Related papers: Intracluster Medium reheating by relativistic jets
The gas in galaxy clusters is heated by shock compression through accretion (outer shocks) and mergers (inner shocks). These processes additionally produce turbulence. To analyse the relation between the thermal and turbulent energies of…
The nuclei of most normal galaxies contain supermassive black holes, which can accrete gas through a disk and become active. These Active Galactic Nuclei, AGN, can form jets which are observed on scales from AU to Mpc and from meter…
As powerful gamma-ray engines, blazars -- relativistic plasma jets launched toward Earth from active galactic nuclei -- are manifestly high-energy particle accelerators. Yet, exactly how these jets accelerate particles as well as what they…
Relativistic magnetized jets from active galaxies are among the most powerful cosmic accelerators, but their particle acceleration mechanisms remain a mystery. We present a new acceleration mechanism associated with the development of the…
Galaxies are part of a vast cosmic ecosystem, embedded in an extensive gaseous reservoir that regulates their growth by providing the necessary fuel for star formation while preserving a fossil record of past interactions, outflows, and…
We consider a simple gravitational-heating mechanism for the long-term quenching of cooling flows and star formation in massive dark-matter haloes hosting ellipticals and clusters. The virial shock heating in haloes >10^12 Mo triggers…
Current research indicates that the radiation of the first stars alone would not have been suficient to ionize the intergalactic medium on long distances because of the high columnar density of the clouds in which they formed. It becomes…
Radio galaxies play an important role in the seeding of cosmic rays and magnetic fields in galaxy clusters. Here, we simulate the evolution of relativistic electrons injected into the intracluster medium by radio galaxies. Using passive…
It is widely believed that structure in the Universe evolves hierarchically, as primordial density fluctuations, amplified by gravity, collapse and merge to form progressively larger systems. The structure and evolution of X-ray clusters,…
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…
Highly relativistic jets are a key element of current gamma-ray burst models, where the jet kinetic energy is converted to radiation energy at optically thin shocks. High-energy neutrinos are also expected, from interactions of protons…
To investigate the formation mechanism of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei and micro-quasars, we have developed a new general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic code in Kerr geometry. Here we report on the first numerical…
Motivated by hydrodynamic simulations, we discuss the X-ray appearance of radio galaxies embedded in the intracluster medium (ICM) of a galaxy cluster. We distinguish three regimes. In the early life of a powerful source, the entire radio…
The origin of jets emitted from black holes is not well understood, however there are two possible energy sources, the accretion disk or the rotating black hole. Magnetohydrodynamic simulations show a well-defined jet that extracts energy…
The nonthermal radiation observed from a handfull of clusters of Galaxies is the proof that particle acceleration occurs in the intracluster medium. It is often believed that shock surfaces associated with either mergers of clusters of…
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…
The structure of a relativistically hot, strongly magnetized jet is investigated at large distances from the source. Asymptotic equations are derived describing collimation and acceleration of the externally confined jet. Conditions are…
Cluster mergers drive shocks into the intracluster medium which heat and compress the thermal gas. X-ray observations of shocks can be used to determine the geometry and kinematics of the merger. Merger shocks should also accelerate…
We present a new, approximate method for modelling the acceleration and collimation of relativistic jets in the presence of gravity. This method is self-similar throughout the computational domain where gravitational effects are negligible…
One of the key physical processes that helps prevent strong cooling flows in galaxy clusters is the continued energy input from the central active galactic nucleus (AGN) of the cluster. However, it remains unclear how this energy is…