Related papers: Predicting Merger-Induced Gas Motions in Lambda-CD…
Recent N-body simulations show that the formation of a present-day, galaxy sized dark matter halo in the CDM cosmogony in general consists of an early fast collapse phase, during which the potential associated with a halo is established,…
Several types/classes of shocks naturally arise during formation and evolution of galaxy clusters. One such class is represented by accretion shocks, associated with deceleration of infalling baryons. Such shocks, characterized by a very…
A Monte Carlo simulation of mergers in clusters of galaxies is carried out. An ``explosive'' character of the merging process (an analog of phase transition), suggested earlier by Cavaliere et al. (1991), Kontorovich et al. (1992), is…
Several recent numerical simulations of off-center cluster mergers predict that significant angular momentum with associated velocities of a few x 10^{3} km/s can be imparted to the resulting cluster. Such gas bulk velocities can be…
The abundance of clusters of galaxies is known to be a potential source of cosmological constraints through their mass function. In the present work, we examine the information that can be obtained from the temperature distribution function…
New simulations are presented which investigate the formation of smaller groups of galaxies in a CDM like universe. The simulations follow the evolution of dark matter and gas and are performed with an SPH code adapted for the…
We use the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to measure the local Universe mass dependent merger fraction and merger rate using galaxy pairs and the CAS structural method, which identifies highly asymmetric merger candidate galaxies.…
We use cosmological gas dynamic simulations to investigate the accuracy of galaxy cluster mass estimates based on X-ray observations. The experiments follow the formation of clusters in different cosmological models and include the effects…
Clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally bound systems and therefore provide an important way of studying the formation and evolution of the large scale structure of the Universe. Cluster evolution can be inferred from…
We propose a new cosmological test of gravity, by using the observed mass fraction of X-ray emitting gas in massive galaxy clusters. The cluster gas fraction, believed to be a fair sample of the average baryon fraction in the Universe, is a…
X-ray observations of galaxy clusters potentially provide powerful cosmological probes if systematics due to our incomplete knowledge of the intracluster medium (ICM) physics are understood and controlled. In this paper, we present mock…
The relationship between the X-ray determined temperature $T$ of the intracluster gas and the optical measured velocity dispersion $\sigma$ of the cluster galaxies is often believed to be not only a straightforward but also robust test for…
Upcoming high spectral resolution telescopes, particularly Astro-H, are expected to finally deliver firm quantitative constraints on turbulence in the intra-cluster medium (ICM). We develop a new spectral analysis technique which exploits…
Galaxy clusters, the most massive, dark-matter-dominated, and most recently assembled structures in the Universe, are key tools for probing cosmology. However, uncertainties in scaling relations that connect cluster mass to observables like…
We analyse the spatial distribution of halo merger sites using four numerical simulations with high time resolution of structure growth in a Lambda-CDM cosmology. We find no evidence for any large-scale relative bias between mergers and…
Galaxy interactions and mergers play a significant, but still debated and poorly understood role in the star formation history of galaxies. Numerical and theoretical models cannot yet explain the main properties of merger-induced…
In this paper we examine how well galaxies and intra-cluster gas trace the gravitational potential of clusters. Utilizing mass profiles derived from gravitational lensing and X-ray observations, coupled with measured galaxy velocities, we…
The state of the hot gas in clusters of galaxies is investigated with a set of model clusters, created by assuming a polytropic equation of state (Gamma=1.2) and hydrostatic equilibrium inside gravitational potential wells drawn from a dark…
Using numerical simulation, we study the development of gaseous inflows and triggering of starburst activity in mergers of comparable-mass disk galaxies. In all encounters studied, the galaxies experience strong gaseous inflows and moderate…
One of the most prominent features of galaxy clusters is the presence of a dominant population of massive ellipticals in their cores. Stellar archaeology suggests that these gigantic beasts assembled most of their stars in the early…