2010ApJ...725..598F

We estimate the expected distribution of displacements between the dark matter (DM) and gas cores in simulated clusters. We use the MareNostrum Universe, one of the largest non-radiative, SPH ΛCDM cosmological simulations. We find that projected two-dimensional (2D) displacements between DM and gas, equal or larger than the observed in the Bullet Cluster, are expected in 1%-2% of the clusters with masses larger than 10¹⁴ h^–1 M_☉. The 2D displacement distribution is roughly the same between redshifts 0 < z < 0.5 when multiplied by a factor of (1 + z)^–1/2. We conclude that the separations between DM and gas as observed in the Bullet Cluster can easily be found in a ΛCDM universe. Furthermore, we find that the displacement distribution is not very sensitive to the normalization of the power spectrum. Upcoming surveys could extend the measurements of these displacements between DM and gas into large samples of hundreds of clusters, providing a potential test for ΛCDM.