The gas motions in the intracluster medium (ICM) are governed by stratified turbulence. Stratified turbulence is fundamentally different from Kolmogorov (isotropic, homogeneous) turbulence; kinetic energy not only cascades from large to small scales, but it is also converted into buoyancy potential energy. To understand the density and velocity fluctuations in the ICM, we conduct high-resolution ($1024^2\times 1536$ grid points) hydrodynamical simulations of subsonic turbulence (with rms Mach number $\mathcal{M}\approx 0.25$) and different levels of stratification, quantified by the Richardson number $\mathrm{Ri}$, from $\mathrm{Ri}=0$ (no stratification) to $\mathrm{Ri}=13$ (strong stratification). We quantify the density, pressure and velocity fields for varying stratification because observational studies often use surface brightness fluctuations to infer the turbulent gas velocities of the ICM. We find that the standard deviation of the logarithmic density fluctuations ($σ_s$), where $s=\ln(ρ/\left<ρ(z)\right>)$, increases with $\mathrm{Ri}$. For weakly stratified subsonic turbulence ($\mathrm{Ri}\lesssim10$, $\mathcal{M}<1$), we derive a new $σ_s$--$\mathcal{M}$--$\mathrm{Ri}$ relation, $σ_s^2=\ln(1+b^2\mathcal{M}^4+0.09\mathcal{M}^2\mathrm{Ri}H_P/H_S)$, where $b=1/3$--$1$ is the turbulence driving parameter, and $H_P$ and $H_S$ are the pressure and entropy scale heights respectively. We further find that the power spectrum of density fluctuations, $P(ρ_k/\left<ρ\right>)$, increases in magnitude with increasing $\mathrm{Ri}$, whereas the velocity power spectrum is invariant. Thus, the ratio between density and velocity power spectra strongly depends on $\mathrm{Ri}$. Pressure fluctuations, on the other hand, are independent of stratification and only depend on $\mathcal{M}$.
Turbulent gas motions are observed in the intracluster medium (ICM). The ICM is density-stratified, with the gas density being highest at the centre of the cluster and decreasing radially outwards. As a result of this, Kolmogorov (homogeneous, isotropic) turbulence theory does not apply to the ICM. The gas motions are instead explained by anisotropic stratified turbulence, with the stratification quantified by the perpendicular Froude number ($\mathrm{Fr}_\perp$). These turbulent motions are associated with density and pressure fluctuations, which manifest as perturbations in X-ray surface bri…
The dynamics of the intracluster medium (ICM) is affected by turbulence driven by several processes, such as mergers, accretion and feedback from active galactic nuclei. X-ray surface brightness fluctuations have been used to constrain turbulence in galaxy clusters. Here, we use simulations to further investigate the relation between gas density and turbulent velocity fluctuations, with a focus on the effect of the stratification of the ICM. In this work, we studied the turbulence driven by hierarchical accretion by analysing a sample of galaxy clusters simulated with the cosmological code ENZ…
Observations show that (i) multiple gas phases can coexist in the atmospheres of galaxies and clusters; (ii) these atmospheres may be significantly rotating in the inner parts, with typical velocities that approach or even exceed the local sound speed. The thermal instability is a natural candidate to explain the formation of cold structures via condensation of a hotter gas phase. Here we systematically study the effect of rotation on the thermal stability of stratified plane-parallel atmospheres, using both analytical arguments and numerical simulations. We find that the formation of cold str…
Formamide (NH2CHO) is considered an important prebiotic molecule because of its potential to form peptide bonds. It was recently detected in the atmosphere of the HH 212 protostellar disk on the Solar-System scale where planets will form. Here we have mapped it and its potential parent molecules HNCO and H2CO, along with other molecules CH3OH and CH3CHO, in the disk atmosphere, studying its formation mechanism. Interestingly, we find a stratified distribution of these molecules, with the outer emission radius increasing from ~ 24 au for NH2CHO and HNCO, to 36 au for CH3CHO, to 40 au for CH3OH,…
Buoyant bubbles of relativistic plasma in cluster cores plausibly play a key role in conveying the energy from a supermassive black hole to the intracluster medium (ICM) - the process known as radio-mode AGN feedback. Energy conservation guarantees that a bubble loses most of its energy to the ICM after crossing several pressure scale heights. However, actual processes responsible for transferring the energy to the ICM are still being debated. One attractive possibility is the excitation of internal waves, which are trapped in the cluster's core and eventually dissipate. Here we show that a su…
While feedback from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is an important heating source in the centre of galaxy clusters, it is still unclear how the feedback energy is injected into the intracluster medium (ICM) and what role different numerical approaches play. Here, we compare four hydrodynamical schemes in idealized simulations of a rising bubble inflated by AGN feedback in a hot stratified ICM: (traditional) smoothed particle hydrodynamics (TSPH), a pressure flavour of SPH (PSPH), a meshless finite mass (MFM) scheme, as well as an Eulerian code with adaptive mesh refinement. In the absence of mag…
Whether High Velocity Clouds (HVCs) can form by condensation of the hot ($T \sim 10^6 \, {\rm K}$) Galactic corona as a consequence of thermal instabilities has been controversial. Here we re-examine this problem and we suggest that rotation of the corona might be a missing key ingredient. We do this by studying the evolution of the models of rotating galactic coronae presented in Sormani et al. (2018) under the presence of cooling and thermal conduction. We combine a linear stability analysis with the results of local and global hydrodynamical simulations. We find that condensations are likel…
We present the first stage of an investigation of the interactions of the jets in the radio galaxy Hydra A with the intracluster medium. We consider the jet kinetic power, the galaxy and cluster atmosphere, and the inner structure of the radio source. Analysing radio observations of the inner lobes of Hydra A by Taylor et al. (1990) we confirm the jet power estimates of about 1e45 ergs/s derived by Wise et al. (2007) from dynamical analysis of the X-ray cavities. With this result and a model for the galaxy halo, we explore the jet-intracluster medium interactions occurring on a scale of 10 kpc…
We present three dimensional relativistic hydrodynamical simulations of a precessing jet interacting with the intracluster medium and compare the simulated jet structure with the observed structure of the Hydra A northern jet. For the simulations, we use jet parameters obtained in the parameter space study of the first paper in this series and probe different values for the precession period and precession angle. We find that for a precession period P = 1 Myr and a precession angle = 20 degree the model reproduces i) the curvature of the jet, ii) the correct number of bright knots within 20 kp…
Galaxy clusters are the most massive gravitationally bound structures in the Universe, comprising thousands of galaxies and pervaded by a diffuse, hot ``intracluster medium'' (ICM) that dominates the baryonic content of these systems. The formation and evolution of the ICM across cosmic time is thought to be driven by the continuous accretion of matter from the large-scale filamentary surroundings and dramatic merger events with other clusters or groups. Until now, however, direct observations of the intracluster gas have been limited only to mature clusters in the latter three-quarters of the…
Cool cluster cores are in global thermal equilibrium but are locally thermally unstable. We study a nonlinear phenomenological model for the evolution of density perturbations in the ICM due to local thermal instability and gravity. We have analyzed and extended a model for the evolution of an over-dense blob in the ICM. We find two regimes in which the over-dense blobs can cool to thermally stable low temperatures. One for large $t_{\rm {cool}} / t_{\rm {ff}}$ ($t_{\rm {cool}}$ is the cooling time and $t_{\rm {ff}}$ is the free fall time), where a large initial over-density is required for th…
Accurate chemical abundance measurements of X-ray emitting atmospheres pervading massive galaxies, galaxy groups, and clusters provide essential information on the star formation and chemical enrichment histories of these large scale structures. Although the collisionally ionised nature of the intracluster medium (ICM) makes these abundance measurements relatively easy to derive, underlying spectral models can rely on different atomic codes, which brings additional uncertainties on the inferred abundances. Here, we provide a simple, yet comprehensive comparison between the codes SPEXACT v3.0.5…
We investigate the role of supernova (SN)-driven galactic winds in the chemical enrichment of the intracluster medium (ICM). Such outflows on galactic scales have their origin in huge star forming regions and expel metal enriched material out of the galaxies into their surroundings as observed, for example, in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253. As massive stars in OB-associations explode sequentially, shock waves are driven into the interstellar medium (ISM) of a galaxy and merge, forming a superbubble (SB). These SBs expand in a direction perpendicular to the disk plane following the densit…
Feeding and feedback of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are critical for understanding the dynamics and thermodynamics of the intracluster medium (ICM) within the cores of galaxy clusters. While radio bubbles inflated by AGN jets could be dynamically supported by cosmic rays (CRs), the impact of CR-dominated jets are not well understood. In this work, we perform three-dimensional simulations of CR-jet feedback in an isolated cluster atmosphere; we find that CR jets impact the multiphase gas differently than jets dominated by kinetic energy. In particular, CR bubbles can more efficiently uplift th…
Probing viscosity of the intracluster medium using ram-pressure stripping
National Tsing Hua University（国立清华大学）；National Center for Theoretical Sciences（国家理论科学中心）；Purdue University Fort Wayne（普渡大学韦恩堡分校）；University of Michigan（密歇根大学）
There is considerable evidence for widespread subsonic turbulence in galaxy clusters, most notably from {\it Hitomi}. Turbulence is often invoked to offset radiative losses in cluster cores, both by direct dissipation and by enabling turbulent heat diffusion. However, in a stratified medium, buoyancy forces oppose radial motions, making turbulence anisotropic. This can be quantified via the Froude number ${\rm Fr}$, which decreases inward in clusters as stratification increases. We exploit analogies with MHD turbulence to show that wave-turbulence interactions increase cascade times and reduce…
We report high angular resolution observations of NGC1333 IRAS4A, a protostellar binary including A1 and A2, at 0.84 mm with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. From the continuum observations, we suggest that the dust emission from the A1 core is optically thick, and A2 is predominantly optically thin. The A2 core, exhibiting a forest of spectral lines including complex molecules, is a well known hot corino as suggested by previous works. More importantly, we report, for the first time, the solid evidence of complex organic molecules (COMs), including CH3OH, ^13CH3OH, CH2DOH, CH…
