Related papers: Electron-Ion Equilibration in the Merging Galaxy C…
X-Ray observations of groups and clusters of galaxies show that the Intra-Cluster Medium (ICM) in their cores is hotter than expected from cosmological numerical simulations of cluster formation which include star formation, radiative…
We study the temperature structure of the intergalactic medium (IGM) using a large cosmological N-body/SPH simulation. We employ a two-temperature model for the thermal evolution of the ionized gas, in which the relaxation process between…
X-ray imaging observatories have revealed hydrodynamic structures with linear scales ~ 10 kpc in clusters of galaxies, such as shock waves in the 1E0657-56 and A520 galaxy clusters and the hot plasma bubble in the MKW 3s cluster. The future…
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…
We study the interplay between turbulent heating, mixing, and radiative cooling in an idealized model of cool cluster cores. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets are expected to drive turbulence and heat cluster cores. Cooling of the…
By simulating jet-inflated bubbles in cooling flows with the PLUTO hydrodynamic code we show that mixing of high entropy shocked jet's material with the intra-cluster medium (ICM) is the major heating process perpendicular to the jets'…
Though feedback from central active galactic nuclei provides an attractive solution to the problem of overcooling in galaxy cluster cores, another possible source of heating may come from ``sloshing'' of the cluster core gas initiated by…
We investigate the impact of galaxy mergers on the circumgalactic medium (CGM) using the FIREbox cosmological hydrodynamic simulation. By comparing matched samples of merging and isolated galaxies with stellar masses $M_\star \sim…
Chandra has recently observed 1E0657-56, a hot merging system at z=0.3 (the ``bullet'' cluster), for 500 ks. I present some of the findings from this dataset. The cluster exhibits a prominent bow shock with M=3.0+-0.4 (one of only two known…
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…
We present Chandra gas temperature maps for two hot, intermediate-redshift clusters A665 and A2163. Both show strong temperature variations in their central r=1 Mpc regions, naturally interpreted as product of the subcluster mergers. The…
We have developed a numerical model for the temporal evolution of particle and photon spectra resulting from nonthermal processes at the shock fronts formed in merging clusters of galaxies. Fermi acceleration is approximated by injecting…
We examine whether nonthermal protons energized during a cluster merger are simultaneously responsible for the Coma cluster's diffuse radio flux (via secondary decay) and the departure of its intra-cluster medium (ICM) from a thermal…
We present detailed comparisons of the intracluster medium (ICM) in cosmological Eulerian cluster simulations with deep Chandra observations of nearby relaxed clusters. To assess the impact of galaxy formation, we compare two sets of…
Deep (103 ks) \chandra\ observations of Abell 665 have revealed rich structures in this merging galaxy cluster, including a strong shock and two cold fronts. The newly discovered shock has a Mach number of $M$ = 3.0 $\pm$ 0.6, propagating…
The merging galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, known as the "bullet cluster," is one of the hottest clusters known. The X-ray emitting plasma exhibits bow-shock-like temperature and density jumps. The segregation of this plasma from the peaks of…
Nonthermal emission observed in galaxy clusters provides a direct probe into the plasma physics of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) under extreme conditions. We report the first detailed analysis of the giant radio halo in the merging galaxy…
The hot gas permeating galaxy clusters-the intracluster medium (ICM)-is a key tracer of their assembly history and internal dynamics. Understanding the motion of this gas provides critical insight into processes such as mergers, turbulence,…
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…
Galaxy clusters host a large reservoir of diffuse plasma with radially-varying temperature profiles. The efficiency of thermal conduction in the intracluster medium (ICM) is complicated by the existence of turbulence and magnetic fields,…