Evolution of dark-matter halos in numerical models

The properties of gravitationally bound clouds (halos) of dark matter derived via numerical simulations of the distribution of dark matter in the Universe are investigated. The analysis makes use of a catalog of halos obtained in the European “MareNostrum Universe” project, which has achieved a better balance between resolution and representativeness than catalogs used earlier for similar studies. This has made it possible to refine the main tendencies displayed by the evolution of the halo masses and the angular velocities and density profiles of the halos. The results are compared with the newest available observational data and with known results obtained earlier in numerical simulations with lower resolution and using smaller samples of halos, making it possible to trace the influence of these factors on the results obtained. Disagreements between observations and numerical models obtained in earlier studies are confirmed, and possible ways to explain them discussed.