Statistical and dynamical decoupling of the IGM from dark matter

Abstract

Although the gravitational field in the universe is dominated by dark matter, cosmological observations show that the statistical properties of cosmic baryonic matter are significantly and systematically decoupled from that of the underlying dark matter. The dynamical reason of the decoupling is the difference of the nonlinear evolution of baryon fluid from that of collisionless dark matter. In highly nonlinear regime, the cosmic baryon fluid on scale free range evolves into the state of fully developed turbulence, of which the velocity field consists of shocks, vortices and complex structures. This scenario provides a coherent explanation of various phenomena referring to the statistical and dynamical decoupling of the IGM from dark matter. Copyright © 2011 Li-Zhi Fang and Weishan Zhu.