Related papers: Heating and Cooling in Clusters and Groups
It is well known that the radiative cooling time of the hot X-ray emitting gas in the cores of most clusters of galaxies is less than 10^10 yr. In many clusters the gas temperature also drops towards the centre. If we draw a causal…
The gas temperature in the cores of many clusters of galaxies drops inward by about a factor of three or more within the central 100 kpc radius. The radiative cooling time drops over the same region from 5 or more Gyr down to below a few…
The gas temperature in the cores of many clusters of galaxies drops inward by about a factor of three or more within the central 100kpc radius. The radiative cooling time drops over the same region from 5 or more Gyr down to about 10^8 yr.…
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…
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…
We review the X-ray spectra of the cores of clusters of galaxies. Recent high resolution X-ray spectroscopic observations have demonstrated a severe deficit of emission at the lowest X-ray temperatures as compared to that expected from…
Early X-ray observations suggested that the intracluster medium cools and condenses at the centers of clusters, leading to a cooling flow of plasma in the cluster core. The increased incidence of emission-line nebulosity, excess blue light,…
Observations of gravitational lensing indicate that the mass distribution in clusters of galaxies (where most of the mass is dark matter) is highly peaked towards the center, while X-ray observations imply that the gas is more extended. The…
Analyses of Chandra's first images of cooling flow clusters find smaller cooling rates than previously thought. Cooling may be occurring preferentially near regions of star formation in central cluster galaxies, where the local cooling and…
We propose a scenario in which a large fraction, or even most, of the gas cooling to low temperatures of T<10^4 K in cooling flow clusters, directly gains energy from the central black hole. Most of the cool gas is accelerated to…
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…
Clusters of galaxies are thought to contain about ten times as much dark matter as baryonic matter. The dark component therefore dominates the gravitational potential of the cluster, and the baryons confined by this potential radiate X-rays…
Expanding X-ray cavities observed in hot gas atmospheres of many galaxy groups and clusters generate shock waves and turbulence that are primary heating mechanisms required to avoid uninhibited radiatively cooling flows which are not…
Recent data have radically altered the X-ray perspective on cooling flow clusters. X-ray spectra show that very little of the hot intracluster medium is cooler than about 1 keV, despite having short cooling times. In an increasing number of…
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…
Recent observations by Chandra and XMM-Newton demonstrate that the central gas in "cooling flow" galaxy clusters has a mass cooling rate that decreases rapidly with decreasing temperature. This contrasts the predictions of a steady state…
The radiative cooling time of the hot gas at the centres of cool cores in clusters of galaxies drops down to 10 million years and below. The observed mass cooling rate of such gas is very low, suggesting that AGN feedback is very tightly…
We investigate heating of the cool core of a galaxy cluster through the dissipation of sound waves and weak shocks excited by the activities of the central active galactic nucleus (AGN). Using a weak shock theory, we show that this heating…
Recent observations of the interactions between radio sources and the X-ray-emitting gas in cooling flows in the cores of clusters of galaxies are reviewed. The radio sources inflate bubbles in the X-ray gas, which then rise buoyantly…
The X-ray emission in many clusters of galaxies shows a central peak in surface brightness coincident with a drop in temperature. These characterize a cooling flow. There is often a radio source also at the centre of such regions. Data from…