Related papers: Thermal conduction and reduced cooling flows in ga…
On the basis of the universal gas fraction in clusters of galaxies, we estimate that the effective thermal conductivity required to balance radiative cooling in the cores, where the gas temperature is 3-10keV, is about one tenth of the…
Cluster cooling flow models that include both thermal conduction and AGN heating have lower overall mass cooling rates and simultaneously sustain density and temperature profiles similar to those observed with no ad hoc mass dropout. To…
Chandra and XMM-Newton observations have confirmed the presence of large temperature gradients within the cores of many relaxed clusters of galaxies. Here we investigate whether thermal conduction operating over those gradients can supply…
We estimate the thermal conductivity of a weakly collisional magnetized plasma with chaotic magnetic field fluctuations. When the fluctuation spectrum extends over two or more decades in wave-vector, we find that thermal conduction is very…
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,…
Galaxy clusters are filled with hot, diffuse X-ray emitting plasma, with a stochastically tangled magnetic field whose energy is close to equipartition with the energy of the turbulent motions \cite{zweibel1997, Vacca}. In the cluster…
We present a simple model of hot gas in galaxy clusters, assuming hydrostatic equilibrium and energy balance between radiative cooling and thermal conduction. For five clusters, A1795, A1835, A2199, A2390 and RXJ1347.5-1145, the model gives…
We have calculated lower limits for the global effective thermal conductivity in a sample of 165 Abell clusters. We assumed that cluster X-ray luminosity is compensated by a conductive heat flux which we then compare with an upper limit to…
There is mounting observational evidence from Chandra for strong interaction between keV gas and AGN in cooling flows. It is now widely accepted that the temperatures of cluster cores are maintained at a level of 1 keV and that the mass…
I study non-radiative cooling of X-ray emitting gas via heat conduction along magnetic field lines inside magnetic flux loops in cooling flow clusters of galaxies. I find that such heat conduction can reduce the fraction of energy radiated…
We study the possibility that a large fraction of the gas at temperatures of \~10^7 K in cooling flow clusters cools by heat conduction to lower temperatures, rather than by radiative cooling. We argue that this process, when incorporated…
We study the formation of clusters of galaxies using high-resolution hydrodynamic cosmological simulations that include the effect of thermal conduction with an effective isotropic conductivity of 1/3 the classical Spitzer value. We find…
Simulations of galaxy clusters have a difficult time reproducing the radial gas-property gradients and red central galaxies observed to exist in the cores of galaxy clusters. Thermal conduction has been suggested as a mechanism that can…
It is generally argued that most clusters of galaxies host cooling flows in which radiative cooling in the centre causes a slow inflow. However, recent observations by Chandra and XMM conflict with the predicted cooling flow rates. Amongst…
We investigate field-line separation in strong MHD turbulence analytically and with direct numerical simulations. We find that in the static-magnetic-field approximation the thermal conductivity in galaxy clusters is reduced by a factor of…
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…
Chandra images of galaxy clusters have revealed a wealth of structure unseen by previous generations of low resolution X-ray observatories. In the cores of clusters, bright, irregular X-ray emission is now routinely seen within central…
Thermal conduction has been suggested as a possible mechanism by which sufficient energy is supplied to the central regions of galaxy clusters to balance the effect of radiative cooling. Here we present the results of a simulated,…
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…
We discuss hydrostatic models of galaxy clusters in which heat diffusion balances radiative cooling. We consider two different sources of diffusion, thermal conduction and turbulent mixing, parameterized by dimensionless coefficients, f and…