ELUCID. VIII. Simulating the Coma Galaxy Cluster to Calibrate Model and Understand Feedback

Abstract

We conducted an investigation of the Coma cluster of galaxies by running a series of constrained hydrodynamic simulations with GIZMO-SIMBA and GADGET-3 based on initial conditions reconstructed from the SDSS survey volume in the ELUCID project. We compared simulation predictions and observations for galaxies, intracluster medium (ICM) and intergalactic medium (IGM) in and around the Coma cluster to constrain galaxy formation physics. Our results demonstrate that this type of constrained investigation allows us to probe in more detail the implemented physical processes, because the comparison between simulations and observations is free of cosmic variance and hence can be conducted in a “one-to-one” manner. We found that an increase in the earlier star formation rate and the supernova feedback of the original GIZMO-SIMBA model is needed to match observational data on stellar, interstellar medium, and ICM metallicity. The simulations without active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback can well reproduce the observational ICM electron density, temperature, and entropy profiles, ICM substructures, and the IGM temperature–density relation, while the ones with AGN feedback usually fail. However, one requires something like AGN feedback to reproduce a sufficiently large population of quiescent galaxies, particularly in low-density regions. The constrained simulations of the Coma cluster thus provide a test bed to understand processes that drive galaxy formation and evolution.