Constraints on thermal conductivity in the merging cluster Abell 2146

The cluster of galaxies Abell 2146 is undergoing a major merger and is an ideal cluster to study ICM physics, as it has a simple geometry with the merger axis in the plane of the sky, its distance allows us to resolve features across the relevant scales and its temperature lies within Chandra's sensitivity. Gas from the cool core of the subcluster has been partially stripped into a tail of gas, which gives a unique opportunity to look at the survival of such gas and determine the rate of conduction in the ICM. We use deep 2.4 Ms Chandra observations of Abell 2146 to produce a high spatial resolution map of the temperature structure along a plume in the ram-pressure stripped tail, described by a partial cone, which is distinguishable from the hot ambient gas. Previous studies of conduction in the ICM typically rely on estimates of the survival time for key structures, such as cold fronts. Here we use detailed hydrodynamical simulations of Abell 2146 to determine the flow velocities along the stripped plume and measure the timescale of the temperature increase along its length. We find that conduction must be highly suppressed by multiple orders of magnitude compared to the Spitzer rate, as the energy used is about 1% of the energy available. We discuss magnetic draping around the core as a possible mechanism for suppressing conduction.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Improved Constraints on Mergers with SZ, Hydrodynamical simulations, Optical, and X-ray (ICM-SHOX)

Galaxy cluster mergers are representative of a wide range of physics, making them an excellent probe of the properties of dark matter and the ionized plasma of the intracluster medium. To date, most studies have focused on mergers occurring in the plane of the sky, where morphological features can be readily identified. To allow study of mergers with arbitrary orientation, we have assembled multi-probe data for the eight-cluster ICM-SHOX sample sensitive to both morphology and line of sight velocity. The first ICM-SHOX paper [1] provided an overview of our methodology applied to one member of the sample, MACS J0018.5+1626, in order to constrain its merger geometry. That work resulted in an exciting new discovery of a velocity space decoupling of its gas and dark matter distributions. In this work, we describe the availability and quality of multi-probe data for the full ICM-SHOX galaxy cluster sample. These datasets will form the observational basis of an upcoming full ICM-SHOX galaxy cluster sample analysis

Constraints on thermal conductivity in the merging cluster Abell 2146

The cluster of galaxies Abell 2146 is undergoing a major merger and is an ideal cluster to study ICM physics, as it has a simple geometry with the merger axis in the plane of the sky, its distance allows us to resolve features across the relevant scales and its temperature lies within Chandra's sensitivity. Gas from the cool core of the subcluster has been partially stripped into a tail of gas, which gives a unique opportunity to look at the survival of such gas and determine the rate of conduction in the ICM. We use deep 2.4 Ms Chandra observations of Abell 2146 to produce a high spatial resolution map of the temperature structure along a plume in the ram-pressure stripped tail, described by a partial cone, which is distinguishable from the hot ambient gas. Previous studies of conduction in the ICM typically rely on estimates of the survival time for key structures, such as cold fronts. Here we use detailed hydrodynamical simulations of Abell 2146 to determine the flow velocities along the stripped plume and measure the timescale of the temperature increase along its length. We find that conduction must be highly suppressed by multiple orders of magnitude compared to the Spitzer rate, as the energy used is about 1% of the energy available. We discuss magnetic draping around the core as a possible mechanism for suppressing conduction

The structure of cluster merger shocks: turbulent width and the electron heating time-scale

We present a new 2 Ms Chandra observation of the cluster merger Abell 2146, which hosts two huge M∼2 shock fronts each ∼500 kpc across. For the first time, we resolve and measure the width of cluster merger shocks. The best-fit width for the bow shock is 17 ± 1 kpc and for the upstream shock is 10.7 ± 0.3 kpc. A narrow collisionless shock will appear broader in projection if its smooth shape is warped by local gas motions. We show that both shock widths are consistent with collisionless shocks blurred by local gas motions of 290 ± 30 km s −1. The upstream shock forms later on in the merger than the bow shock and is therefore expected to be significantly narrower. From the electron temperature profile behind the bow shock, we measure the timescale for the electrons and ions to come back into thermal equilibrium. We rule out rapid thermal equilibration of the electrons with the shock-heated ions at the 6σ level. The observed temperature profile instead favours collisional equilibration. We find no evidence for electron heating over that produced by adiabatic compression. This supports the existing picture from collisionless shocks in the solar wind and supernova remnants. The upstream shock is consistent with this result but has a more complex structure, including a ∼ 2 keV increase in temperature ∼50 kpc ahead of the shock

Tidal Disruption Event Demographics with the Zwicky Transient Facility: Volumetric Rates, Luminosity Function, and Implications for the Local Black Hole Mass Function

We conduct a systematic tidal disruption event (TDE) demographics analysis using the largest sample of optically selected TDEs. A flux-limited, spectroscopically complete sample of 33 TDEs is constructed using the Zwicky Transient Facility over 3 yr (from 2018 October to 2021 September). We infer the black hole (BH) mass (M BH) with host galaxy scaling relations, showing that the sample M BH ranges from 105.1 M ⊙ to 108.2 M ⊙. We developed a survey efficiency corrected maximum volume method to infer the rates. The rest-frame g-band luminosity function can be well described by a broken power law of ϕ ( L g ) ∝ L g / L bk 0.3 + L g / L bk 2.6 − 1 , with L bk = 1043.1 erg s−1. In the BH mass regime of 105.3 ≲ (M BH/M ⊙) ≲ 107.3, the TDE mass function follows ϕ ( M BH ) ∝ M BH − 0.25 , which favors a flat local BH mass function ( dn BH / d log M BH ≈ constant ). We confirm the significant rate suppression at the high-mass end (M BH ≳ 107.5 M ⊙), which is consistent with theoretical predictions considering direct capture of hydrogen-burning stars by the event horizon. At a host galaxy mass of M gal ∼ 1010 M ⊙, the average optical TDE rate is ≈3.2 × 10−5 galaxy−1 yr−1. We constrain the optical TDE rate to be [3.7, 7.4, and 1.6] × 10−5 galaxy−1 yr−1 in galaxies with red, green, and blue colors

Introducing ROMULUSC: a cosmological simulation of a galaxy cluster with an unprecedented resolution

We present the first results from ROMULUSC, the highest resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulation of a galaxy cluster run to date. ROMULUSC, a zoom-in simulation of a halo with z = 0 mass 1014 M⊙, is run with the same sub-grid physics and resolution as ROMULUS25. With unprecedented mass and spatial resolution, ROMULUSC represents a unique opportunity to study the evolution of galaxies in dense environments down to dwarf masses. We demonstrate that ROMULUSC results in an intracluster medium consistent with observations. The star formation history and stellar mass of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) is consistent with observations and abundance matching results, indicating that our sub-grid models, optimized only to reproduce observations of field dwarf and Milky Way mass galaxies, are able to produce reasonable galaxy masses and star formation histories in much higher mass systems. Feedback from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) regulates star formation by driving large-scale, collimated outflows that coexist with a low-entropy core. We find that non-BCG cluster member galaxies are substantially quenched compared to the field down to dwarf galaxy masses and, at low masses, quenching is seen to have no dependence on mass or distance from the cluster centre. This enhanced quenched population extends beyond R200 and is in place at high redshift. Similarly, we predict that an SMBH activity is significantly suppressed within clusters outside of the BCG, but show how the effect could be lost when only focusing on the brightest active galactic nucleus in the most massive galaxies

Introducing ROMULUSC: a cosmological simulation of a galaxy cluster with an unprecedented resolution

International audienceWe present the first results from ROMULUSC, the highest resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulation of a galaxy cluster run to date. ROMULUSC, a zoom-in simulation of a halo with z = 0 mass 1014 M⊙, is run with the same sub-grid physics and resolution as ROMULUS25. With unprecedented mass and spatial resolution, ROMULUSC represents a unique opportunity to study the evolution of galaxies in dense environments down to dwarf masses. We demonstrate that ROMULUSC results in an intracluster medium consistent with observations. The star formation history and stellar mass of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) is consistent with observations and abundance matching results, indicating that our sub-grid models, optimized only to reproduce observations of field dwarf and Milky Way mass galaxies, are able to produce reasonable galaxy masses and star formation histories in much higher mass systems. Feedback from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) regulates star formation by driving large-scale, collimated outflows that coexist with a low-entropy core. We find that non-BCG cluster member galaxies are substantially quenched compared to the field down to dwarf galaxy masses and, at low masses, quenching is seen to have no dependence on mass or distance from the cluster centre. This enhanced quenched population extends beyond R200 and is in place at high redshift. Similarly, we predict that an SMBH activity is significantly suppressed within clusters outside of the BCG, but show how the effect could be lost when only focusing on the brightest active galactic nucleus in the most massive galaxies

Mapping substructure in the HST Frontier Fields cluster lenses and in cosmological simulations

We map the lensing-inferred substructure in the first three clusters observed by the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields (HSTFF) Initiative: Abell 2744 (z = 0.308), MACSJ 0416, (z = 0.396) and MACSJ 1149 (z = 0.543). Statistically resolving dark matter subhaloes down to 3c109.5M 99\u2060, we compare the derived subhalo mass functions (SHMFs) to theoretical predictions from analytical models and with numerical simulations in a Lambda cold dark matter (LCDM) cosmology. Mimicking our observational cluster member selection criteria in the HSTFF, we report excellent agreement in both amplitude and shape of the SHMF over four decades in subhalo mass (\u2060109 1213M 99\u2060). Projection effects do not appear to introduce significant errors in the determination of SHMFs from simulations. We do not find evidence for a substructure crisis, analogous to the missing satellite problem in the Local Group, on cluster scales, but rather excellent agreement of the count-matched HSTFF SHMF down to Msubhalo/Mhalo 3c 10 125. However, we do find discrepancies in the radial distribution of subhaloes inferred from HSTFF cluster lenses compared to determinations from simulated clusters. This suggests that although the selected simulated clusters match the HSTFF sample in mass, they do not adequately capture the dynamical properties and complex merging morphologies of these observed cluster lenses. Therefore, HSTFF clusters are likely observed in a transient evolutionary stage that is presently insufficiently sampled in cosmological simulations. The abundance and mass function of dark matter substructure in cluster lenses continues to offer an important test of the LCDM paradigm, and at present we find no tension between model predictions and observations