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John A. Peacock

Publications and source records attributed to John A. Peacock.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Accelerating astronomical and cosmological inference with Preconditioned Monte Carlo

We introduce Preconditioned Monte Carlo (PMC), a novel Monte Carlo method for Bayesian inference that facilitates efficient sampling of probability distributions with non-trivial geometry. PMC utilises a Normalising Flow (NF) in order to decorrelate the parameters of the distribution and then proceeds by sampling from the preconditioned target distribution using an adaptive Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) scheme. The results produced by PMC include samples from the posterior distribution and an estimate of the model evidence that can be used for parameter inference and model comparison respectively. The aforementioned framework has been thoroughly tested in a variety of challenging target distributions achieving state-of-the-art sampling performance. In the cases of primordial feature analysis and gravitational wave inference, PMC is approximately 50 and 25 times faster respectively than Nested Sampling (NS). We found that in higher dimensional applications the acceleration is even greater. Finally, PMC is directly parallelisable, manifesting linear scaling up to thousands of CPUs.

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Extended Hernquist-Springel formalism for cosmic star formation

We present a revised and extended version of the analytic model for cosmic star formation originally given by Hernquist & Springel in 2003. The key assumption of this formalism is that star formation proceeds from cold gas, at a rate that is limited by an internal consumption timescale at early times, or by the rate of generation of gas via cooling at late times. These processes are analysed as a function of the mass of dark matter haloes and integrated over the halo population. We modify this approach in two main ways to make it more general: (1) halo collapse times are included explicitly, so that the behaviour is physically reasonable at late times; (2) allowance is made for a mass-dependent baryon fraction in haloes, which incorporates feedback effects. This model reproduces the main features of the observed baryonic Tully-Fisher relationship, and is consistent with observational estimates of the baryon mass fraction in the intergalactic medium. With minimal adjustment of parameters, our approach reproduces the observed history of cosmic star formation within a factor of two over the redshift range $0 < z < 10$. This level of agreement is comparable to that achieved by state-of-the-art cosmological simulations. Our simplified apparatus has pedagogical value in illuminating the results of such detailed calculations, and also serves as a means for rapid approximate exploration of non-standard cosmological models.

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Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Data Release 4 and the z < 0.1 total and z < 0.08 morphological galaxy stellar mass functions

In Galaxy And Mass Assembly Data Release 4 (GAMA DR4), we make available our full spectroscopic redshift sample. This includes 248682 galaxy spectra, and, in combination with earlier surveys, results in 330542 redshifts across five sky regions covering ~250deg^2. The redshift density, is the highest available over such a sustained area, has exceptionally high completeness (95 per cent to r_KIDS=19.65mag), and is well suited for the study of galaxy mergers, galaxy groups, and the low redshift (z<0.25) galaxy population. DR4 includes 32 value-added tables or Data Management Units (DMUs) that provide a number of measured and derived data products including GALEX, ESO KiDS, ESO VIKING, WISE and Herschel Space Observatory imaging. Within this release, we provide visual morphologies for 15330 galaxies to z<0.08, photometric redshift estimates for all 18million objects to r_KIDS~25mag, and stellar velocity dispersions for 111830 galaxies. We conclude by deriving the total galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) and its sub-division by morphological class (elliptical, compact-bulge and disc, diffuse-bulge and disc, and disc only). This extends our previous measurement of the total GSMF down to 10^6.75 M_sol h^-2_70 and we find a total stellar mass density of rho_*=(2.97+/-0.04)x10^8 M_sol h_70 Mpc^-3 or Omega_*=(2.17+/-0.03)x10^-3 h^-1_70. We conclude that at z<0.1, the Universe has converted 4.9+/-0.1 per cent of the baryonic mass implied by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis into stars that are gravitationally bound within the galaxy population.

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An empirical measurement of the Halo Mass Function from the combination of GAMA DR4, SDSS DR12, and REFLEX II data

We construct the halo mass function (HMF) from the GAMA galaxy group catalogue over the mass range 10^12.7M_sol to 10^15.5M_sol, and find good agreement with the expectation from LambdaCDM. In comparison to previous studies, this result extends the mass range over which the HMF has now been measured over by an order of magnitude. We combine the GAMA DR4 HMF with similar data from the SDSS DR12 and REFLEX II surveys, and fit a four-parameter Murray-Robotham-Power (MRP) function, valid at z~0.1, yielding: a density normalisation of: log10 (phi Mpc^3)=-3.96[+0.55,-0.82], a high mass turn-over of: log10(M/M_sol)=14.13[+0.43,-0.40], a low mass power law slope of: alpha=-1.68[+0.21,-0.24] , and a high mass softening parameter of: beta= 0.63[+0.25,-0.11]. If we fold in the constraint on Omega_M from Planck 2018 Cosmology, we are able to reduce these uncertainties further, but this relies on the assumption that the power-law trend can be extrapolated from 10^12.7M_sol to zero mass. Throughout, we highlight the effort needed to improve on our HMF measurement: improved halo mass estimates that do not rely on calibration to simulations; reduced halo mass uncertainties needed to mitigate the strong Eddington Bias that arises from the steepness of the HMF low mass slope; and deeper wider area spectroscopic surveys. To our halo mass limit of 10^12.7 M_sol, we are directly resolving (`seeing') 41+/-5 per cent of the total mass density, i.e. Omega_[M>12.7]=0.128+/-0.016, opening the door for the direct construction of 3D dark matter mass maps at Mpc resolution.

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zeus: A Python implementation of Ensemble Slice Sampling for efficient Bayesian parameter inference

We introduce zeus, a well-tested Python implementation of the Ensemble Slice Sampling (ESS) method for Bayesian parameter inference. ESS is a novel Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm specifically designed to tackle the computational challenges posed by modern astronomical and cosmological analyses. In particular, the method requires only minimal hand--tuning of 1-2 hyper-parameters that are often trivial to set; its performance is insensitive to linear correlations and it can scale up to 1000s of CPUs without any extra effort. Furthermore, its locally adaptive nature allows to sample efficiently even when strong non-linear correlations are present. Lastly, the method achieves a high performance even in strongly multimodal distributions in high dimensions. Compared to emcee, a popular MCMC sampler, zeus performs 9 and 29 times better in a cosmological and an exoplanet application respectively.

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The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: N-body Mock Challenge for the eBOSS Emission Line Galaxy Sample

Cosmological growth can be measured in the redshift space clustering of galaxies targeted by spectroscopic surveys. Accurate prediction of clustering of galaxies will require understanding galaxy physics which is a very hard and highly non-linear problem. Approximate models of redshift space distortion (RSD) take a perturbative approach to solve the evolution of dark matter and galaxies in the universe. In this paper we focus on eBOSS emission line galaxies (ELGs) which live in intermediate mass haloes. We create a series of mock catalogues using haloes from the Multidark and {\sc Outer Rim} dark matter only N-body simulations. Our mock catalogues include various effects inspired by baryonic physics such as assembly bias and the characteristics of satellite galaxies kinematics, dynamics and statistics deviating from dark matter particles. We analyse these mocks using the TNS RSD model in Fourier space and the CLPT in configuration space. We conclude that these two RSD models provide an unbiased measurement of redshift space distortion within the statistical error of our mocks. We obtain the conservative theoretical systematic uncertainty of $3.3\%$, $1.8\%$ and $1.5\%$ in $fσ_8$, $α_{\parallel}$ and $α_{\bot}$ respectively for the TNS and CLPT models. We note that the estimated theoretical systematic error is an order of magnitude smaller than the statistical error of the eBOSS ELG sample and hence are negligible for the purpose of the current eBOSS ELG analysis.

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Using GAMA to probe the impact of small-scale galaxy physics on nonlinear redshift-space distortions

We present improved modelling of the redshift-space distortions of galaxy clustering that arise from peculiar velocities. We create mock galaxy catalogues in the framework of the halo model, using data from the Bolshoi project. These mock galaxy populations are inserted into the haloes with additional degrees of freedom that govern spatial and kinematical biases of the galaxy populations relative to the dark matter. We explore this generalised halo model with an MCMC algorithm, comparing the predictions to data from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, and thus derive one of the first constraints on the detailed kinematic degrees of freedom for satellite galaxies within haloes. With this approach, the distortions of the redshift-space galaxy autocorrelations can be accounted for down to spatial separations close to 10 kpc, opening the prospect of improved RSD measurements of the perturbation growth rate by the inclusion of data from nonlinear scales.

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Quasars at intermediate redshift are not special; but they are often satellites

Understanding the links between the activity of supermassive black holes (SMBH) at the centres of galaxies and their host dark matter haloes is a key question in modern astrophysics. The final data release of the SDSS-IV eBOSS provides the largest contemporary spectroscopic sample of galaxies and QSOs. Using this sample and covering the redshift interval $z=0.7-1.1$, we have measured the clustering properties of the eBOSS QSOs, Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) and Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). We have also measured the fraction of QSOs as a function of the overdensity defined by the galaxy population. Using these measurements, we investigate how QSOs populate and sample the galaxy population, and how the host dark-matter haloes of QSOs sample the underlying halo distribution. We find that the probability of a galaxy hosting a QSO is independent of the host dark matter halo mass of the galaxy. We also find that about 60\% of eBOSS QSOs are hosted by LRGs and about 20-40\% of QSOs are hosted by satellite galaxies. We find a slight preference for QSOs to populate satellite galaxies over central galaxies. This is connected to the host halo mass distribution of different types of galaxies. Based on our analysis, QSOs should be hosted by a very broad distribution of haloes, and their occurrence should be modulated only by the efficiency of galaxy formation processes.

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The origin of galaxy colour bimodality in the scatter of the Stellar-to-Halo Mass Relation

Recent observations reveal that, at a given stellar mass, blue galaxies tend to live in haloes with lower mass while red galaxies live in more massive host haloes. The physical driver behind this is still unclear because theoretical models predict that, at the same halo mass, galaxies with high stellar masses tend to live in early-formed haloes which naively leads to an opposite trend. Here, we show that the {\sc Simba} simulation quantitatively reproduces the colour bimodality in SHMR and reveals an inverse relationship between halo formation time and galaxy transition time. It suggests that the origin of this bimodality is rooted in the intrinsic variations of the cold gas content due to halo assembly bias. {\sc Simba}'s SHMR bimodality quantitatively relies on two aspects of its input physics: (1) Jet-mode AGN feedback, which quenches galaxies and sets the qualitative trend; and (2) X-ray AGN feedback, which fully quenches galaxies and yields better agreement with observations. The interplay between the growth of cold gas and the AGN quenching in {\sc Simba} results in the observed SHMR bimodality.

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The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: a multi-tracer analysis in Fourier space for measuring the cosmic structure growth and expansion rate

We perform a joint BAO and RSD analysis using the eBOSS DR16 LRG and ELG samples in the redshift range of $z\in[0.6,1.1]$, and detect a RSD signal from the cross power spectrum at a $\sim4σ$ confidence level, i.e., $fσ_8=0.317\pm0.080$ at $z_{\rm eff}=0.77$. Based on the chained power spectrum, which is a new development in this work to mitigate the angular systematics, we measurement the BAO distances and growth rate simultaneously at two effective redshifts, namely, $D_{\rm M}/r_{\rm d} \ (z=0.70)=17.96\pm0.51, \ D_{\rm H}/r_{\rm d} \ (z=0.70)=21.22\pm1.20, \ fσ_8 \ (z=0.70) =0.43\pm0.05$, and $D_{\rm M}/r_{\rm d} \ (z=0.845)=18.90\pm0.78, \ D_{\rm H}/r_{\rm d} \ (z=0.845)=20.91\pm2.86, \ fσ_8 \ (z=0.845) =0.30\pm0.08$. Combined with BAO measurements including those from the eBOSS DR16 QSO and Lyman-$α$ sample, our measurement has raised the significance level of a nonzero $Ω_{\rm Λ}$ to $\sim11σ$.

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Evolving beyond z=0: insights about the future of stars and the intergalactic medium

We present results from seven cosmological simulations that have been extended beyond the present era as far as redshift $z=-0.995$ or $t\approx96\,{\rm Gyr}$, using the Enzo simulation code. We adopt the calibrated star formation and feedback prescriptions from our previous work on reproducing the Milky Way with Enzo with modifications to the simulation code, chemistry and cooling library. We then consider the future behaviour of the halo mass function (HMF), the equation of state (EOS) of the IGM, and the cosmic star formation history (SFH). Consistent with previous work, we find a freeze-out in the HMF at $z\approx-0.6$. The evolution of the EOS of the IGM presents an interesting case study of the cosmological coincidence problem, where there is a sharp decline in the IGM temperature immediately after $z=0$. For the SFH, the simulations produce a peak and a subsequent decline into the future. However, we do find a turnaround in the SFH after $z\approx-0.98$ in some simulations, probably due to the limitations of the criteria used for star formation. By integrating the SFH in time up to $z=-0.92$, the simulation with the best spatial resolution predicts an asymptotic total stellar mass that is very close to that obtained from extrapolating the fit of the observed SFR. Lastly, we investigate the future evolution of the partition of baryons within a Milky Way-sized galaxy, using both a zoom and a box simulation. Despite vastly different resolutions, these simulations predict individual haloes containing an equal fraction of baryons in stars and gas at the time of freeze-out ($t\approx30\,{\rm Gyr}$).

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Galaxy clustering in the DESI Legacy Survey and its imprint on the CMB

We use data from the DESI Legacy Survey imaging to probe the galaxy density field in tomographic slices covering the redshift range $0<z<0.8$. After careful consideration of completeness corrections and galactic cuts, we obtain a sample of $4.9\times 10^7$ galaxies covering 17 739 deg$^2$. We derive photometric redshifts with precision $σ_z/(1+z)=0.012 - 0.015$, and compare with alternative estimates. Cross-correlation of the tomographic galaxy maps with Planck maps of CMB temperature and lensing convergence probe the growth of structure since $z=0.8$. The signals are compared with a fiducial Planck $Λ$CDM model, and require an overall scaling in amplitude of $A_κ=0.901\pm 0.026$ for the lensing cross-correlation and $A_{\rm ISW} = 0.984 \pm 0.349$ for the temperature cross-correlation, interpreted as the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. The ISW amplitude is consistent with the fiducial $Λ$CDM prediction, but lies significantly below the prediction of the AvERA model of Rácz et al. (2017), which has been proposed as an alternative explanation for cosmic acceleration. Within $Λ$CDM, our low amplitude for the lensing cross-correlation requires a reduction either in fluctuation normalization or in matter density compared to the Planck results, so that $Ω_m^{0.78}σ_8=0.297\pm 0.009$. In combination with the total amplitude of CMB lensing, this favours a shift mainly in density: $Ω_m=0.274\pm0.024$. We discuss the consistency of this figure with alternative evidence. A conservative compromise between lensing and primary CMB constraints would require $Ω_m=0.296\pm0.006$, where the 95% confidence regions of both probes overlap.

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The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR16 luminous red galaxy and emission line galaxy samples: cosmic distance and structure growth measurements using multiple tracers in configuration space

We perform a multi-tracer analysis using the complete Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) DR16 luminous red galaxy (LRG) and the DR16 emission line galaxy (ELG) samples in the configuration space, and successfully detect a cross correlation between the two samples, and find the growth rate to be $fσ_8=0.342 \pm 0.085$ ($\sim25$ per cent accuracy) from the cross sample alone. We perform a joint measurement of the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) and redshift space distortion (RSD) parameters at a single effective redshift of $z_{\rm eff}= 0.77$, using the auto- and cross-correlation functions of the LRG and ELG samples, and find that the comoving angular diameter distance $D_M(z_{\rm eff})/r_d = 18.85\pm 0.38$, the Hubble distance $D_H(z_{\rm eff})/r_d = 19.64 \pm 0.57$, and $fσ_8(z_{\rm eff}) = 0.432 \pm 0.038$, which is consistent with a $Λ$CDM model at $68\%$ CL. Compared to the single-tracer analysis on the LRG sample, the Figure of Merit (FoM) of $α_{\perp}, α_{||}$ and $fσ_8$ is improved by a factor of $1.11$ in our multi-tracer analysis, and in particular, the statistical uncertainty of $fσ_8$ is reduced by $11.6 \%$.

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Protoclusters at z=5.7: A view from the MultiDark galaxies

Protoclusters, which will yield galaxy clusters at lower redshift, can provide valuable information on the formation of galaxy clusters. However, identifying progenitors of galaxy clusters in observations is not an easy task, especially at high redshift. Different priors have been used to estimate the overdense regions that are thought to mark the locations of protoclusters. In this paper, we use mimicked Ly$α$-emitting galaxies at $z=5.7$ to identify protoclusters in the MultiDark galaxies, which are populated by applying three different semi-analytic models to the 1 $Gpc h^{-1}$ MultiDark Planck2 simulation. To compare with observational results, we extend the criterion 1 (a Ly$α$ luminosity limited sample), to criterion 2 (a match to the observed mean galaxy number density). To further statistically study the finding efficiency of this method, we enlarge the identified protocluster sample (criterion 3) to about 3500 at $z=5.7$ and study their final mass distribution. The number of overdense regions and their selection probability depends on the semi-analytic models and strongly on the three selection criteria (partly by design). The protoclusters identified with criterion 1 are associated with a typical final cluster mass of $2.82\pm0.92 \times 10^{15} M_\odot$ which is in agreement with the prediction (within $\pm 1 σ$) of an observed massive protocluster at $z=5.7$. Identifying more protoclusters allows us to investigate the efficiency of this method, which is more suitable for identifying the most massive clusters: completeness ($\mathbb{C}$) drops rapidly with decreasing halo mass. We further find that it is hard to have a high purity ($\mathbb{P}$) and completeness simultaneously.

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Tomographic measurement of the intergalactic gas pressure through galaxy-tSZ cross-correlations

We cross-correlate maps of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) Compton-$y$ parameter published by Planck with the projected distribution of galaxies in a set of low-redshift tomographic bins. We use the nearly full-sky 2MASS Photometric Redshift and WISE $\times$ SuperCOSMOS public catalogues, covering the redshift range $z\lesssim0.4$. Our measurements allow us to place constraints on the redshift dependence of the mass-observable relation for tSZ cluster count analyses in terms of the so-called 'hydrostatic mass bias' parameter $1-b_{\rm H}$. These results can also be interpreted as measurements of the bias-weighted average gas pressure $\langle bP_e\rangle$ as a function of redshift, a quantity that can be related to the thermodynamics of gas inside haloes and used to constrain energy injection processes. We measure $1-b_{\rm H}$ with $\sim6\%$ precision in 6 equispaced redshift bins, and find no evidence for a redshift-dependent mass bias parameter, in agreement with previous analyses. Our mean value of $1-b_{\rm H} = 0.75\pm0.03$ is also in good agreement with the one estimated by the joint analysis of Planck cluster counts and CMB anisotropies calibrated with CMB lensing. Our measurements of $\langle bP_e\rangle$, at the level of $\sim10\%$ in each bin, are the most stringent constraints on the redshift dependence of this parameter to date, and agree well both with previous measurements and with theoretical expectations from shock-heating models.

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Multi-tracer extension of the halo model: probing quenching and conformity in eBOSS

We develop a new Multi-Tracer Halo Occupation Distribution (\texttt{MTHOD}) framework for the galaxy distribution and apply it to the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) final data between $z=0.7-1.1$. We obtain a best fit \mthod\, for each tracer and describe the host halo properties of these galaxies. The mean halo masses for LRGs, ELGs and QSOs are found to be $1.9 \times 10^{13} \msolaroh$, $1.1 \times 10^{12} \msolaroh$ and $5 \times 10^{12} \msolaroh$ respectively in the eBOSS data. We use the \texttt{MTHOD} framework to create mock galaxy catalogues and predict auto- and cross-correlation functions for all the tracers. Comparing these results with data, we investigate galactic conformity, the phenomenon whereby the properties of neighbouring galaxies are mutually correlated in a manner that is not captured by the basic halo model. We detect \textsl{1-halo} conformity at more than 3$σ$ statistical significance, while obtaining upper limit on \textsl{2-halo} conformity. We also look at the environmental dependence of the galaxy quenching efficiency and find that halo mass driven quenching successfully explains the behaviour in high density regions, but it fails to describe the quenching efficiency in low density regions. In particular, we show that the quenching efficiency in low density filaments is higher in the observed data, as compared to the prediction of the \mthod\ with halo mass driven quenching. The mock galaxy catalogue constructed in this paper is publicly available on https://www.roe.ac.uk/~salam/MTHOD/ .

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The Three Hundred Project: the stellar and gas profiles

Using the catalogues of galaxy clusters from The Three Hundred project, modelled with both hydrodynamic simulations, (Gadget-X and Gadget-MUSIC), and semi-analytic models (SAMs), we study the scatter and self-similarity of the profiles and distributions of the baryonic components of the clusters: the stellar and gas mass, metallicity, the stellar age, gas temperature, and the (specific) star formation rate. Through comparisons with observational results, we find that the shape and the scatter of the gas density profiles matches well the observed trends including the reduced scatter at large radii which is a signature of self-similarity suggested in previous studies. One of our simulated sets, Gadget-X, reproduces well the shape of the observed temperature profile, while Gadget-MUSIC has a higher and flatter profile in the cluster centre and a lower and steeper profile at large radii. The gas metallicity profiles from both simulation sets, despite following the observed trend, have a relatively lower normalisation. The cumulative stellar density profiles from SAMs are in better agreement with the observed result than both hydrodynamic simulations which show relatively higher profiles. The scatter in these physical profiles, especially in the cluster centre region, shows a dependence on the cluster dynamical state and on the cool-core/non-cool-core dichotomy. The stellar age, metallicity and (s)SFR show very large scatter, which are then presented in 2D maps. We also do not find any clear radial dependence of these properties. However, the brightest central galaxies have distinguishable features compared to the properties of the satellite galaxies.

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Calibration of a star formation and feedback model for cosmological simulations with Enzo

We present results from seventy-one zoom simulations of a Milky Way-sized (MW) halo, exploring the parameter space for a widely-used star formation and feedback model in the {\tt Enzo} simulation code. We propose a novel way to match observations, using functional fits to the observed baryon makeup over a wide range of halo masses. The model MW galaxy is calibrated using three parameters: the star formation efficiency $\left(f_*\right)$, the efficiency of thermal energy from stellar feedback $\left(ε\right)$ and the region into which feedback is injected $\left(r\ {\rm and}\ s\right)$. We find that changing the amount of feedback energy affects the baryon content most significantly. We then identify two sets of feedback parameter values that are both able to reproduce the baryonic properties for haloes between $10^{10}\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ and $10^{12}\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$. We can potentially improve the agreement by incorporating more parameters or physics. If we choose to focus on one property at a time, we can obtain a more realistic halo baryon makeup. We show that the employed feedback prescription is insensitive to dark matter mass resolution between $10^5\,{\rm M_\odot}$ and $10^7\,{\rm M_\odot}$. Contrasting both star formation criteria and the corresponding combination of optimal feedback parameters, we also highlight that feedback is self-consistent: to match the same baryonic properties, with a relatively higher gas to stars conversion efficiency, the feedback strength required is lower, and vice versa. Lastly, we demonstrate that chaotic variance in the code can cause deviations of approximately 10\% and 25\% in the stellar and baryon mass in simulations evolved from identical initial conditions.

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