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The impact of assembly history on the X-ray detectability of halos. From galaxy groups to galaxy clusters

I Marini, P Popesso, K Dolag, V Biffi… - arXiv preprint arXiv …, 2025 - arxiv.org
Physics paper astro-ph.GA Suggest

… These findings will aid the interpretation of future X-ray surveys, demonstrating the power of simulation-based inference. …

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BibTeX

@article{2503.19121v2,
Author        = {I. Marini and P. Popesso and K. Dolag and V. Biffi and S. Vladutescu-Zopp and T. Castro and V. Toptun and N. de Isidio and A. Dev and D. Mazengo and J. Comparat and C. Gouin and N. Malavasi and A. Merloni and T. Mroczkowski and G. Ponti and S. Shreeram and Y. Zhang},
Title         = {The impact of assembly history on the X-ray detectability of halos. From
  galaxy groups to galaxy clusters},
Eprint        = {2503.19121v2},
DOI           = {10.1051/0004-6361/202554677},
ArchivePrefix = {arXiv},
PrimaryClass  = {astro-ph.GA},
Abstract      = {Galaxy groups represent a significant fraction of the halo population,
playing a crucial role in galaxy formation and evolution. However, their
detection in X-rays remains challenging, raising questions about the physical
mechanisms driving their detectability in current surveys. Using the Magneticum
simulations, we construct a mock X-ray lightcone of the local Universe
($z<0.2$) to investigate the selection function of galaxy groups and clusters.
We find that AGN activity is a key driver of baryon depletion, but late-time
mergers boost X-ray brightness by replenishing the gas reservoir in the halos,
highlighting the interplay between feedback processes and the environment. Our
analysis shows that X-ray bright groups experience sustained late-time mass
accretion, maintaining higher gas fractions and fueling the central
supermassive black holes (SMBH), further increasing the X-ray emissivity in the
core. In contrast, X-ray faint groups form earlier and lose most of their gas
over time, resembling fossil groups. Magneticum predicts strong
anti-correlations between gas fraction (or X-ray luminosity) and SMBH mass,
stellar mass (both in the central galaxy and intracluster light), and group
richness at fixed halo mass. We derive predictions on the hot gas fraction at
fixed halos mass (e.g. a group of total mass $M_{500}=10^{13} M_{\odot}$ can
have hot gas fractions in the range $f_\mathrm{gas}=0.02-0.06$ and a central
SMBH with a median mass of $M_\mathrm{BH}=10^9 M_{\odot}$ and a scatter of
$0.5$ dex) compatible with the most recent measurements of the baryonic
fraction. These findings will aid the interpretation of future X-ray surveys,
demonstrating the power of simulation-based inference.},
Year          = {2025},
Month         = {Mar},
Note          = {A&A 698, A191 (2025)},
Url           = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2503.19121v2},
File          = {2503.19121v2.pdf}
}

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