Simulations of Galaxy Cluster Dynamics

Single Cluster Simulations

The simulations in this section were created with the Advanced Visual Systems (AVS) software package. Please note: you are welcome to use any of the movies found on this page as long as credit is given, and the use is for personal and/or educational use (i.e. not for profit) unless explicit premission is given.

Galaxy (0.5 MB, mpeg format) 40-thousand body simulation of a fifty galaxy cluster. Each sphere represents a galaxy. Colors represent mass; blue is low mass; red is high mass. The radius of each sphere is also proportionate to the mass.

Galaxy Clusters (3.4 MB, mpeg format)

This movie shows the evolution of a cluster of fifty galaxies. The white particles are the luminous cores of the galaxies; the red particles are the dark matter halos of the galaxies; and the blue particles form the dark matter cluster background. The duration of the simulation covers 16 gigayears (billion years). The field of view is roughly a megaparsec (3.26 million lightyears). Due to dynamical friction and galactic interactions, the largest galaxies fall to the center of the cluster to form a dominant central galaxy through merging.

100 Galaxy Simulation (2.7 MB, mpeg format) 100 Galaxy Simulation (beginning) (0.8 MB, mpeg format) 100 Galaxy Simulation (ending) (1.2 MB, mpeg format)

The following animations where all made in the 1920x1080 HD format with the StarSplatter software package. Please note that the following movies are large in size (~200 MB), and require a high-end video card to view properly.

Beta=90 Models

Single 50 Custer Simulation (401 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (385 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (392 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Ten realizations (not all here yet!) of a N=60,000 particle simulation of a 50 galaxy cluster simulation.  The luminous particles are represented by the white particles, and always consist of 10% of the most tightly bound particles of each galaxy and comprise a total of 10% mass of the system.  A total of 90% of the cluster mass is assigned to the dark matter of which 90% of the cluster mass is found in the cluster-wide dark matter, and is represented by the transparent orange particles.  These particles form the potential well within which the galaxies orbit.  All simulations have a total of 10% of the total mass assigned to the galaxies (both luminous and dark), and 90% assigned to the cluster-wide potential.

Beta=75 Models

Single 50 Custer Simulation (228 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (242 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (208 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (223 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (201 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (212 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (218 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (256 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (219 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Single 50 Custer Simulation (203 MB, mpeg4 1080p HD format) Ten realizations of a N=60,000 particle simulation of a 50 galaxy cluster simulation.  The luminous particles are represented by the white particles, and always consist of 10% of the most tightly bound particles of each galaxy and comprise a total of 10% mass of the system.  A total of 90% of the cluster mass is assigned to the dark matter of which 75% of the cluster mass is found in the cluster-wide dark matter, and is represented by the transparent orange particles.  These particles form the potential well within which the galaxies orbit.  The remaining 15% is assigned to the galaxy dark matter halos, and is represented by the transparent red particles.  All simulations have a total of 25% of the total mass assigned to the galaxies (both luminous and dark), and 75% assigned to the cluster-wide potential.

Cluster Collision Simulations

The movies made in this section were created with the StarSplatter software package. All models in this section show simulations of a head-on collision between two clusters of galaxies on a parabolic orbit. The collision occurs at t=4.0 (code units). Our adopted scaling for the mass of each cluster is 10^{14} Msun. A code time unit becomes 2.7 Gyrs. The total duration of the simulation runs for t=8.0 code units (t=21.6 Gyrs). Currently all movies have a resolution of 800x592 pixels.

Beta=50 Models

Two 50 galaxy cluster collision (115 MB, mpeg format) This movie is a 160 thousand particle simulation of two galaxy clusters, each with fifty galaxies, on a collision course. This simulation was presented in the paper Berrington & Dermer ApJ, 2003, 594, 709. The galaxy particles (both luminous and dark matter particles) are shown in white. The cluster wide dark matter is shown by the transparent orange particles.

Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (45 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (51 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (50 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (45 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (40 MB, mpeg format) Five realizations of a 160 thousand particle simulation showing the collision between two galaxy clusters of fifty galaxies each. The luminous galaxy particles are shown in white, and consist of the 10% most tightly bound particles assigned to each galaxy. The remaining matter assigned to the galaxies are dark matter particles and are shown in red. The clusterwide potential well is formed by the cluster dark matter particles, and these are shown by the transparent orange. All simulations shown have 50% of the total mass in the galaxies and 50% (beta=50) in the clusterwide dark matter halo.

Beta=75 Models

Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (36 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (37 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (40 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (41 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (42 MB, mpeg format) A 160 thousand particle simulation showing the collision between two galaxy clusters of fifty galaxies each. The luminous galaxy particles are shown in white, and consist of the 10% most tightly bound particles assigned to each galaxy. The clusterwide potential well is formed by the cluster dark matter particles, and these are shown by the transparent orange. All simulations shown have 25% of the total mass in the galaxies and 75% (beta=75) in the clusterwide dark matter halo.

Beta=90 Models

Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (40 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (40 MB, mpeg format) Two 50-galaxy cluster collision simulation (40 MB, mpeg format) A 160 thousand particle simulation showing the collision between two galaxy clusters of fifty galaxies each. The luminous galaxy particles are shown in white, and consist of the 10% most tightly bound particles assigned to each galaxy. The clusterwide potential well is formed by the cluster dark matter particles, and these are shown in orange. All simulations shown have 10% of the total mass in the galaxies and 90% (beta=90) in the clusterwide dark matter halo. Galaxies do not contain dark matter halos. All galaxy matter is luminous.

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