Bibcode
Bryan, S. E.; Kay, S. T.; Duffy, A. R.; Schaye, J.; Dalla Vecchia, C.; Booth, C. M.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 429, Issue 4, p.3316-3329
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3
2013
Citations
129
Refereed citations
123
Description
We use numerical simulations to investigate how the statistical
properties of dark matter (DM) haloes are affected by the baryonic
processes associated with galaxy formation. We focus on how these
processes influence the spin and shape of a large number of DM haloes
covering a wide range of mass scales, from galaxies to clusters at z =
0, 1, extending to dwarf galaxies at z = 2. The haloes are extracted
from the OverWhelmingly Large Simulations (OWLS), a suite of
state-of-the-art high-resolution cosmological simulations run with a
range of feedback prescriptions. We find that the median spin parameter
in DM-only simulations is independent of mass, redshift and cosmology.
At z = 0 baryons increase the spin of the DM in the central region
(≤0.25 r200) by up to 30 per cent when feedback is weak or
absent. This increase can be attributed to the transfer of angular
momentum from baryons to the DM, but is no longer present at z = 2. We
also present fits to the mass dependence of the DM halo shape at both
low and high redshift. At z = 0 the sphericity (triaxiality) is
negatively (positively) correlated with halo mass and both results are
independent of cosmology. Interestingly, these mass-dependent trends are
markedly weaker at z = 2. While the cooling of baryons acts to make the
overall DM halo more spherical, stronger feedback prescriptions (e.g.
from active galactic nuclei) tend to reduce the impact of baryons by
reducing the central halo mass concentration. More generally, we
demonstrate a strongly positive (negative) correlation between halo
sphericity (triaxiality) and galaxy formation efficiency, with the
latter measured using the central halo baryon fraction. In conclusion,
our results suggest that the effects of baryons on the DM halo spin and
shape are minor when the effects of cooling are mitigated, as required
by realistic models of galaxy formation, although they remain
significant for the inner halo.