A roadmap to next-generation baryonic feedback models in cosmological simulations

Recent observational evidence suggests that baryonic feedback, how energy from active galactic nuclei (AGN) and supernovae redistributes gas within and beyond halos, may be more extreme than commonly assumed in current cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. Whether such extreme feedback is physically plausible, which astrophysical mechanisms could drive feedback on these scales, and how simulation models must be updated to capture these processes remain open questions. In this talk, I will outline a path forward that combines new, publicly available multi-wavelength survey data with next-generation hydrodynamical simulations to transform our understanding of baryonic feedback. I will first present a roadmap for comparing simulations to kinetic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (kSZ) measurements, showing that most state-of-the-art simulations under-predict gas ejection from haloes, underscoring the need for stronger or qualitatively different feedback models. I will then introduce a new suite of hydrodynamical simulations exploring AGN feedback, providing insight into the mechanisms required to reconcile recent observational evidence of large-scale gas redistribution, whilst maintaining consistency with key galaxy, group and cluster properties.