Hot Gas in the CDM Scenario: X-Ray Clusters from a High Resolution Numerical Simulation

We exmaine the distribution of hot gas in a standard CDM model of the universe using high resolution hydrodynamic simulations. Adopting standard parameters determined from COBE and light element nucleosynthesis, $\sigma_8=1.05$, $\Omega_b=0.06$ and assuming $h=0.5$, we find the X-ray emitting clusters, compute the luminosity function at several wavelengths, the temperature distribution and estimated sizes as well as the evolution of these quantities with redshift. This standard CDM model, normalized to COBE, produces approximately 5 times too much emission from clusters having $L_x>10^{43}$erg/s, a not unexpected result. If all other parameters were unchanged, we would expect adequate agreement for $\sigma_8=0.6$. This provides a new and independent argument for lower small scale power than standard CDM at the $8h^{-1}$Mpc scale. The background radiation field at 1keV due to clusters in this model is approximately $1/3$ of the observed background which, after correction for numerical effects, again indicates approximately 5 times too much emission and the appropriateness of $\sigma_8=0.6$. If we had used the observed ratio of gas to total mass in clusters, rather than basing the mean density on light element nucleosynthesis, then the computed luminosity of each cluster would have increased still further, by a factor of approximately ten. Examining the ratio of gas to total mass in the clusters (which we find to be anti-biased by a factor of approximately 0.6), normalized to $\Omega_b h^2=0.015$, and comparing to observations, we conclude, in agreement with S. White, that the cluster observations argue for an open universe.