arXiv subjects

P. A. Thomas

Publications and source records attributed to P. A. Thomas.

48 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv1997

Genus Statistics of the Virgo N-body simulations and the 1.2-Jy Redshift Survey

We study the topology of the Virgo N-body simulations and compare it to the 1.2-Jy redshift survey of IRAS galaxies by means of the genus statistic. Four high-resolution simulations of variants of the CDM cosmology are considered: a flat standard model (SCDM), a variant of it with more large-scale power (tCDM), and two low density universes, one open (OCDM) and one flat (LCDM). The fully sampled N-body simulations are examined down to strongly nonlinear scales, both with spatially fixed smoothing, and with an adaptive smoothing technique. While the tCDM, LCDM, and OCDM simulations have very similar genus statistics in the regime accessible to fixed smoothing, they can be separated with adaptive smoothing at small mass scales. In order to compare the N-body models with the 1.2-Jy survey, we extract large ensembles of mock catalogues from the simulations. These mock surveys are used to test for systematic effects in the genus analysis and to establish the distribution of errors of the genus curve. We find that a simple multivariate analysis of the genus measurements is compromised both by non-Gaussian distributed errors and by noise that dominates the covariance matrix. We therefore introduce a principal components analysis of the genus curve. With a likelihood ratio test we find that the 1.2-Jy data favours the LCDM, tCDM and OCDM models compared to SCDM. When genus measurements for different smoothing scales are combined, the SCDM model can be excluded at a 99% confidence level, while the other three models fit the 1.2-Jy data well. (abridged)

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arXiv1997

Hydra Code Release

A revised version of Hydra, an adaptive particle-particle, particle-mesh plus smoothed particle hydrodynamics code developed by; Hugh Couchman, University of Western Ontario, Frazer Pearce, University of Durham, Peter Thomas, University of Sussex, is now available as a tar file from; http://coho.astro.uwo.ca/pub/hydra/hydra.html or http://star-www.maps.susx.ac.uk/~pat/hydra/hydra.html .

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arXiv1997

The Virgo Consortium: The evolution and formation of galaxy clusters

We report on work done by the Virgo consortium, an international collaboration set up in order to study the formation and evolution of Large Scale Structure using N-body simulations on the latest generation of parallel supercomputers. We show results of 256^3 particle simulations of the formation of clusters in four Dark Matter models with different cosmological parameters. Normalizing the models such that one obtains the correct abundance of rich clusters yields an interesting result: The peculiar velocities of the clusters are almost independent of Ω, and depend only weakly on Γ, the shape parameter of the power spectrum. Thus, it is nearly impossible to distinguish between high and low Ωmodels on the basis of the peculiar velocities.

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arXiv1996

The Virgo consortium: simulations of dark matter and galaxy clustering

We report on work in progress by the Virgo consortium, a collaboration set up to carry out large simulations of the formation of galaxies and large-scale structure exploiting the latest generation of parallel supercomputers. We show results of $256^3$ particle N-body simulations of the clustering evolution of dark matter in four cold dark matter models with different cosmological parameters. The high resolution and large volume of these simulations allows us to determine reliably the mass autocorrelation function for pair separations in the range $40\hkpc$ to $20\hmpc$. Comparison of these with the observed galaxy correlation function shows that for any of these models to be viable, the distribution of galaxies must be biased relative to the distribution of mass in a non-trivial, scale-dependent fashion. In particular, low $Ω_0$ models require the galaxies to be more ``weakly'' clustered than the mass at small and intermediate pair separations. Simulations which include the evolution of gas show that cold gas knots form with approximately the abundance expected on theoretical grounds, although a few excessively massive objects grow near the centres of rich clusters. The locations where these cold gas knots form are, in general, biased relative to the distribution of mass in a scale-dependent way. Some of these biases have the required sign but they are, for the most part, weaker than is necessary for agreement with observations. The antibias present in our low $Ω_0$ N-body/SPH simulation appears to be related to the merging and disruption of galaxies in rich clusters.

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arXiv1996

Release of data from cosmological N-body simulations

We intend to make sets of cosmological simulations available, with a large number of different output times that may be placed side-by-side to produce a complete history of the universe stretching back to high redshift. Currently there is only one series of runs under preparation as a trial. Gauging by the response, we will consider further releases. The first series consists of N-body simulations with CDM-like spectra (Gamma=0.25) in a 100/h Mpc box, in three different cosmologies: Einstein-de Sitter, low-density flat and low-density open. The parameters of each run are: 1) Run 501: Omega=1.0, lambda=0.0, sigma_8=0.64. N=128**3. 38 time-slices back to z=5.8 (a further 11 back to z=23.4 on request). 2) Run 502: Omega=0.3, lambda=0.7, sigma_8=1.22. N=86**3. 49 time-slices back to z=3.6. 3) Run 503: Omega=0.3, lambda=0.0, sigma_8=1.06. N=86**3. 49 time-slices back to z=6.2 Check out our Web pages for more details: http://coho.astro.uwo.ca/pub/consort.html

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arXiv1996

Cosmology using the Parkes Multibeam Southern-Sky HI Survey

I discuss the implications of the Parkes HI Multibeam Southern Sky Survey for cosmology. It will determine the local mass function of HI clouds, detecting several hundred per decade of mass. Each of these will come with a redshift and, for the more massive clouds, an estimate of the velocity width. This will provide an ideal database for peculiar motion studies and for measurements of biasing of galaxies relative to the underlying matter distribution.

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arXiv1995

The Baryon Catastrophe and the multiphase intracluster medium

We review the theories and observations which together have led to the concept of the Baryon Catastrophe: observations of the baryon fraction on the scale of clusters of galaxies appear to be at least three times as high as the universal baryon fraction predicted by the theory of primordial nucleosynthesis in a flat, $Ω_0 = 1$, universe. We investigate whether this discrepancy could be eliminated by treating the intracluster gas as a multiphase medium, and find that this treatment both lowers the calculated mass of gas in a cluster and increases the inferred gravitational potential. These combined effects can reduce the calculated baryon fraction by between a quarter and a half: the precise amount depends upon the volume fraction distribution of density phases in the gas but is independent of the temperature profile across the cluster. Thus moving to a multiphase intracluster medium cannot resolve the Baryon Catastrophe by itself; other possible causes and explanations are discussed.

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arXiv1994

Hydra: An Adaptive--Mesh Implementation of PPPM--SPH

We present an implementation of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) in an adaptive-mesh PPPM algorithm. The code evolves a mixture of purely gravitational particles and gas particles. The code retains the desirable properties of previous PPPM--SPH implementations; speed under light clustering, naturally periodic boundary conditions and accurate pairwise forces. Under heavy clustering the cycle time of the new code is only 2--3 times slower than for a uniform particle distribution, overcoming the principal disadvantage of previous implementations\dash a dramatic loss of efficiency as clustering develops. A 1000 step simulation with 65,536 particles (half dark, half gas) runs in one day on a Sun Sparc10 workstation. The choice of time integration scheme is investigated in detail. A simple single-step Predictor--Corrector type integrator is most efficient. A method for generating an initial distribution of particles by allowing a a uniform temperature gas of SPH particles to relax within a periodic box is presented. The average SPH density that results varies by $\sim\pm1.3$\%. We present a modified form of the Layzer--Irvine equation which includes the thermal contribution of the gas together with radiative cooling. Tests of sound waves, shocks, spherical infall and collapse are presented. Appropriate timestep constraints sufficient to ensure both energy and entropy conservation are discussed. A cluster simulation, repeating Thomas and

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arXiv1994

Quasar-galaxy associations

There is controversy about the measurement of statistical associations between bright quasars and faint, presumably foreground galaxies. We look at the distribution of galaxies around an unbiased sample of 63 bright, moderate redshift quasars using a new statistic based on the separation of the quasar and its nearest neighbour galaxy. We find a significant excess of close neighbours at separations less than about 10 arcsec which we attribute to the magnification by gravitational lensing of quasars which would otherwise be too faint to be included in our sample. About one quarter to one third of the quasars are so affected although the allowed error in this fraction is large.

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arXiv1993

An Owner's Guide to Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

We present a practical guide to Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (\SPH) and its application to astrophysical problems. Although remarkably robust, \SPH\ must be used with care if the results are to be meaningful since the accuracy of \SPH\ is sensitive to the arrangement of the particles and the form of the smoothing kernel. In particular, the initial conditions for any \SPH\ simulation must consist of particles in dynamic equilibrium. We describe some of the numerical difficulties that may be encountered when using \SPH, and how these may be overcome. Through our experience in using \SPH\ code to model convective stars, galaxy clusters and large scale structure problems we have developed many diagnostic tests. We give these here as an aid to rapid identification of errors, together with a list of basic prerequisites for the most efficient implementation of \SPH.

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arXiv1993

Mergers of Systems Containing Gas

Several simple mergers between model galaxy clusters containing a mixture of gas and dark matter are examined, testing the coupling of the gas to the underlying collisionless material. The gas is shocked, irreversibly dissipating the energy fed into it by the collisionless component and forms a resolved constant-density core. For the dark matter, however, admixture of phase space vacuum is not very efficient and a constant-density core is not produced. In the final state the central gas has little residual kinetic energy, indicating that streaming motions do not help to support the gas.

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arXiv1993

On the probability of major-axis precession in triaxial ellipsoidal potentials

Orbits in triaxial ellipsoidal potentials precess about either the major or minor axis of the ellipsoid. In standard perturbation theory it can be shown that a circular orbit will precess about the minor axis if its angular momentum vector lies in a region bounded by two great circles which pass through the intermediate axis and which are inclined with minimum separation $i_T$ from the minor axis. We test the accuracy of the standard formula for $i_T$ by performing orbit integrations to determine $i_S$, the simulated turnover angle corresponding to $i_T$. We reach two principal conclusions: (i) $i_S$ is usually greater than $i_T$, by as much as 12 degrees even for moderate triaxialities, $A/1.2<B<C/0.8$. This reduces the expected frequency of polar rings. (ii) $i_S$ is not a single, well-defined number but can vary by a few degrees depending upon the initial phase of the orbit. This means that there is a reasonable probability for capture of gas onto orbits which precess about both axes. Interactions can then lead to substantial loss of angular momentum and subsequent infall to the galactic centre.

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