We present the Feedback Acting on Baryons in Large-scale Environments (fable) suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of galaxies, groups and clusters. The simulations use the arepo moving-mesh code with a set of physical models for galaxy formation based on the successful Illustris simulation, but with updated AGN and supernovae feedback models. This allows us to simultaneously reproduce the observed redshift evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function together with the stellar and gas mass fractions of local groups and clusters across a wide range of halo masses. Focusing on the properties of groups and clusters, we find very good agreement with a range of observed scaling relations, including the X-ray luminosity-total mass and gas mass relations as well as the total mass-temperature and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich fluxmass relations. Careful comparison of our results with scaling relations based on X-ray hydrostatic masses as opposed to weak lensing-derived masses reveals some discrepancies, which hint towards a non-negligible X-ray mass bias in observed samples. We further show that radial profiles of density, pressure and temperature of the simulated intracluster medium are in very good agreement with observations, in particular for r > 0.3 r 500 . In the innermost regions however we find too large entropy cores, which indicates that a more sophisticated modelling of the physics of AGN feedback may be required to accurately reproduce the observed populations of cool-core and non-cool-core clusters.

We study the gas and stellar mass content of galaxy groups and clusters in the fable suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, including the evolution of their central brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), satellite galaxies and intracluster light (ICL). The total gas and stellar mass of fable clusters are in very good agreement with observations and show negligible redshift evolution at fixed halo mass for M500 ≳ 3 × 1014M⊙ at z ≲ 1, in line with recent findings from Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ)-selected cluster samples. Importantly, the simulations predict significant redshift evolution in these quantities in the low mass (M500 ∼ 1014M⊙) regime, which will be testable with upcoming SZ surveys such as SPT-3G. While the stellar masses of fable BCGs are in reasonable agreement with observations, the total stellar mass in satellite galaxies is lower than observed and the total mass in ICL is somewhat higher. This may be caused by enhanced tidal stripping of satellite galaxies due to their large sizes. BCGs are characterised by moderate stellar mass growth at z < 1 coincident with a late-time development of the ICL. The level of BCG mass growth is in good agreement with recent observations, however, we caution that the inferred growth depends sensitively on the mass definition. We further show that in-situ star formation contributes more than half the mass of a BCG over its lifetime, the bulk of which is gained at z > 1 where star formation rates are highest. The stellar mass profiles of the BCG+ICL component are similar to observed profiles out to ∼100 kpc at z ≈ 0 and follow a close to power law shape out to several hundred kpc. We further demonstrate that the inferred size growth of BCGs can be severely biased by the choice of parametric model and the outer radius of the fit.

We study the redshift evolution of the X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) scaling relations for galaxy groups and clusters in the fable suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. Using an expanded sample of 27 high-resolution zoom-in simulations, together with a uniformly-sampled cosmological volume to sample low-mass systems, we find very good agreement with the majority of observational constraints up to z ∼ 1. We predict significant deviations of all examined scaling relations from the simple self-similar expectations. While the slopes are approximately independent of redshift, the normalisations evolve positively with respect to self-similarity, even for commonly-used mass proxies such as the Y X parameter. These deviations are due to a combination of factors, including more effective AGN feedback in lower mass haloes, larger binding energy of gas at a given halo mass at higher redshifts and larger nonthermal pressure support from kinetic motions at higher redshifts. Our results have important implications for cluster cosmology from upcoming SZ surveys such as SPT-3G, ACTpol and CMB-S4, as relatively small changes in the observable-mass scaling relations (within theoretical uncertainties) have a large impact on the predicted number of high-redshift clusters and hence on our ability to constrain cosmology using cluster abundances. In addition, we find that the intrinsic scatter of the relations, which agrees well with most observational constraints, increases at lower redshifts and for lower mass systems. This calls for a more complex parametrization than adopted in current observational studies to be able to accurately account for selection biases.

Contrary to the standard lore, there is mounting observational evidence that feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) may also play a role at the low-mass end of the galaxy population. We investigate this using the cosmological simulation suite fable, with a particular focus on the dwarf regime (Mstellar < 109.5 M⊙). We find that overmassive black holes (BHs), with respect to the mean scaling relations with their host galaxies, drive hotter and faster outflows and lead to significantly reduced gas mass fractions. They are also more likely to display a kinematically misaligned ionized gas component in our mock MaNGA velocity maps, although we caution that cosmic inflows and mergers contribute to misalignments as well. While in the local Universe the majority of AGN in dwarfs are much dimmer than the stellar component, for z ≥ 2 there is a significant population that outshines their hosts. These high-redshift overmassive BHs contribute to the quenching of dwarfs, whereas at late cosmic times supernova (SN) feedback is more efficient. While our results are overall in good agreement with X-ray observations of AGN in dwarfs, the lack of high-luminosity X-ray AGN in fable at low redshifts highlights an interesting possibility that SN feedback could be too strong in fable’s dwarfs, curtailing AGN growth and feedback. We predict that future observations may uncover many more AGN in dwarfs with lower luminosities and at higher redshifts.

The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect can potentially be used to investigate the heating of the circumgalactic medium and subsequent suppression of cold gas accretion onto the host galaxy caused by quasar feedback. We use a deep ALMA observation of HE0515-4414 in band 4, the most luminous quasar known at the peak of cosmic star formation (z=1.7), to search for the SZ signal tracing the heating of the galaxy's halo. ALMA's sensitivity to a broad range of spatial scales enables us to disentangle emitting compact sources from the negative, extended SZ signal. We obtain a marginal S-Z detection (∼3.3σ) on scales of about 300 kpc (30-40 arcsec), at the 0.2 mJy level, 0.5 mJy after applying a correction factor for primary beam attenuation and flux that is resolved out by the array. We show that our result is consistent with a simulated ALMA observation of a similar quasar in the fable cosmological simulations. We emphasise that detecting an SZ signal is more easily achieved in the visibility plane than in the (inferred) images. We also confirm a marginal detection (3.2σ) of a potential SZ dip on smaller scales (<100 kpc) already claimed by other authors, possibly highlighting the complex structure of the halo heating. Finally, we use SZ maps from the fable cosmological simulations, convolved with ALMA simulations, to illustrate that band 3 observations are much more effective in detecting the SZ signal with higher significance, and discuss the optimal observing strategy.