Cosmological simulations of clusters of galaxies: status, problems, challenges Andrey Kravtsov, Associate Professor, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, The University of Chicago

I will describe high-resolution self-consistent cosmological simulations of clusters forming in the concordance Cold Dark Matter model with vacuum energy. The resolution of the simulations is sufficiently high to resolve formation and evolution of cluster galaxies and their impact on cluster gas. We use these simulations to study the effects of galaxy formation on the global properties of clusters, such as the shape of cluster dark matter halo and its density profile, the baryon fractions, gas density and temperature profiles. I will present comparisons of simulations results with the recent X-ray Chandra, Sunyaev-Zeldovich, and optical observations of clusters with highlights of both successes and problems of the models. I will show that despite complexities of their formation and uncertainties in their modeling, clusters of galaxies both in observations and numerical simulations are remarkably regular and consistent outside of their core region (~5% of the virial radius), which holds great promise for their use as cosmological probes.