Long Term Evolution of Magnetized Bubbles in Galaxy Clusters
Abstract
We have performed nonlinear ideal magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the long term evolution of a magnetized low-density "bubble" plasma formed by a radio galaxy in a stratified cluster medium. It is found that about 3.5% of the initial magnetic energy remains in the bubble after years, and the initial magnetic bubble expansion is adiabatic. The bubble can survive for at least years due to the stabilizing effect of the bubble magnetic field on Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Holmholtz instabilities, possibly accounting for "ghost cavities" as observed in Perseus-A\@. A filament structure spanning about 500 kpc is formed along the path of bubble motion. The mean value of the magnetic field inside this structure is G at years. Finally, the initial bubble momentum and rotation have limited influence on the long term evolution of the bubble.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0806.3717,
title = {Long Term Evolution of Magnetized Bubbles in Galaxy Clusters},
author = {Wei Liu and Hui Li and Shengtai Li and Scott C. Hsu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.3717},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
11 pages, 5 figures, accepted by ApJL. Minor changes according to the referee's report