Temperature and Entropy Fields of Baryonic Gas in the Universe

Abstract

(Abridged)The temperature (T) and entropy (S) fields of baryonic gas/IGM are analyzed using simulation samples by a cosmological hydro/N-body code. We show that in the nonlinear regime the dynamical similarity between the IGM and dark matter will be broken by strong shocks. The heating and entropy production by the shocks breaks the IGM into multiple phases. The mean entropy, or the cosmological entropy floor, is found to be more than 100 h^(-1/3) keV cm^2 in all regions when z < 1. At redshift z ~ 2 - 3, high-entropy gas (S > 50 h^(-1/3) keV cm^2) mostly resides in areas on scales larger than 1 h^(-1) Mpc and with density $ρ_{dm}>10^2$. Therefore, gravitational shocks are an effective preheating mechanism of the IGM, and probably enough to provide the entropy excess of clusters and groups if the epoch of the gas falling in cluster cores is not earlier than z ~ 2 - 3. On the other hand, at redshifts z < 4, there is always a more than 90% volume of the low dark matter mass density regions filled by the IGM with T < 10^4.5 K. Therefore, the multiphased character and non-Gaussianity of the IGM field would explain the high-temperature and high-entropy gas observed in groups and clusters.