Related papers: A thermally stable heating mechanism for the intra…
In weakly-collisional plasmas such as the intracluster medium (ICM), heat and momentum transport become anisotropic with respect to the local magnetic field direction. Anisotropic heat conduction causes the slow magnetosonic wave to become…
The discrepancy between expected and observed cooling rates of X-ray emitting gas has led to the {\it cooling flow problem} at the cores of clusters of galaxies. A variety of models have been proposed to model the observed X-ray spectra and…
In clusters of galaxies, the specific entropy of intracluster plasma increases outwards. Nevertheless, a number of recent studies have shown that the intracluster medium is subject to buoyancy instabilities due to the effects of cosmic rays…
The MHD equations, as a collisional fluid model that remains in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), have long been used to describe turbulence in myriad space and astrophysical plasmas. Yet, the vast majority of these plasmas, from the…
The relationship between a decaying strong turbulence and kinetic instabilities in a slowly expanding plasma is investigated using two-dimensional (2-D) hybrid expanding box simulations. We impose an initial ambient magnetic field…
Observations of the cores of nearby galaxy clusters show H$\alpha$ and molecular emission line filaments. We argue that these are the result of {\em local} thermal instability in a {\em globally} stable galaxy cluster core. We present…
Major mergers are considered to be a significant source of turbulence in clusters. We performed a numerical simulation of a major merger event using nested-grid initial conditions, adaptive mesh refinement, radiative cooling of primordial…
Observational evidence in space and astrophysical plasmas with long collisional mean free path suggests that more massive charged particles may be preferentially heated. One possible mechanism for this is the turbulent cascade of energy…
We have shown that there exists low-frequency growing modes driven by a global temperature gradient in electron and ion plasmas, by linear perturbation analysis within the frame work of plasma Kinetic theory. The driving force of the…
Recent X-ray and optical observations of the Perseus cluster indicate that the viscous and conductive dissipation of sound waves is the mechanism responsible for heating the intracluster medium and thus balancing radiative cooling of…
In this paper we investigate how convective instabilities influence heat conduction in the intracluster medium (ICM) of cool-core galaxy clusters. The ICM is a high-beta, weakly collisional plasma in which the transport of momentum and heat…
We study the effects of anisotropic thermal conduction on low-collisionality, astrophysical plasmas using two and three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations. For weak magnetic fields, dilute plasmas are buoyantly unstable for either…
X-ray observations of hot gas in galaxy clusters often show steeper temperature gradients across cold fronts -- contact discontinuities, driven by the differential gas motions. These sharp (a few kpc wide) surface brightness/temperature…
The electron mean free path in the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters is much larger than the gyroradius; thus, heat is transported anisotropically along magnetic field lines. We show that the intracluster medium is unstable to…
We conduct two kinds of homogeneous isotropic turbulence simulations relevant for the intracluster medium (ICM): (i) pure turbulence runs without radiative cooling; (ii) turbulent heating$+$radiative cooling runs with global thermal…
Massive galaxy clusters are filled with a hot, turbulent and magnetized intra-cluster medium. Still forming under the action of gravitational instability, they grow in mass by accretion of supersonic flows. These flows partially dissipate…
In the outskirts of the intracluster medium (ICM) in galaxy clusters, the temperature decreases with radius. Due to the weakly collisional nature of the plasma, these regions are susceptible to the magneto-thermal instability (MTI), which…
The role played by magnetic fields in the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters is complex. The weakly collisional nature of the ICM leads to thermal conduction that is channelled along field lines. This anisotropic heat conduction…
We examine the long-standing cooling flow problem in galaxy clusters with 3D MHD simulations of isolated clusters including radiative cooling and anisotropic thermal conduction along magnetic field lines. The central regions of the…
Transport properties, such as viscosity and thermal conduction, of the hot intergalactic plasma in clusters of galaxies, are largely unknown. While for laboratory plasmas these characteristics are derived from the gas density and…