Related papers: Structure Shocks as a Source of Cosmic Rays in Clu…
We calculate the distribution of electrons in clusters of galaxies, resulting from thermalization processes in the presence of stochastic acceleration due to plasma waves. We show that the electron distribution can deviate from a…
Observations of giant radio halos provide unambiguous evidence for the existence of cosmic ray (CR) electrons and magnetic fields in galaxy clusters. The physical mechanism generating radio halos is still heavily debated. We critically…
Galaxy clusters are known to be reservoirs of Cosmic Rays (CRs), as inferred from theoretical calculations or detection of CR-derived observables. CR acceleration in clusters is mostly attributed to the dynamical activity that produces…
Observations with the RXTE and SAX satellites have recently led to the measurement of a second component in the spectra of several clusters of galaxies which are known to have regions of extended radio emission. This new component is quite…
Galaxy cluster merger shocks are the main agent for the thermalization of the intracluster medium and the energization of cosmic ray particles in it. Shock propagation changes the state of the tenuous intracluster plasma, and the…
Cosmological simulations of structure formation predict that galaxies are dramatically modified by galaxy harassment during the assembly of galaxy clusters, losing a substantial fraction of their stellar mass which today must be in the form…
Shock fronts driven by active galactic nuclei in galaxy cluster cores represent a promising mechanism to heat the intracluster gas by converting kinetic energy into thermal energy through gas compression, thereby offsetting radiative…
Galactic cosmic rays (CR) are particles presumably accelerated in supernova remnant shocks that propagate in the interstellar medium up to the densest parts of molecular clouds, losing energy and their ionisation efficiency because of the…
We develop a formalism for the identification and accurate estimation of the strength of structure formation shocks during cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. Shocks not only play a decisive role for the thermalization…
The properties of cosmic shock waves are studied through numerical simulations in two cosmological scenarios (SCDM and LCDM). The scaling relations for the average radius and velocity associated with the accretion shocks are somewhat…
Non-thermal radio emission from cosmic ray electrons in the vicinity of merging galaxy clusters is an important tracer of cluster merger activity, and is the result of complex physical processes that involve magnetic fields, particle…
Clusters of galaxies, as the largest virialized systems in the Universe, are ideal laboratories to study the formation and evolution of cosmic structures...(abridged)... Most of the detailed knowledge of galaxy clusters has been obtained in…
Several phenomena in high energy astrophysics have been recently related to clusters of galaxies and to cosmic ray interactions occurring inside these structures. In many of these phenomena the observable effects depend on the energy…
Weak shocks in the intracluster medium may accelerate cosmic-ray protons and cosmic-ray electrons differently depending on the angle between the upstream magnetic field and the shock normal. In this work, we investigate how shock obliquity…
Cluster of galaxies are the largest concentrations of visible mass in the Universe and therefore a fundamental topic of cosmology and astrophysics. Recent radio, EUV, and X-ray observations suggest that clusters contain large populations of…
Non-thermal emission from relativistic electrons gives insight into the strength and morphology of intra-cluster magnetic fields, as well as providing powerful tracers of structure formation shocks. Emission caused by Cosmic Ray (CR)…
Groups and clusters contain a large fraction of hot gas which emits X-ray radiation. This gas yields information on the dynamical state and on the total mass of these systems. X-ray spectra show that heavy elements are present in the gas.…
Clusters of galaxies are believed to be capable to accelerate protons at accretion shocks to energies exceeding 10^18 eV. At these energies, the losses caused by interactions of cosmic rays with photons of the Cosmic Microwave Background…
The process of diffusive acceleration of charged particles in shocked plasmas is widely invoked in astrophysics to account for the ubiquitous presence of signatures of non-thermal relativistic electrons and ions in the universe. A key…
We calculate the flux of radio, hard X-ray and UV radiation from clusters of galaxies as produced by synchrotron emission and Inverse Compton Scattering of electrons generated as secondaries in cosmic ray interactions in the intracluster…