SZ effects in the Magneticum Pathfinder simulation: comparison with the Planck, SPT, and ACT results

Abstract

We calculate the one-point probability density distribution functions (PDF) and the power spectra of the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev–Zeldovich (tSZ and kSZ) effects and the mean Compton Y parameter using the Magneticum Pathfinder simulations, state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of a large cosmological volume of (896 Mpc h−1)3. These simulations follow in detail the thermal and chemical evolution of the intracluster medium as well as the evolution of supermassive black holes and their associated feedback processes. We construct full-sky maps of tSZ and kSZ from the light-cones out to z = 0.17, and one realization of 8|$_{.}^{\circ}$|8 × 8|$_{.}^{\circ}$|8 deep light-cone out to z = 5.2. The local universe at z < 0.027 is simulated by a constrained realization. The tail of the one-point PDF of tSZ from the deep light-cone follows a power-law shape with an index of −3.2. Once convolved with the effective beam of Planck, it agrees with the PDF measured by Planck. The predicted tSZ power spectrum agrees with that of the Planck data at all multipoles up to l ≈ 1000, once the calculations are scaled to the Planck 2015 cosmological parameters with Ωm = 0.308 and σ8 = 0.8149. Consistent with the results in the literature, however, we continue to find the tSZ power spectrum at l = 3000 that is significantly larger than that estimated from the high-resolution ground-based data. The simulation predicts the mean fluctuating Compton Y value of |$\bar{Y}=1.18\times 10^{-6}$| for Ωm = 0.272 and σ8 = 0.809. Nearly half (≈5 × 10−7) of the signal comes from haloes below a virial mass of 1013 M⊙ h−1. Scaling this to the Planck 2015 parameters, we find |$\bar{Y}=1.57\times {}10^{-6}$|⁠.