Missing baryons traced by the galaxy luminosity density in the large-scale WHIM filaments

Understand

We propose a new approach to the missing baryons problem.

• Building on the common assumption that the missing baryons are in the form of the Warm Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM), we further assumed here that the galaxy luminosity density can be used as a tracer of the WHIM.
• The latter assumption is supported by our finding of a significant correlation between the WHIM density and the galaxy luminosity density in the hydrodynamical simulations of Cui et al.
• (2012).