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.

N-Body (0.9 MB, mpeg format): A disk of a thousand particles, interacting under the influence of gravity.

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)

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.
[two 50-Galaxy Clusters]

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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