Simulation of radio plasma in clusters of galaxies

Brüggen, M., Kaiser, C.R., Churazov, E. and Enßlin, T.A. (2002) Simulation of radio plasma in clusters of galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 331 (3), 545-555. (doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05233.x).

Abstract

We present three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of buoyant gas in a typical cluster environment. In these simulations, hot matter was injected continuously into a small region offset from the cluster centre. In agreement with previous analytic estimates, we found that the bubbles evolve very differently depending on the rate of energy injection. Using tracer particles we computed the efficiency of the bubbles to stir the intracluster medium (ICM) and find that recurrent low-power sources are more effective in mixing the inner cluster region than rarer large outbursts. Moreover, we computed radio maps of the bubbles based on different assumptions about the magnetic field. In the radio band the bubbles closely resemble FR I sources. For the bubbles to be detectable for long enough to account for FR I sources, we found that reacceleration has to take place. The bubbles are generally difficult to detect, both in the radio and in the X-ray band. Thus it is possible to hide a significant amount of energy in the form of bubbles in clusters.

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