Validate and calibrate the cold-phase evaporation scheme

Establish the robustness of the cold-phase evaporation scheme across the full statistical sample of Dianoga galaxy clusters through thorough validation and systematic calibration against the reference AGN feedback model and relevant observational properties.

Background

The M4–M6 feedback variants allow AGN energy to evaporate the cold phase of star-forming multiphase gas particles. In the limited test cases presented, this treatment improves the agreement of brightest-cluster-galaxy masses, stellar mass fractions, and entropy profiles with observations.

The authors explicitly characterize the implementation as experimental because it has not undergone the extensive testing and systematic calibration applied to the reference model, and because its performance across the full Dianoga cluster sample is not yet established.

References

As a final note, although the M4–M6 models, which include the evaporation of the cold phase of multi-phase gas particles, are shown above to bring BCG stellar masses, stellar mass fractions and entropy profiles into closer agreement with observations, we regard this implementation as still experimental at this stage. The evaporation scheme introduced here has not yet undergone the same extensive testing and systematic calibration applied to the reference AGN feedback model, and its robustness across the full statistical sample of Dianoga clusters remains to be established. We defer a more thorough validation and calibration of the cold-phase evaporation scheme to future work.

— Dianoga simulations of galaxy clusters and groups: Properties of the baryonic components  (2608.17570 - Borgani et al., 18 Aug 2026) in Appendix, Section “Entropy profiles”