The AGORA High-resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project. VI. Similarities and Differences in the Circumgalactic Medium

Kavli Affiliate: Tom Abel

| First 5 Authors: Clayton Strawn, Santi Roca-Fàbrega, Joel R. Primack, Ji-hoon Kim, Anna Genina

| Summary:

We analyze the circumgalactic medium (CGM) for eight commonly-used
cosmological codes in the AGORA collaboration. The codes are calibrated to use
identical initial conditions, cosmology, heating and cooling, and star
formation thresholds, but each evolves with its own unique code architecture
and stellar feedback implementation. Here, we analyze the results of these
simulations in terms of the structure, composition, and phase dynamics of the
CGM. We show properties such as metal distribution, ionization levels, and
kinematics are effective tracers of the effects of the different code feedback
and implementation methods, and as such they can be highly divergent between
simulations. This is merely a fiducial set of models, against which we will in
the future compare multiple feedback recipes for each code. Nevertheless, we
find that the large parameter space these simulations establish can help
disentangle the different variables that affect observable quantities in the
CGM, e.g., showing that abundances for ions with higher ionization energy are
more strongly determined by the simulation’s metallicity, while abundances for
ions with lower ionization energy are more strongly determined by the gas
density and temperature.

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