Related papers: Mergers and Non-Thermal Processes in Clusters
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,…
The thermodynamics of the diffuse, X-ray emitting gas in clusters of galaxies is determined by gravitational processes associated with shock heating, adiabatic compression, and non-gravitational processes such as heating by SNe, stellar…
Turbulence, self-gravity, and cooling convert most of the interstellar medium into cloudy structures that form stars. Turbulence compresses the gas into clouds directly and it moves pre-existing clouds around passively when there are…
Particle acceleration is expected to take place at shocks that form during the process of large scale structure formation. Electrons accelerated at such shocks can upscatter a small fraction of the photons in the cosmic microwave background…
We numerically investigate dynamical and chemical properties of star clusters (open and globular clusters, and ``super star clusters'', SSC) formed in interacting/merging galaxies. The investigation is two-fold: (1) large-scale…
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…
We investigate binary mergers of galaxy clusters, the formation of shocks, and the resulting radio relics using three-dimensional simulations. The initial setup consists of two idealized spherical subclusters with a mass ratio below three,…
The massive galaxies in the young universe, ten billion years ago, formed stars at surprising intensities. Although this is commonly attributed to violent mergers, the properties of many of these galaxies are incompatible with such events,…
Formation of dark matter halos is sensitive to the expansion rate of the Universe and to the growth of structures under gravitational collapse. Virialization of halos heats the gaseous intra-cluster medium to high temperatures, leading to…
A Monte Carlo simulation of mergers in clusters of galaxies is carried out. An ``explosive'' character of the merging process (an analog of phase transition), suggested earlier by Cavaliere et al. (1991), Kontorovich et al. (1992), is…
Clusters of galaxies can be used for very different kinds of cosmological tests. I review a few of the methods: determination of cluster masses and dark matter content, metal enrichment and its connection to the origin of the intra-cluster…
It is demonstrated that clusters of galaxies are able to keep cosmic rays for a time exceeding the age of the Universe. This phenomenon reveals itself by the production of the diffuse flux of high energy gamma and neutrino radiation due to…
Various cosmological applications of galaxy clusters are presented. Clusters are used to determine the baryon fraction, dark matter distribution and the matter density of the universe. They also contain a wealth of information about…
Massive stars blow powerful winds and eventually explode as supernovae. By doing so, they inject energy and momentum in the circumstellar medium, which is pushed away from the star and piles up to form a dense and expanding shell of gas.…
Star clusters stand at the intersection of much of modern astrophysics: the interstellar medium, gravitational dynamics, stellar evolution, and cosmology. Here we review observations and theoretical models for the formation, evolution, and…
Galaxy mergers trigger both star formation and accretion onto the central supermassive black hole. As a result of subsequent energetic feedback processes, it has long been proposed that star formation may be promptly extinguished in galaxy…
We report on the merger-induced generation of a shock-heated gas wind and formation of a remnant gas halo in simulations of colliding disk galaxies. The simulations use cosmologically motivated initial conditions and include the effects of…
Clusters of galaxies and the large scale filaments that connect neighboring clusters are expected to be sites of acceleration of charged particles and sources of non-thermal radiation from radio frequencies to gamma rays. Gamma rays are…
Recent observations of high energy (> 20 keV) X-ray emission in a few clusters extend and broaden our knowledge of physical phenomena in the intracluster space. This emission is likely to be nonthermal, probably resulting from Compton…
The gas temperature in the cores of many clusters of galaxies drops inward by about a factor of three or more within the central 100 kpc radius. The radiative cooling time drops over the same region from 5 or more Gyr down to below a few…