Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Mace, Charlie, Zeng, Zhichao Carton, Peter, Annika H. G., Du, Xiaolong, Yang, Shengqi, Benson, Andrew, Vogelsberger, Mark
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
Soggetti:
Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01604
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866913610888904704
author Mace, Charlie
Zeng, Zhichao Carton
Peter, Annika H. G.
Du, Xiaolong
Yang, Shengqi
Benson, Andrew
Vogelsberger, Mark
author_facet Mace, Charlie
Zeng, Zhichao Carton
Peter, Annika H. G.
Du, Xiaolong
Yang, Shengqi
Benson, Andrew
Vogelsberger, Mark
contents Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) theory predicts that dark matter halos experience core-collapse, a process where the halo's inner region rapidly increases in density and decreases in size. The N-body simulations used to study this process can suffer from numerical errors when simulation parameters are selected incorrectly. Optimal choices for simulation parameters are well studied for cold dark matter (CDM), but are not deeply understood when self-interactions are included. In order to perform reliable N-body simulations and model core-collapse accurately we must understand the potential numerical errors, how to diagnose them, and what parameter selections must be made to reduce them. We use the \texttt{Arepo} N-body code to perform convergence tests of core-collapsing SIDM halos across a range of halo concentrations and SIDM cross-sections, and quantify potential numerical issues related to mass resolution, timestep size, and gravitational softening length. Our tests discover that halos with fewer than $10^5$ simulation particles, a resolution typically not met by subhalos in N-body simulations, suffer from significant discreteness noise that leads to variation and extreme outliers in the collapse rate. At our lowest resolution of $N=10^4$ particles, this collapse time variation can reach as high as 20\%. At this low resolution we also find a bias in collapse times and a small number of extreme outliers. Additionally, we find that simulations which run far beyond the age of the Universe, which have been used to calibrate SIDM gravothermal fluid models in previous work, have a sensitivity to the timestep size that is not present in shorter simulations or simulations using only CDM. Our work shows that choices of simulation parameters that yield converged results for some halo masses and SIDM models do not necessarily yield convergence for others.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_01604
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Convergence Tests of Self-Interacting Dark Matter Simulations
Mace, Charlie
Zeng, Zhichao Carton
Peter, Annika H. G.
Du, Xiaolong
Yang, Shengqi
Benson, Andrew
Vogelsberger, Mark
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) theory predicts that dark matter halos experience core-collapse, a process where the halo's inner region rapidly increases in density and decreases in size. The N-body simulations used to study this process can suffer from numerical errors when simulation parameters are selected incorrectly. Optimal choices for simulation parameters are well studied for cold dark matter (CDM), but are not deeply understood when self-interactions are included. In order to perform reliable N-body simulations and model core-collapse accurately we must understand the potential numerical errors, how to diagnose them, and what parameter selections must be made to reduce them. We use the \texttt{Arepo} N-body code to perform convergence tests of core-collapsing SIDM halos across a range of halo concentrations and SIDM cross-sections, and quantify potential numerical issues related to mass resolution, timestep size, and gravitational softening length. Our tests discover that halos with fewer than $10^5$ simulation particles, a resolution typically not met by subhalos in N-body simulations, suffer from significant discreteness noise that leads to variation and extreme outliers in the collapse rate. At our lowest resolution of $N=10^4$ particles, this collapse time variation can reach as high as 20\%. At this low resolution we also find a bias in collapse times and a small number of extreme outliers. Additionally, we find that simulations which run far beyond the age of the Universe, which have been used to calibrate SIDM gravothermal fluid models in previous work, have a sensitivity to the timestep size that is not present in shorter simulations or simulations using only CDM. Our work shows that choices of simulation parameters that yield converged results for some halo masses and SIDM models do not necessarily yield convergence for others.
title Convergence Tests of Self-Interacting Dark Matter Simulations
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01604