 physical sciences
Cluster (physics)
visual_art.visual_art_medium
Galaxy formation and evolution
Cluster sampling
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
Galaxy cluster
Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- arXiv, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....fef2478eb755f1b04fd16c55dfa2af6f