Hybrid Cosmological Simulations with Stream Velocities

Understand

In the early universe, substantial relative "stream" velocities between the gas and dark matter arise due to radiation pressure and persist after recombination.

• To asses the impact of these velocities on high-redshift structure formation, we carry out a suite of high-resolution Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) cosmological simulations, which use Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic datasets as initial conditions, converted using a new tool developed for this work.
• These simulations resolve structures with masses as small as a few 100 M$_\odot$, and we focus on the $10^6$ M$_\odot$ "mini-halos" in which the first stars formed.
• At $z \approx 17,$ the presence of stream velocities has only a minor effect on the number density of halos below $10^6$ M$_\odot$, but it greatly suppresses gas accretion onto all halos and the dark matter structures around them.