54 research outputs found
Kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect from galaxy cluster rotation
We show how the temperature and the polarisation of the cosmic microwave
background are affected by bulk rotation of clusters of galaxies owing to the
kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. The main effects of rotation are (i) a shift
of the position of the peak of the temperature fluctuation relative to the
center of the cluster by a few percent of the core radius and (ii) a tilt of
the direction of the plane of linear polarisation by several degrees.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted A&
RXTE Hard X-ray Observation of A754: Constraining the Hottest Temperature Component and the Intracluster Magnetic Field
Abell 754, a cluster undergoing merging, was observed in hard X-rays with the
Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in order to constrain its hottest
temperature component and search for evidence of nonthermal emission.
Simultaneous modeling of RXTE data and those taken with previous missions
yields an average intracluster temperature of keV in the 1-50 keV
energy band. A multi-temperature component model derived from numerical
simulations of the evolution of a cluster undergoing a merger produces similar
quality of fit, indicating that the emission measure from the very hot gas
component is sufficiently small that it renders the two models
indistinguishable. No significant nonthermal emission was detected. However,
our observations set an upper limit of
(90% confidence limit) to the nonthermal emission flux at 20 keV. Combining
this result with the radio synchrotron emission flux we find a lower limit of
0.2 G for the intracluster magnetic field. We discuss the implications of
our results for the theories of magnetic field amplifications in cluster
mergers.Comment: Accepted for Publication in the Astrophysical Journal, 22 pages, 5
figure
Evolution of shocks and turbulence in major cluster mergers
We performed a set of cosmological simulations of major mergers in galaxy
clusters to study the evolution of merger shocks and the subsequent injection
of turbulence in the post-shock region and in the intra-cluster medium (ICM).
The computations were done with the grid-based, adaptive mesh refinement hydro
code Enzo, using an especially designed refinement criteria for refining
turbulent flows in the vicinity of shocks. A substantial amount of turbulence
energy is injected in the ICM due to major merger. Our simulations show that
the shock launched after a major merger develops an ellipsoidal shape and gets
broken by the interaction with the filamentary cosmic web around the merging
cluster. The size of the post-shock region along the direction of shock
propagation is about 300 kpc h^-1, and the turbulent velocity dispersion in
this region is larger than 100 km s^-1. Scaling analysis of the turbulence
energy with the cluster mass within our cluster sample is consistent with
M^(5/3), i.e. the scaling law for the thermal energy in the self-similar
cluster model. This clearly indicates the close relation between virialization
and injection of turbulence in the cluster evolution. We found that the ratio
of the turbulent to total pressure in the cluster core within 2 Gyr after the
major merger is larger than 10%, and it takes about 4 Gyr to get relaxed, which
is substantially longer than typically assumed in the turbulent re-acceleration
models, invoked to explain the statistics of observed radio halos. Striking
similarities in the morphology and other physical parameters between our
simulations and the "symmetrical radio relics" found at the periphery of the
merging cluster A3376 are finally discussed. In particular, the interaction
between the merger shock and the filaments surrounding the cluster could
explain the presence of "notch-like" features at the edges of the double
relics.Comment: 16 pages, 19 figures, Published in Astrophysical Journal (online) and
printed version will be published on 1st January, 201
Induced star formation in interacting galaxies
Measurements of H alpha emission line fluxes and FIR fluxes in approx. 100 interacting spirals were used to investigate the effects of close tidal interactions on the disk and nuclear star formation rates in galaxies. Two samples of interacting spirals were studied, a complete sample of close pairs, and a set of strongly perturbed systems from the Arp atlas. Both the integrated H alpha luminosities and FIR luminosities are enhanced in the interacting galaxies, indicating that the encounters indeed trigger massive star formation in many cases. The response of individual galaxies is highly variable, however. A majority of the interacting spirals exhibit normal star formation rates, while a small fraction are undergoing bursts with luminosities which are rarely, if ever, observed in noninteracting systems. Virtually all of the latter are in the Arp sample, indicating that the Arp atlas is heavily biased to the most active star forming systems
MHD Simulations of AGN Jets in a Dynamic Galaxy Cluster Medium
We present a pair of 3-d magnetohydrodynamical simulations of intermittent
jets from a central active galactic nucleus (AGN) in a galaxy cluster extracted
from a high resolution cosmological simulation. The selected cluster was chosen
as an apparently relatively relaxed system, not having undergone a major merger
in almost 7 Gyr. Despite this characterization and history, the intra-cluster
medium (ICM) contains quite active "weather". We explore the effects of this
ICM weather on the morphological evolution of the AGN jets and lobes. The
orientation of the jets is different in the two simulations so that they probe
different aspects of the ICM structure and dynamics. We find that even for this
cluster that can be characterized as relaxed by an observational standard, the
large-scale, bulk ICM motions can significantly distort the jets and lobes.
Synthetic X-ray observations of the simulations show that the jets produce
complex cavity systems, while synthetic radio observations reveal bending of
the jets and lobes similar to wide-angle tail (WAT) radio sources. The jets are
cycled on and off with a 26 Myr period using a 50% duty cycle. This leads to
morphological features similar to those in "double-double" radio galaxies.
While the jet and ICM magnetic fields are generally too weak in the simulations
to play a major role in the dynamics, Maxwell stresses can still become locally
significant.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
New scaling relations in cluster radio halos and the re-acceleration model
In this paper we derive new expected scaling relations for clusters with
giant radio halos in the framework of the re-acceleration scenario in a
simplified, but physically motivated, form, namely: radio power (P_R) vs size
of the radio emitting region (R_H), and P_R vs total cluster mass (M_H)
contained in the emitting region and cluster velocity dispersion (sigma_H) in
this region.
We search for these correlations by analyzing the most recent radio and X-ray
data available in the literature for a well known sample of clusters with giant
radio halos. In particular we find a good correlation between P_R and R_H and a
very tight ``geometrical'' scaling between M_H and R_H. From these correlations
P_R is also expected to scale with M_H and sigma_H and this is confirmed by our
analysis. We show that all the observed trends can be well reconciled with
expectations in the case of a slight variation of the mean magnetic field
strength in the radio halo volume with M_H. A byproduct correlation between R_H
and sigma_H is also found, and can be further tested by optical studies. In
addition, we find that observationally R_H scales non-linearly with the virial
radius of the host cluster, and this immediately means that the fraction of the
cluster volume which is radio emitting increases with cluster mass and thus
that the non-thermal component in clusters is not self-similar.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
X-ray and Radio Interactions in the Cores of Cooling Flow Clusters
We present high resolution ROSAT x-ray and radio observations of three
cooling flow clusters containing steep spectrum radio sources at their cores.
All three systems exhibit strong signs of interaction between the radio plasma
and the hot intracluster medium. Two clusters, A133 and A2626, show enhanced
x-ray emission spatially coincident with the radio source whereas the third
cluster, A2052, exhibits a large region of x-ray excess surrounding much of the
radio source. Using 3-D numerical simulations, we show that a perturbed jet
propagating through a cooling flow atmosphere can give rise to amorphous radio
morphologies, particularly in the case where the jet was ``turned off'' and
allowed to age passively. In addition, the simulated x-ray surface brightness
produced both excesses and deficits as seen observationally.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A
Intracluster medium of the merging cluster Abell 3395
We present a detailed imaging and spectral analysis of the merging
environment of the bimodal cluster A3395 using X-ray and radio observations.
X-ray images of the cluster show five main constituents of diffuse emission :
A3395 NE, A3395 SW, A3395 NW, A3395 W, and a filament connecting NE to W. X-ray
surface-brightness profiles of the cluster did not show any shock fronts in the
cluster. Temperature and entropy maps show high temperature and high entropy
regions in the W, the NW, the filament and between the NE and SW subclusters.
The NE, SW and W components have X-ray bolometric luminosities similar to those
of rich clusters of galaxies but have relatively higher temperatures.
Similarly, the NW component has X-ray bolometric luminosity similar to that of
isolated groups but with much higher temperature. It is, therefore, possible
that all the components of the cluster have been heated by the ongoing mergers.
The NE subcluster is the most massive and luminous constituent and other
subclusters are found to be gravitationally bound to it. The W component is
most probably either a clump of gas stripped off the SW due to ram pressure or
a separate subcluster that has merged or is merging with the SW. No X-ray
cavities are seen associated with the Wide Angle Tailed (WAT) radio source near
the centre of the SW subcluster. Minimum energy pressure in the radio
emission-peaks of the WAT galaxy is comparable with the external thermal
pressure. The radio spectrum of the WAT suggests a spectral age of ~10Myr
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