The shape-alignment relation in A cold dark matter cosmic structures

Abstract

In this paper, we study the supercluster-cluster morphological properties using one of the largest (2 × 5123) smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH)+N-body simulations of largescale structure formation in a A cold dark matter (ACDM) model, based on the publicly available code GADGET. We find that filamentary (prolate-like) shapes are the dominant supercluster and cluster dark matter halo morphological feature, in agreement with previous studies. However, the baryonic gas component of the clusters is predominantly spherical. We investigate the alignment between cluster haloes (using either their dark matter or their baryonic components) and their parent supercluster major-axis orientation, finding that clusters show such a preferential alignment. Combining the shape and the alignment statistics, we also find that the amplitude of supercluster-cluster alignment increases, although weakly, with supercluster filamentariness. © 2005 RAS.