Description
Large-scale structures in the form of galaxy groups and clusters are highly useful cosmological probes, their scaling relations offer a unique way to probe $\Lambda$CDM and assess the evolution of dark matter halos. Deviations from the monolithic collapse scenario (due to both gravitational and astrophysical processes) result in a scatter in the halo property-halo mass scaling relations. Striving to understand how feedback and mergers imprint signals in such relations is therefore important to detangle these phenomena from the spherical collapse framework. In this study we make use of the FLAMINGO simulation suite to study group and cluster objects up to z~1.5, attempting to understand how feedback and mergers affect the effectiveness of observational probes of dynamical state. We find feedback is able to dilute the correlations between dynamical state probes and thermodynamic properties of cluster gas, this remains true at higher redshift where mergers are more prevalent. We further assess the robustness of these observational probes by understanding whether they can isolate the most disturbed and relaxed clusters in fixed mass-bins. Through our work we find higher redshift systems, likely to have undergone recent major feedback episodes, present gas profiles associated with relaxed objects, but are still categorized as disturbed by our probes. We overall find feedback introduces a more complex relation in the gas component of clusters, acting as a separate mechanism to mergers and affecting characteristic dynamical features in the intra-cluster medium.
