Related papers: Cluster Core Heating from Merging Subclusters
X-ray observations of clusters of galaxies reveal the presence of edges in surface brightness and temperature, known as "cold fronts". In relaxed clusters with cool cores, these commonly observed edges have been interpreted as evidence for…
(Abridged) The thermal history of the intracluster medium (ICM) is complex. Heat input from cluster mergers, AGN, and galaxy winds offsets and may even halt the cooling of the ICM. Consequently, the processes that set the properties of the…
We present the results of high-resolution AP3M+SPH simulations of merging clusters of galaxies. We find that the compression and shocking of the core gas during a merger can lead to large increases in bolometric X-ray luminosities and…
The "sloshing" of the cold gas in the cores of relaxed clusters of galaxies is a widespread phenomenon, evidenced by the presence of spiral-shaped "cold fronts" in X-ray observations of these systems. In simulations, these flows of cold gas…
X-ray observations of many clusters of galaxies reveal the presence of edges in surface brightness and temperature, known as "cold fronts". In relaxed clusters with cool cores, these edges have been interpreted as evidence for the…
Chandra X-ray observations revealed the presence of cold fronts (sharp contact discontinuities between gas regions with different temperatures and densities) in the centers of many, if not most, relaxed clusters with cool cores. We use…
Recent XRISM observations suggest that gas mixing induced by sloshing contributes to core heating. We systematically investigate the suppression of cooling flows in galaxy cluster cool cores through three-dimensional hydrodynamic…
We present a systematic study of gas density perturbations in cool cores of high-mass galaxy clusters. We select 12 relaxed clusters from the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) sample and analyze their cool core…
We use morphological measurements and the scatter of clusters about observed and simulated scaling relations to examine the impact of merging and core-related phenomena on the structure of galaxy clusters. All relations constructed from…
Clusters of galaxies generally form by the gravitational merger of smaller clusters and groups. Mergers drive shocks in the intracluster gas which heat the intracluster gas. Mergers disrupt cluster cooling cores. Mergers produce large,…
The overcooling of cool core clusters is a persistent puzzle in the astrophysics of galaxy clusters. We propose that it may naturally be resolved via interactions between the baryons of the intracluster medium (ICM) and its dark matter…
The hot, X-ray-emitting intracluster medium (ICM) is the dominant baryonic constituent of clusters of galaxies. In the cores of many clusters, radiative energy losses from the ICM occur on timescales significantly shorter than the age of…
The gas in the cores of many clusters and groups of galaxies has a short radiative cooling time. Energy from the central black hole is observed to flow into this gas by means of jets, bubbles and sound waves. Cooling is thus offset by…
We report the results of recent numerical simulations of the head-on merger of a cooling flow cluster with an infalling subcluster of galaxies. These simulations examined the effects of different types of cluster mergers (with 16:1 and 4:1…
(Abridged) The thermal state of the intracluster medium results from a competition between gas cooling and heating. The heating comes from two distinct sources: gravitational heating from the collapse of the dark matter halo and thermal…
We study the effects of radiative cooling, star formation and stellar feedback on the properties and evolution of galaxy clusters using high-resolution Adaptive Mesh Refinement N-body+gasdynamics simulations of clusters forming in the LCDM…
It is now generally agreed that some process prevents the diffuse gas in galaxy clusters from cooling significantly, although there is less agreement about the nature of this process. I suggest that cluster gas may be heated by a natural…
Two lines of evidence indicate that active galaxies, principally radio galaxies, have heated the diffuse hot gas in clusters. The first is the general need for additional heating to explain the steepness of the X-ray luminosity--temperature…
We investigate heating of the cool core of a galaxy cluster through the dissipation of sound waves excited by the activities of the central active galactic nucleus (AGN). Using a weak shock theory, we show that this heating mechanism alone…
The physics of the intracluster medium, in particular the values for the thermal conductivity and the viscosity are largely unknown and subject to an ongoing debate. Here, we study the effect of viscosity on the thermal state of the…