Thursday, October 27, 2011

1110.5635 (Paul Torrey et al.)

Moving Mesh Cosmology: Properties of Gas Disks    [PDF]

Paul Torrey, Mark Vogelsberger, Debora Sijacki, Volker Springel, Lars Hernquist
We compare the structural properties of galaxies formed in cosmological simulations using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code GADGET with those using the moving-mesh code AREPO. Both codes employ identical gravity solvers and the same sub-resolution physics but use very different methods to track the hydrodynamic evolution of gas. This permits us to isolate the effects of the hydro solver on the formation and evolution of galactic disks. In a matching sample of GADGET and AREPO haloes we fit simulated gas disks with exponential profiles. We find that the cold gas disks formed using AREPO have systematically larger disk scale lengths and higher specific angular momenta than their GADGET counterparts. The reason for these differences is rooted in the inaccuracies of the SPH solver and calls for a reassessment of commonly adopted feedback prescriptions in cosmological simulations.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.5635

No comments:

Post a Comment