2009/06/22 by Susana Planelles, Vicent Quilis
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Cluster (spacecraft) #Cosmology #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Galaxy formation and evolution #Galaxy merger #Halo #Physics #Scaling #astro-ph.CO
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15290.x
17 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 2009/06/22 · openalex publication_date 2009/08/20 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present the results of an Eulerian adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydrodynamical and N-body simulation in a Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology. The simulation incorporates common cooling and heating processes for a primordial gas. A specific halo finder has been designed and applied in order to extract a sample of galaxy clusters directly obtained from the simulation without considering any resimulating scheme. We have studied the evolutionary history of the cluster haloes, and classified them into three categories depending on the merger events they have undergone: major mergers, minor mergers and relaxed clusters. The main properties of each one of these classes and the differences among them are discussed. The collisions among galaxy clusters are produced naturally by the non-linear evolution in the simulated cosmological volume; no controlled collisions have been considered. We pay special attention to discuss the role of merger events as a source of feedback and reheating, and their effects on the existence of cool cores in galaxy clusters, as well as in the scaling relations.