Open AccessHydrodynamical simulations of the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect: the kinetic effect
Author(s) -
Da Silva Antonio C.,
Barbosa Domingos,
Liddle Andrew R.,
Thomas Peter A.
Publication year - 2001
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.1365-8711.2001.04580.x
Subject(s) - physics , sunyaev–zel'dovich effect , cosmic microwave background , kinetic energy , astrophysics , redshift , mean kinetic temperature , cosmic background radiation , spectral density , anisotropy , thermal , galaxy , optics , statistics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , meteorology
We use hydrodynamical N ‐body simulations to study the kinetic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect. We construct sets of maps, one square degree in size, in three different cosmological models. We confirm earlier calculations that on the scales studied the kinetic effect is much smaller than the thermal (except close to the thermal null point), with an rms dispersion smaller by about a factor of 5 in the Rayleigh–Jeans region. We study the redshift dependence of the rms distortion and the pixel distribution at the present epoch. We compute the angular power spectra of the maps, including their redshift dependence, and compare them with the thermal Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect and with the expected cosmic microwave background anisotropy spectrum as well as with determinations by other authors. We correlate the kinetic effect with the thermal effect both pixel‐by‐pixel and for identified thermal sources in the maps to assess the extent to which the kinetic effect is enhanced in locations of strong thermal signal.