THE NATURE OF THE WARM/HOT INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM. I. NUMERICAL METHODS, CONVERGENCE, AND O VI ABSORPTION
- Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, 389 UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States)
We perform a series of cosmological simulations using Enzo, an Eulerian adaptive-mesh refinement, N-body + hydrodynamical code, applied to study the warm/hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). The WHIM may be an important component of the baryons missing observationally at low redshift. We investigate the dependence of the global star formation rate and mass fraction in various baryonic phases on spatial resolution and methods of incorporating stellar feedback. Although both resolution and feedback significantly affect the total mass in the WHIM, all of our simulations find that the WHIM fraction peaks at z {approx} 0.5, declining to 35%-40% at z = 0. We construct samples of synthetic O VI absorption lines from our highest-resolution simulations, using several models of oxygen ionization balance. Models that include both collisional ionization and photoionization provide excellent fits to the observed number density of absorbers per unit redshift over the full range of column densities (10{sup 13} cm{sup -2} {approx}< N{sub OVI} {approx}< 10{sup 15} cm{sup -2}). Models that include only collisional ionization provide better fits for high column density absorbers (N{sub OVI} {approx}> 10{sup 14} cm{sup -2}). The distribution of O VI in density and temperature exhibits two populations: one at T {approx} 10{sup 5.5} K (collisionally ionized, 55% of total O VI) and one at T {approx} 10{sup 4.5} K (photoionized, 37%) with the remainder located in dense gas near galaxies. While not a perfect tracer of hot gas, O VI provides an important tool for a WHIM baryon census.
- OSTI ID:
- 21574802
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 731, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/731/1/6; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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