Investigating the Complex Interaction of Dark Matter and Gas in Cluster of Galaxies

天体物理学家发现，大约96%的宇宙似乎由两种未知成分组成，即暗物质和暗能量。该项目旨在建立星系团中这些暗成分和发光物质之间相互作用的特性，特别强调对质量分布的影响。这些天体的质量是推导宇宙参数的基本量，也就是说，量化宇宙中黑暗和发光成分的重要性和演变。该项目将为当前的大型天文合作和未来的天文调查团队提供详细的质量理论模型，这些模型建立在四个不断增加的空间复杂性的水平上。容易观察到的整体量（零维）将通过缩放关系与总质量联系起来。该项目将把以前的结果扩展为面向观察的分析。除了寻找结果对气体物理和暗能量的依赖性之外，这部分项目将为x射线和光学观测中采用的最佳样本选择和观测策略提供明确的指示。项目的第二部分是基于浓度-质量关系（一维）。虽然不一致的观测结果和理论预测最近造成了越来越大的紧张关系，但本分析旨在测试x射线、弱透镜和强透镜技术来解决这种紧张关系。不同的气体物理理论模型和各种暗能量模型将进行比较。最后，本项目的最后两部分旨在推进我们对星系团宇宙学的理论认识和建模。由x射线或引力透镜产生的星系团质量受到子结构和系统几何形状的强烈影响。项目的下一部分将确定最能表征真实气团形态的气体物理过程，并使用我们的合成目录应用和测试两种观测技术。该项目的最后一部分将为观测者提供星系团的完整三维（3D）模型。最近引入的新的观测技术将得到星团的三维形状，最终将被测试。首席研究员（PI）将直接培训一名本科生，他将学习如何将理论与观察联系起来，并与国际科学家合作。PI也非常重视对代表性不足的学生进行指导，并将鼓励研究小组的多样性。该项目的所有产品都将通过密歇根大学图书馆提供的“深蓝”服务向公众开放。

Astrophysicists have discovered that about 96% our Universe appears to consist of two unknown constituents called dark matter and dark energy. This project aims to establish the properties of the interaction between these dark constituents and the luminous matter within clusters of galaxies, with particular emphasis on the influence on mass distribution. The mass of these objects is a fundamental quantity to derive cosmological parameters, i.e., to quantify the importance and evolution of the Universe's dark and luminous components.This project will provide current large astronomical collaborations and future astronomical survey teams with detailed mass theoretical models built at four levels of increasing spatial complexity. Easily observable global quantities (zero dimension) will be related to the total mass through scaling relations. The project will extend previous results to an observationally-oriented analysis. Beyond the search for dependence of results on gas physics and dark energy, this part of the project will provide a clear indication on best sample selection and observation strategies to be adopted in X-ray and optical observations. The second part of the project is based on the concentration-mass relation (one dimension). While discordant observational results and theoretical predictions have recently created an increasing tension, this analysis aims to test X-ray, weak lensing, and strong lensing techniques to address this tension. Theoretical models produced by different gas physics and various dark energy models will be compared. Finally, the last two parts of this project aim to advance our theoretical understanding and modeling of cluster cosmology. The cluster mass derived from either X-ray or gravitational lensing is strongly influenced by the existence of sub-structures and geometry of the system. The next part of the project will identify the gas physical process that best characterizes the morphology of real clusters, and two observational techniques will be applied and tested using our synthetic catalogue. The final part of the project will provide observers with a complete three-dimensional (3D) model of galaxy clusters. New observational techniques recently introduced to derive the 3D shape of clusters will finally be tested.The principal investigator (PI) will directly train an undergraduate student, who will learn how to connect theory with observations and to collaborate with international scientists. The PI also believes strongly in mentoring underrepresented students, and diversity will be encouraged in the research group. All the products of this project will be made available to the public through Deep Blue, a service offered by the University of Michigan Library.