Core to Cosmic Edge: <tt>SIMBA-C</tt>’s New Take on Abundance Profiles in the Intragroup Medium at <i>z</i> = 0
Aviv Padawer-Blatt,
Zhiwei Shao,
Renier T. Hough,
Douglas Rennehan,
Ruxin Barré,
Vida Saeedzadeh,
Arif Babul,
Romeel Davé,
Chiaki Kobayashi,
Weiguang Cui,
François Mernier,
Ghassem Gozaliasl
Affiliations
Aviv Padawer-Blatt
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 1A1, Canada
Zhiwei Shao
Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Renier T. Hough
Center for Space Research, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa
Douglas Rennehan
Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY 10010, USA
Ruxin Barré
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 1A1, Canada
Vida Saeedzadeh
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Arif Babul
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 1A1, Canada
Romeel Davé
Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
Chiaki Kobayashi
Centre for Astrophysics Research, Department of Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
Weiguang Cui
Departamento de Física Téorica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
François Mernier
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Ghassem Gozaliasl
Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15400, FI-00076 Espoo, Finland
We employ the simba-c cosmological simulation to study the impact of its upgraded chemical enrichment model (Chem5) on the distribution of metals in the intragroup medium (IGrM). We investigate the projected X-ray emission-weighted abundance profiles of key elements over two decades in halo mass (1013≤M500/M⊙≤1015). Typically, simba-c generates lower-amplitude abundance profiles than simba with flatter cores, in better agreement with observations. For low-mass groups, both simulations over-enrich the IGrM with Si, S, Ca, and Fe compared to observations, a trend likely related to inadequate modeling of metal dispersal and mixing. We analyze the 3D mass-weighted abundance profiles, concluding that the lower simba-c IGrM abundances are primarily a consequence of fewer metals in the IGrM, driven by reduced metal yields in Chem5, and the removal of the instantaneous recycling of metals approximation employed by simba. Additionally, an increased IGrM mass in low-mass simba-c groups is likely triggered by changes to the AGN and stellar feedback models. Our study suggests that a more realistic chemical enrichment model broadly improves agreement with observations, but physically motivated sub-grid models for other key processes, like AGN and stellar feedback and turbulent diffusion, are required to realistically reproduce observed group environments.
