arXiv subjects

Rupert A. C. Croft

Publications and source records attributed to Rupert A. C. Croft.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Terapixel imaging of cosmological simulations

The increasing size of cosmological simulations has led to the need for new visualization techniques. We focus on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamical (SPH) simulations run with the GADGET code and describe methods for visually accessing the entire simulation at full resolution. The simulation snapshots are rastered and processed on supercomputers into images that are ready to be accessed through a web interface (GigaPan). This allows any scientist with a web-browser to interactively explore simulation datasets in both in spatial and temporal dimensions, datasets which in their native format can be hundreds of terabytes in size or more. We present two examples, the first a static terapixel image of the MassiveBlack simulation, a P-GADGET SPH simulation with 65 billion particles, and the second an interactively zoomable animation of a different simulation with more than one thousand frames, each a gigapixel in size. Both are available for public access through the GigaPan web interface. We also make our imaging software publicly available.

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arXiv2011

The SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Quasar Target Selection for Data Release Nine

The SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), a five-year spectroscopic survey of 10,000 deg^2, achieved first light in late 2009. One of the key goals of BOSS is to measure the signature of baryon acoustic oscillations in the distribution of Ly-alpha absorption from the spectra of a sample of ~150,000 z>2.2 quasars. Along with measuring the angular diameter distance at z\approx2.5, BOSS will provide the first direct measurement of the expansion rate of the Universe at z > 2. One of the biggest challenges in achieving this goal is an efficient target selection algorithm for quasars over 2.2 < z < 3.5, where their colors overlap those of stars. During the first year of the BOSS survey, quasar target selection methods were developed and tested to meet the requirement of delivering at least 15 quasars deg^-2 in this redshift range, out of 40 targets deg^-2. To achieve these surface densities, the magnitude limit of the quasar targets was set at g <= 22.0 or r<=21.85. While detection of the BAO signature in the Ly-alpha absorption in quasar spectra does not require a uniform target selection, many other astrophysical studies do. We therefore defined a uniformly-selected subsample of 20 targets deg^-2, for which the selection efficiency is just over 50%. This "CORE" subsample will be fixed for Years Two through Five of the survey. In this paper we describe the evolution and implementation of the BOSS quasar target selection algorithms during the first two years of BOSS operations. We analyze the spectra obtained during the first year. 11,263 new z>2.2 quasars were spectroscopically confirmed by BOSS. Our current algorithms select an average of 15 z > 2.2 quasars deg^-2 from 40 targets deg^-2 using single-epoch SDSS imaging. Multi-epoch optical data and data at other wavelengths can further improve the efficiency and completeness of BOSS quasar target selection. [Abridged]

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arXiv2011

The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in August 2008, with new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies and the quasar Ly alpha forest, and a radial velocity search for planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the Southern Galactic Cap, bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Evolution (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed through an improved stellar parameters pipeline, which has better determination of metallicity for high metallicity stars.

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arXiv2010

Detecting neutral hydrogen in emission at redshift z ~ 1

We use a large N-body simulation to examine the detectability of HI in emission at redshift z ~ 1, and the constraints imposed by current observations on the neutral hydrogen mass function of galaxies at this epoch. We consider three different models for populating dark matter halos with HI, designed to encompass uncertainties at this redshift. These models are consistent with recent observations of the detection of HI in emission at z ~ 0.8. Whilst detection of 21 cm emission from individual halos requires extremely long integrations with existing radio interferometers, such as the Giant Meter Radio Telescope (GMRT), we show that the stacked 21 cm signal from a large number of halos can be easily detected. However, the stacking procedure requires accurate redshifts of galaxies. We show that radio observations of the field of the DEEP2 spectroscopic galaxy redshift survey should allow detection of the HI mass function at the 5-12 sigma level in the mass range 10^(11.4) M_sun/h < M_halo < 10^(12.5)M_sun/h, with a moderate amount of observation time. Assuming a larger noise level that corresponds to an upper bound for the expected noise for the GMRT, the detection significance for the HI mass function is still at the 1.7-3 sigma level. We find that optically undetected satellite galaxies enhance the HI emission profile of the parent halo, leading to broader wings as well as a higher peak signal in the stacked profile of a large number of halos. We show that it is in principle possible to discern the contribution of undetected satellites to the total HI signal, even though cosmic variance limitation make this challenging for some of our models.

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arXiv2009

Future dark energy constraints from measurements of quasar parallax: Gaia, SIM and beyond

(Abridged) A consequence of the Earth's motion with respect to the CMB is that over a 10 year period it will travel a distance of ~800 AU. As first noted by Kardashev in 1986, this baseline can be used to carry out astrometric measurements of quasar parallaxes, so that only microarcsecond precision is necessary to detect parallax shifts of objects at gigaparsec distances. Such precision will soon be approached with the launch of the astrometric satellites Gaia and SIM. We use a Fisher matrix formalism to investigate the constraints that these and future missions may be able to place on the cosmological distance scale and dark energy. We find that by observing around a million quasars as planned, an extended 10 year Gaia mission could detect quasar parallax shifts at the 2.8 sigma level and so measure the Hubble constant to within 25 km/s. For the interferometer SIMLite, a Key Project using 2.4 % of the total mission time to observe 750 quasars could detect the effect at the 2 sigma level. Gaia and a dedicated SIMLite only weakly constrain the presence of a cosmological constant at the ~1 sigma levels. We also investigate future mission concepts, such as an interferometer similar in scope and design to NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder. This could in principle measure the dark energy parameters w_0 and w_a with high precision, yielding a Figure of Merit larger than the stage IV experiments considered by the the Dark Energy Task Force. Unlike perhaps all other probes of dark energy there appear to be no obvious astrophysical sources of systematic error. There is however uncertainty regarding the statistical errors. As well as measurement error, there will be small additional contributions from image centroiding of variable sources, quasar peculiar motions and weak microlensing by stars along the line of sight.

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arXiv2008

Galaxy morphology, kinematics and clustering in a hydrodynamic simulation of a LambdaCDM universe

We explore galaxy properties and their link with environment and clustering using a population of ~1000 galaxies formed in a high resolution hydrodynamic simulation of the Lambda CDM cosmology. At the redshift we concentrate on, z=1, the spatial resolution is 1.4 proper kpc/h and Milky-way sized disk galaxies contain ~10^5 particles within their virial radii. We include supermassive black hole accretion and feedback as well as a multiphase model for star formation. We find that a number of familiar qualitative relationships hold approximately between galaxy properties, for example, galaxies lie between two broad extremes of type, where ``late'' types tend to be smaller in size, have lower circular velocities, younger stars, higher star formation rates, larger disk to bulge ratios and lower Sersic indices than ``early types''. As in previous studies the stellar component of disk galaxies is not as rotationally supported as in observations. Bulges contain too much of the stellar mass, although disks do have scale lengths compatible with observations. The addition of black hole physics to the simulations does not appear to have an impact on the angular momentum results, nor do we find that it is affected in an identical simulation with significantly lower mass resolution. Despite this, we can profitably use the rank order of either disk to total ratio, Sersic index, or galaxy age to separate galaxies into morphological classes and examine the density-morphology relation and morphology dependence of clustering. We find that while at redshift z=0, the well known preponderance of early types in dense environments is seen, at z=1 the density-morphology relation becomes flatter and late type galaxies are even seen to have a higher clustering amplitude than early types (abridged).

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arXiv2008

SPHRAY: A Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Ray Tracer for Radiative Transfer

We introduce SPHRAY, a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) ray tracer designed to solve the 3D, time dependent, radiative transfer (RT) equations for arbitrary density fields. The SPH nature of SPHRAY makes the incorporation of separate hydrodynamics and gravity solvers very natural. SPHRAY relies on a Monte Carlo (MC) ray tracing scheme that does not interpolate the SPH particles onto a grid but instead integrates directly through the SPH kernels. Given initial conditions and a description of the sources of ionizing radiation, the code will calculate the non-equilibrium ionization state (HI, HII, HeI, HeII, HeIII, e) and temperature (internal energy/entropy) of each SPH particle. The sources of radiation can include point like objects, diffuse recombination radiation, and a background field from outside the computational volume. The MC ray tracing implementation allows for the quick introduction of new physics and is parallelization friendly. A quick Axis Aligned Bounding Box (AABB) test taken from computer graphics applications allows for the acceleration of the raytracing component. We present the algorithms used in SPHRAY and verify the code by performing all the test problems detailed in the recent Radiative Transfer Comparison Project of Iliev et. al. The Fortran 90 source code for SPHRAY and example SPH density fields are made available on a companion website (www.sphray.org).

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arXiv2007

On the Search for Quasar Light Echoes

The UV radiation from a quasar leaves a characteristic pattern in the distribution of ionized hydrogen throughout the surrounding space. This pattern or light echo propagates through the intergalactic medium at the speed of light, and can be observed by its imprint on the Ly-alpha forest spectra of background sources. As the echo persists after the quasar has switched off, it offers the possibility of searching for dead quasars, and constraining their luminosities and lifetimes. We outline a technique to search for and characterize these light echoes. To test the method, we create artificial Ly-alpha forest spectra from cosmological simulations at z=3, apply light echoes and search for them. We show how the simulations can also be used to quantify the significance level of any detection. We find that light echoes from the brightest quasars could be found in observational data. With absorption line spectra of 100 redshift z~3-3.5 quasars or galaxies in a 1 square degree area, we expect that ~10 echoes from quasars with B band luminosities L_B=3x10^45 ergs/s exist that could be found at 95% confidence, assuming a quasar lifetime of ~10^7 yr. Even a null result from such a search would have interesting implications for our understanding of quasar luminosities and lifetimes.

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arXiv2007

Radiation-induced large-scale structure during the reionization epoch: the autocorrelation function

The structures produced during the epoch of reionization by the action of radiation on neutral hydrogen are in principle different to those that arise through gravitational growth of initially small perturbations. We explore the difference between the two mechanisms using high resolution cosmological radiative transfer. Our computations use a Monte Carlo code which raytraces directly through SPH kernels without a grid, preserving the high spatial resolution of the underlying hydrodynamic simulation. Because the properties of the first sources of radiation are uncertain, we simulate a range of models with different source properties and recombination physics. We examine the morphology of the neutral hydrogren distribution and the reionization history in these models. We find that at fixed mean neutral fraction, structures are visually most affected by the existence of a lower limit in source luminosity, then by galaxy mass to light ratio, and are minimally affected by changes in the recombination rate and amplitude of mass fluctuations. We concentrate on the autocorrelation function of the neutral hydrogen, xi_HI(r) as a basic quantitive measure of Radiation Induced Structure (RIS.) All the models we test exhibit a characteristic behaviour, with xi_HI(r) becoming initially linearly antibiased with respect to the matter correlation function, reaching a minimum bias factor b~0.5 when the universe is ~10-20% ionized. After this xi_HI(r) increases rapidly in amplitude, overtaking the matter correlation function. It keeps a power law shape, but flattens considerably, reaching an asymptotic logarithmic slope of gamma ~-0.5. The growth rate of HI fluctuations is exponentially more rapid than gravitational growth over a brief interval of redshift Deltaz ~ 2-3.

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arXiv2005

Lyman-alpha forest-CMB cross-correlation and the search for the ionized baryons at high redshift

The intergalactic neutral hydrogen which is responsible for the Lyman alpha forest of quasar absorption is a tracer of much larger amounts of ionised hydrogen. The ionised component has yet to be detected directly, but is expected to scatter CMB photons via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. We use hydrodynamic simulations of a LambdaCDM universe to create mock quasar spectra and CMB sky maps. We find that the high-z Lya forest gas causes temperature fluctuations of the order of 1 muK rms in the CMB on arcmin scales. The kinetic and thermal SZ effects have a similar magnitude at z=3, with the thermal effect becoming relatively weaker as expected at higher z. The CMB signal associated with lines of sight having HI column densities > 10^18 cm^-2 is only marginally stronger than that for lower column densities. The strong dependence of rms temperature fluctuation on mean Lya absorbed flux, however, suggests that the CMB signal effectively arises in lower density material. We investigate the use of the cross-correlation of the Lya forest and the microwave background to detect the SZ effect at redshifts 2-4. In so doing we are able to set direct limits on the density of diffuse ionised intergalactic baryons. We carry out a preliminary comparison at a mean redshift z=3 of 3488 quasar spectra from SDSS Data Release 3 and the WMAP first year data. Assuming that the baryons are clustered as in a LambdaCDM cosmology, and have the same mean temperature, the cross-correlation yields a weak limit on the cosmic density of ionised baryons Omega_(b,I), which is Omega_(b,I) < 0.8 at 95% confidence. With data from upcoming CMB telescopes, we anticipate that a direct detection of the high redshift ionised IGM will soon be possible, providing an important consistency check on cosmological models.

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arXiv2003

Ionizing radiation fluctuations and large-scale structure in the Lyman-alpha forest

We investigate the large-scale inhomogeneities of the hydrogen ionizing radiation field in the Universe at redshift z=3. Using a raytracing algorithm, we simulate a model in which quasars are the dominant sources of radiation. We make use of large scale N-body simulations of a LambdaCDM universe, and include such effects as finite quasar lifetimes and output on the lightcone, which affects the shape of quasar light echoes. We create Lya forest spectra that would be generated in the presence of such a fluctuating radiation field, finding that the power spectrum of the Lya forest can be suppressed by as much as 15 % for modes with k=0.05-1 Mpc/h. This relatively small effect may have consequences for high precision measurements of the Lya power spectrum on larger scales than have yet been published. We also investigate another radiation field probe, the cross-correlation of quasar positions and the Lya forest. For both quasar lifetimes which we simulate (10^7 yr and 10^8 yr), we expect to see a strong decrease in the Lya absorption close to other quasars (the ``foreground'' proximity effect). We then use data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey First Data Release to make an observational determination of this statistic. We find no sign of our predicted lack of absorption, but instead increased absorption close to quasars. If the bursts of radiation from quasars last on average < 10^6 yr, then we would not expect to be able to see the foreground effect. However, the strength of the absorption itself seems to be indicative of rare objects, and hence much longer total times of emission per quasar. Variability of quasars in bursts with timescales > 10^4yr and < 10^6 yr could reconcile these two facts.

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arXiv2003

The cosmological evolution of metal enrichment in quasar host galaxies

We study the gas metallicity of quasar hosts using cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of the Lambda-cold dark matter model. Galaxy formation in the simulations is coupled with a prescription for black hole activity enabling us to study the evolution of the metal enrichment in quasar hosts and hence explore the relationship between star/spheroid formation and black hole growth/activity. We find a steep radial metallicity gradient in quasar host galaxies, with gas metallicities close to solar values in the outer parts but becoming supersolar in the center. The hosts of the rare bright quasars at z~5-6 have star formation rates of several hundred solar masses per year and halo masses of order ~10^12 solar masses. Already at these redshifts they have supersolar (Z ~2-3 solar) central metallicities, with a mild dependence of metallicity on luminosity, consistent with observed trends. The mean value of metallicity is sensitive to the assumed quasar lifetime, providing a useful new probe of this parameter. We find that lifetimes from 10^7-4x10^7yr are favored by comparison to observational data. In both the models and observations, the rate of evolution of the mean quasar metallicity as a function of redshift is generally flat out to z ~ 4-5. Beyond the observed redshift range and out to redshift z ~ 6-8, we predict a slow decline of the mean central metallicity towards solar and slightly subsolar values as we approach the epoch of the first significant star formation activity

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arXiv2003

Black hole growth and activity in a LambdaCDM Universe

(abridged) The observed properties of supermassive black holes suggest a fundamental link between their assembly and the formation of their host spheroids. We model the growth and activity of black holes in galaxies using LambdaCDM cosmological hydrodynamic simulations by following the evolution of the baryonic mass component in galaxy potential wells. We find that the observed steep relation between black hole mass and spheroid velocity dispersion, M_BH propto σ^4, is reproduced if the gas mass in bulges is linearly proportional to the black hole mass. In this model, black hole growth saturates because of the competition with star-formation and feedback, both of which determine the gas fraction available for accretion. Unless other processes also operate, we predict that the M_BH-sigma$ relation is not set in primordial structures but is fully established at low redshifts, $z \approxlt 2$, and is shallower at earlier times. We find that that central black hole masses are related to their dark matter halos simply via M_BH ~ M_DM^4/3. We assume that galaxies undergo a quasar phase with a typical lifetime, t_Q ~ 2\times 10^7 yr and show that star-formation regulated depletion of gas in spheroids can explain the decrease of the quasar population at redshift z<3 in the optical blue band. However, with the simplest assumption of a redshift independent quasar lifetime, the model overpredicts optical quasar numbers at high redshifts although it yields the observed evolution of number density of X-ray quasars over the redshift range 1 < z< 6. Finally, we find that the majority of black hole mass is assembled in galaxies by z ~ 3 and that the black hole accretion rate density peaks in rough correspondence to the star formation rate density at z ~ 4-5.

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arXiv2002

Towards a Precise Measurement of Matter Clustering: Lyman-alpha Forest Data at Redshifts 2-4

We measure the filling factor, correlation function, and power spectrum of transmitted flux in a large sample of Lya forest spectra, comprised of 30 Keck HIRES spectra and 23 Keck LRIS spectra. We infer the linear matter power spectrum P(k) from the flux power spectrum P_F(k), using an improved version of the method of Croft et al. (1998) that accounts for the influence of z-space distortions, non- linearity, and thermal broadening on P_F(k). The evolution of the shape and amplitude of P(k) over the range z= 2-4 is consistent with gravitational instability, implying that non-gravitational fluctuations do not make a large contribution. Our fiducial measurement of P(k) comes from data with = 2.72. It has amplitude Delta^2(k_p)=0.74^0.20_-0.16 at wavenumber k_p=0.03 (km/s)^-1 and is well described by a power-law of index -2.43 +/- 0.06 or by a CDM-like power spectrum with shape parameter Gamma'=1.3^+0.7_-0.5*10^-3 (km/s) at z=2.72. For Omega_m=0.4, Omega_Lam=0.6, the best-fit Gamma =0.16 (h^-1mpc)^-1, in good agreement with the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, and the best-fit sigma_8=0.82 (Gamma/0.15)^-0.44. Matching the observed cluster mass function and our Delta^2(k_p) in spatially flat models requires Omega_m=0.38^+0.10_-0.08 + 2.2 (Gamma-0.15). Matching Delta^2(k_p) in COBE-normalized, flat CDM models with no tensor fluctuations requires Omega_m = (0.29 +/-0.04) n^-2.89 h_65^-1.9. The Lya forest complements other probes of P(k) by constraining a regime of redshift and lengthscale not accessible by other means, and the consistency of these inferred parameters with independent estimates provides further support for inflation, cold dark matter, and vacuum energy (abridged).

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arXiv2002

The Angular Momentum of Gas in Proto-Galaxies I. Implications for the Formation of Disk Galaxies

We use non-radiative N-body/SPH simulations of structure formation in a LCDM cosmology to compare the angular momentum distributions of dark matter and gas in a large sample of halos. We show that the two components have identical spin parameter distributions and that their angular momentum distributions within individual halos are very similar, all in excellent agreement with standard assumptions. Despite these similarities, however, we find that the angular momentum vectors of the gas and dark matter are poorly aligned, with a median misalignment angle of about 30 degrees, which might have important implications for spin correlation statistics used in weak lensing studies. We present distributions for the component of the angular momentum that is aligned with the total angular momentum of each halo, and find that for between 5 and 50 percent of the mass this component is negative. This disagrees with the `Universal' angular momentum distribution suggested by Bullock et al. (2001), for which the mass fraction with negative specific angular momentum is zero. We discuss the implications of our results for the formation of disk galaxies. Since galactic disks generally do not contain counter-rotating stars or gas, disk formation cannot occur under detailed conservation of specific angular momentum. We suggest that the material with negative specific angular momentum combines with positive angular momentum material to build a bulge component, and show that in such a scenario the remaining material can form a disk with a density distribution that is very close to exponential.

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arXiv2002

High redshift galaxies and the Lyman-alpha forest in a CDM universe

We use a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation of a cold dark matter universe to investigate theoretically the relationship between high redshift galaxies and the Lyman=alpha forest at redshift z=3. Galaxies in the simulation are surrounded by halos of hot gas, which nevertheless contain enough neutral hydrogen to cause a Ly-alpha flux decrement, its strength increasing with galaxy mass. A comparison with recent observational data by Adelberger et. al on the Ly-alpha forest around galaxies reveals that actual galaxies may have systematically less Ly-alpha absorption within 1 Mpc of them than our simulated galaxies. In order to investigate this possibility, we add several simple prescriptions for galaxy feedback on the IGM to the evolved simulation. These include the effect of photoionizing background radiation coming from galactic sources, galactic winds whose only effect is to deposit thermal energy into the IGM, and another, kinetic model for winds, which are assumed to evacuate cavities in the IGM around galaxies. We find that only the latter is able to produce a large effect, enough to match the tentative observational data, given the energy available from star formation in the simulated galaxies. Another intriguing possibility is that a selection effect is responsible, so that galaxies with low Ly-alpha absorption are preferentially included in the sample. This is also viable, but predicts very different galaxy properties (including clustering) than the other scenarios.

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arXiv2001

Constraints on Cosmological Parameters from the Lyman-alpha Forest Power Spectrum and COBE-DMR

We combine COBE-DMR measurements of cosmic microwave background anisotropy with a recent measurement of the mass power spectrum at redshift z=2.5 from Lya forest data to derive constraints on cosmological parameters and test the inflation+CDM scenario of structure formation. By treating the inflationary spectral index n as a free parameter, we can find successful fits to the COBE and Lya forest constraints in Omega_m=1 models with and without massive neutrinos and in low-Omega_m models with and without a cosmological constant. Within each class of model, the combination of COBE and the Lya forest P(k) constrains a parameter combination of the form (Omega_m h^a n^b Omega_b^c), with different indices for each case. This new constraint breaks some of the degeneracies in cosmological parameter determinations from other measurements. The Lya forest P(k) provides the first measurement of the slope of the linear mass power spectrum on ~Mpc scales, and it confirms a basic prediction of the inflationary CDM scenario: a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of primeval fluctuations (n~1) that bends towards k^{n-4} on small scales. Considering additional observational data, we find that COBE-normalized, Omega_m=1 models that match the Lya forest P(k) do not match the observed masses of rich galaxy clusters and that a low-Omega_m model with a cosmological constant provides the best overall fit, even without the direct evidence for cosmic acceleration from supernovae. Modest improvements in the Lya forest P(k) measurement could greatly restrict the allowable region of parameter space for CDM models, constrain the contribution of tensor fluctuations to CMB anisotropy, and achieve a more stringent test of the current consensus model of structure formation.

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arXiv2000

Hydrodynamic Simulation of the Cosmological X-ray Background

(Abridged) We use a hydrodynamic simulation of a LambdaCDM model to predict the extragalactic X-ray background (XRB), focussing on emission from the intergalactic medium (IGM). We also include X-rays from point sources associated with galaxies in the simulation, and make maps of the angular distribution of the emission. We find that filaments in the maps are not evident, being diluted by projection. In the soft (0.5-2 keV) band, the mean intensity of radiation from intergalactic and cluster gas is 2.3*10^-12 ergdeg^-2cm^-2s^-1, 35% of the total soft band emission. This is compatible at the ~1 sigma level with estimates of the unresolved soft background from ROSAT and {\it Chandra}. Only 4% of the hard (2-10 keV) emission is associated with the IGM. Relative to AGN flux, the IGM component peaks at a lower redshift (median z~0.45) so its clustering makes an important contribution to that of the total XRB. The angular correlations on 0.1-10 arcmin scales are significant, with an amplitude roughly consistent with an extrapolation of recent ROSAT results to small scales. A cross-correlation of the XRB against nearby galaxies taken from a simulated redshift survey also yields a strong signal from the IGM. Although some recent papers have argued that the expected soft band intensity from gas in galaxy, group, and cluster halos would exceed XRB limits unless much of the gas is expelled by supernova feedback, we obtain reasonable compatibility with current observations in a simulation that incorporates cooling, star formation, and only modest feedback. A prediction of our model is that the unresolved portion of the soft XRB will remain mostly unresolved.

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