FLAMINGO: calibrating large cosmological hydrodynamical simulations with machine learning.

To fully take advantage of the data provided by large-scale structure surveys, we need to quantify the potential impact of baryonic effects, such as feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) and star formation, on cosmological observables. In simulations, feedback processes originate on scales that remain unresolved. Therefore, they need to be sourced via subgrid models that contain free parameters. We use machine learning to calibrate the AGN and stellar feedback models for the FLAMINGO (Fullhydro Large-scale structure simulations with All-sky Mapping for the Interpretation of Next Generation Observations) cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. Using Gaussian process emulators trained on Latin hypercubes of 32 smaller volume simulations, we model how the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) and cluster gas fractions change as a function of the subgrid parameters. The emulators are then fit to observational data, allowing for the inclusion of potential observational biases. We apply our method to the three different FLAMINGO resolutions, spanning a factor of 64 in particle mass, recovering the observed relations within the respective resolved mass ranges. We also use the emulators, which link changes in subgrid parameters to changes in observables, to find models that skirt or exceed the observationally allowed range for cluster gas fractions and the SMF. Our method enables us to define model variations in terms of the data that they are calibrated to rather than the values of specific subgrid parameters. This approach is useful, because subgrid parameters are typically not directly linked to particular observables, and predictions for a specific observable are influenced by multiple subgrid parameters.

Mass-Discrepancy Acceleration Relation: A Natural Outcome of Galaxy Formation in Cold Dark Matter Halos.

We analyze the total and baryonic acceleration profiles of a set of well-resolved galaxies identified in the eagle suite of hydrodynamic simulations. Our runs start from the same initial conditions but adopt different prescriptions for unresolved stellar and active galactic nuclei feedback, resulting in diverse populations of galaxies by the present day. Some of them reproduce observed galaxy scaling relations, while others do not. However, regardless of the feedback implementation, all of our galaxies follow closely a simple relationship between the total and baryonic acceleration profiles, consistent with recent observations of rotationally supported galaxies. The relation has small scatter: Different feedback implementations-which produce different galaxy populations-mainly shift galaxies along the relation rather than perpendicular to it. Furthermore, galaxies exhibit a characteristic acceleration g_{†}, above which baryons dominate the mass budget, as observed. These observations, consistent with simple modified Newtonian dynamics, can be accommodated within the standard cold dark matter paradigm.

Clear and measurable signature of modified gravity in the galaxy velocity field.

The velocity field of dark matter and galaxies reflects the continued action of gravity throughout cosmic history. We show that the low-order moments of the pairwise velocity distribution v_{12} are a powerful diagnostic of the laws of gravity on cosmological scales. In particular, the projected line-of-sight galaxy pairwise velocity dispersion σ_{12}(r) is very sensitive to the presence of modified gravity. Using a set of high-resolution N-body simulations, we compute the pairwise velocity distribution and its projected line-of-sight dispersion for a class of modified gravity theories: the chameleon f(R) gravity and Galileon gravity (cubic and quartic). The velocities of dark matter halos with a wide range of masses would exhibit deviations from general relativity at the (5-10)σ level. We examine strategies for detecting these deviations in galaxy redshift and peculiar velocity surveys. If detected, this signature would be a "smoking gun" for modified gravity.

The large-scale structure of the Universe.

Research over the past 25 years has led to the view that the rich tapestry of present-day cosmic structure arose during the first instants of creation, where weak ripples were imposed on the otherwise uniform and rapidly expanding primordial soup. Over 14 billion years of evolution, these ripples have been amplified to enormous proportions by gravitational forces, producing ever-growing concentrations of dark matter in which ordinary gases cool, condense and fragment to make galaxies. This process can be faithfully mimicked in large computer simulations, and tested by observations that probe the history of the Universe starting from just 400,000 years after the Big Bang.

Simulations of the formation, evolution and clustering of galaxies and quasars.

The cold dark matter model has become the leading theoretical picture for the formation of structure in the Universe. This model, together with the theory of cosmic inflation, makes a clear prediction for the initial conditions for structure formation and predicts that structures grow hierarchically through gravitational instability. Testing this model requires that the precise measurements delivered by galaxy surveys can be compared to robust and equally precise theoretical calculations. Here we present a simulation of the growth of dark matter structure using 2,160(3) particles, following them from redshift z = 127 to the present in a cube-shaped region 2.230 billion lightyears on a side. In postprocessing, we also follow the formation and evolution of the galaxies and quasars. We show that baryon-induced features in the initial conditions of the Universe are reflected in distorted form in the low-redshift galaxy distribution, an effect that can be used to constrain the nature of dark energy with future generations of observational surveys of galaxies.