Related papers: Cooling and Clusters: When Is Heating Needed?
The X-ray emission by hot gas at the centers of clusters of galaxies is commonly modeled assuming the existence of steady-state, inhomogeneous cooling flows. We derive the metallicity profiles of the intracluster medium expected from such…
(Abridged) Existing models invoking AGN activty to resolve the cooling flow conundrum in galaxy clusters focus exclusively on the role of the central galaxy. Such models require fine-tuning of highly uncertain microscopic transport…
The existence of cooling flows in the center of galaxy clusters has always been a puzzle, and in particular the fate of the cooling gas, since the presence of cold gas has never been proven directly. X-ray data from the satellites Chandra…
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…
The radial distributions of temperature, density, and gas entropy among cool-core clusters tend to be quite similar, suggesting that they have entered a quasi-steady state. If that state is regulated by a combination of thermal conduction…
We investigate a series of steady-state models of galaxy clusters, in which the hot intracluster gas is efficiently heated by active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback and thermal conduction, and in which the mass accretion rates are highly…
Studies of the X-ray surface brightness profiles of clusters, coupled with theoretical considerations, suggest that the breaking of self-similarity in the hot gas results from an `entropy floor', established by some heating process, which…
We use high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the density profile of hot gas in clusters of galaxies, adopting a variant of cold dark matter cosmologies and employing a cosmological N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics…
Recent data have radically altered the X-ray perspective on cooling flow clusters. X-ray spectra show that very little of the hot intracluster medium is cooler than about 1 keV, despite having short cooling times. In an increasing number of…
It is now widely accepted that heating processes play a fundamental role in galaxy clusters, struggling in an intricate but fascinating `dance' with its antagonist, radiative cooling. Last generation observations, especially X-ray, are…
Recent X-ray observations reveal growing evidence for heating by active galactic nuclei (AGN) in clusters and groups of galaxies. AGN outflows play a crucial role in explaining the riddle of cooling flows and the entropy problem in…
Many galaxy clusters pose a "cooling-flow problem", where the observed X-ray emission from their cores is not accompanied by enough cold gas or star formation. A continuous energy source is required to balance the cooling rate over the…
Clusters of galaxies generally form by the gravitational merger of smaller clusters and groups. Mergers drive shocks in the intracluster gas which heat the intracluster gas. Mergers disrupt cluster cooling cores. Mergers produce large,…
For two decades the steady-state cooling-flow model has dominated the literature of cluster and elliptical-galaxy X-ray sources. For ten years this model has been in severe difficulty from a theoretical point of view, and it is now coming…
Observations made during the last ten years with the Chandra X-ray Observatory have shed much light on the cooling gas in the centers of clusters of galaxies and the role of active galactic nucleus (AGN) heating. Cooling of the hot…
We put forward an alternative view to the Bondi-driven feedback between heating and cooling of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) in cooling flow galaxies and clusters. We adopt the popular view that the heating is due to an active galactic…
We present a simple analytical model and the results of numerical simulations supporting the idea of periodical heating of cluster gas by AGN outflows. We show why, under this assumption, we are extremely unlikely to observe clusters…
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…
In McCarthy et al. (2007, astro-ph/0701335) we present an analysis of entropy generation during cluster mergers, using SPH simulations. This conference proceeding contribution summarizes some of the most important findings of that paper,…
Observations of gravitational lensing indicate that the mass distribution in clusters of galaxies (where most of the mass is dark matter) is highly peaked towards the center, while X-ray observations imply that the gas is more extended. The…