The effect of baryons on the inner density profiles of rich clusters

Understand

We use the "Evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments" (EAGLE) cosmological simulation to investigate the effect of baryons on the density profiles of rich galaxy clusters.

• We focus on EAGLE clusters with $M_{200}>10^{14}~M_\odot$ of which we have six examples.
• The central brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in the simulation have steep stellar density profiles, $\rho_*(r) \propto r^{-3}$.
• Stars dominate the mass density for $r<10~\rm{kpc}$, and, as a result, the total mass density profiles are steeper than the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile, in remarkable agreement with observations.