Open AccessParameter tests within cosmological simulations of galaxy formation
Author(s) -
Kay Scott T.,
Pearce F. R.,
Jenkins A.,
Frenk C. S.,
White S. D. M.,
Thomas P. A.,
Couchman H. M. P.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03496.x
Subject(s) - physics , galaxy , galaxy formation and evolution , astrophysics , cold dark matter , dark matter , smoothed particle hydrodynamics , metallicity , cosmology , computational astrophysics , statistical physics
Numerical simulations of galaxy formation require a number of parameters. Some of these are intrinsic to the numerical integration scheme (e.g., the time‐step), while others describe the physical model (e.g., the gas metallicity). In this paper we present results of a systematic exploration of the effects of varying a subset of these parameters on simulations of galaxy formation. We use N ‐body and ‘Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics’ techniques to follow the evolution of cold dark matter and gas in a small volume. We compare a fiducial model with 24 different simulations, in which one parameter at a time is varied, focusing on properties such as the relative fraction of hot and cold gas, and the abundance and masses of galaxies. We find that for reasonable choices of numerical values, many parameters have relatively little effect on the galaxies, with the notable exception of the parameters that control the resolution of the simulation and the efficiency with which gas cools.