Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-02-04
A&A 506, 647-660 (2009)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
19 pages, 28 figures
Scientific paper
10.1051/0004-6361/200911787
Although a fair amount of work has been devoted to growing Monte-Carlo merger trees which resemble those built from an N-body simulation, comparatively little effort has been invested in quantifying the caveats one necessarily encounters when one extracts trees directly from such a simulation. To somewhat revert the tide, this paper seeks to provide its reader with a comprehensive study of the problems one faces when following this route. The first step to building merger histories of dark matter haloes and their subhaloes is to identify these structures in each of the time outputs (snapshots) produced by the simulation. Even though we discuss a particular implementation of such an algorithm (called AdaptaHOP) in this paper, we believe that our results do not depend on the exact details of the implementation but extend to most if not all (sub)structure finders. We then highlight different ways to build merger histories from AdaptaHOP haloes and subhaloes, contrasting their various advantages and drawbacks. We find that the best approach to (sub)halo merging histories is through an analysis that goes back and forth between identification and tree building rather than one which conducts a straightforward sequential treatment of these two steps. This is rooted in the complexity of the merging trees which have to depict an inherently dynamical process from the partial temporal information contained in the collection of instantaneous snapshots available from the N-body simulation.
Blaizot Jérémy
Colombi Stephane
Devriendt Julien
Slyz Adrianne
Tweed Dylan
No associations
LandOfFree
Building Merger Trees from Cosmological N-body Simulations does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Building Merger Trees from Cosmological N-body Simulations, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Building Merger Trees from Cosmological N-body Simulations will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-553313