More Like this

1. X-Ray Cavity Dynamics and Their Role in the Gas Precipitation in Planck Sunyaev–Zeldovich (SZ) Selected Clusters

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ace359  

   Olivares, V.; Su, Y.; Forman, W.; Gaspari, M.; Andrade-Santos, F.; Salome, P.; Nulsen, P.; Edge, A.; Combes, F.; Jones, C. (August 2023, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We study active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback in nearby (z< 0.35) galaxy clusters from the Planck Sunyaev–Zeldovich sample using Chandra observations. This nearly unbiased mass-selected sample includes both relaxed and disturbed clusters and may reflect the entire AGN feedback cycle. We find that relaxed clusters better follow the one-to-one relation of cavity power versus cooling luminosity, while disturbed clusters display higher cavity power for a given cooling luminosity, likely reflecting a difference in cooling and feedback efficiency. Disturbed clusters are also found to contain asymmetric cavities when compared to relaxed clusters, hinting toward the influence of the intracluster medium (ICM) “weather” on the distribution and morphology of the cavities. Disturbed clusters do not have fewer cavities than relaxed clusters, suggesting that cavities are difficult to disrupt. Thus, multiple cavities are a natural outcome of recurrent AGN outbursts. As in previous studies, we confirm that clusters with short central cooling times,t_cool, and low central entropy values,K₀, contain warm ionized (10,000 K) or cold molecular (<100 K) gas, consistent with ICM cooling and a precipitation/chaotic cold accretion scenario. We analyzed archival Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer observations that are available for 18 clusters. In 11/18 of the cases, the projected optical line emission filaments appear to be located beneath or around the cavity rims, indicating that AGN feedback plays an important role in forming the warm filaments by likely enhancing turbulence or uplift. In the remaining cases (7/18), the clusters either lack cavities or their association of filaments with cavities is vague, suggesting alternative turbulence-driven mechanisms (sloshing/mergers) or physical time delays are involved. 

   more » « less
2. Proprieties of clumps and filaments around galaxy clusters

   https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202140471  

   Angelinelli, M.; Ettori, S.; Vazza, F.; Jones, T. W. (September 2021, Astronomy & Astrophysics)

   We report on the possibility of studying the proprieties of cosmic diffuse baryons by studying self-gravitating clumps and filaments connected to galaxy clusters. While filaments are challenging to detect with X-ray observations, the higher density of clumps makes them visible and a viable tracer to study the thermodynamical proprieties of baryons undergoing accretion along cosmic web filaments onto galaxy clusters. We developed new algorithms to identify these structures and applied them to a set of non-radiative cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters at high resolution. We find that in those simulated clusters, the density and temperature of clumps are independent of the mass of the cluster where they reside. We detected a positive correlation between the filament temperature and the host cluster mass. The density and temperature of clumps and filaments also tended to correlate. Both the temperature and density decrease moving outward. We observed that clumps are hotter, more massive, and more luminous if identified closer to the cluster center. Especially in the outermost cluster regions (∼3⋅ R 500,  c or beyond), X-ray observations might already have the potential to locate cosmic filaments based on the distribution of clumps and to allow one to study the thermodynamics of diffuse baryons before they are processed by the intracluster medium. 

   more » « less
3. Virgo Filaments: III. The gas content of galaxies in filaments as predicted by the GAEA semi-analytic model

   https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202450825  

   Zakharova, D; Vulcani, B; De_Lucia, G; Finn, R A; Rudnick, G; Combes, F; Castignani, G; Fontanot, F; Jablonka, P; Xie, L; et al (October 2024, Astronomy & Astrophysics)

   Galaxy evolution depends on the environment in which galaxies are located. The various physical processes (ram-pressure stripping, tidal interactions, etc.) that are able to affect the gas content in galaxies have different efficiencies in different environments. In this work, we examine the gas (atomic HI and molecular H₂) content of local galaxies inside and outside clusters, groups, and filaments as well as in isolation using a combination of observational and simulated data. We exploited a catalogue of galaxies in the Virgo cluster (including the surrounding filaments and groups) and compared the data against the predictions of the Galaxy Evolution and Assembly (GAEA) semi-analytic model, which has explicit prescriptions for partitioning the cold gas content in its atomic and molecular phases. We extracted from the model both a mock catalogue that mimics the observational biases and one not tailored to observations in order to study the impact of observational limits on the results and predict trends in regimes not covered by the current observations. The observations and simulated data show that galaxies within filaments exhibit intermediate cold gas content between galaxies in clusters and in isolation. The amount of HI is typically more sensitive to the environment than H₂and low-mass galaxies (log₁₀[M_⋆/M_⊙]< 10) are typically more affected than their massive (log₁₀[M_⋆/M_⊙]> 10) counterparts. Considering only model data, we identified two distinct populations among filament galaxies present in similar proportions: those simultaneously lying in groups and isolated galaxies. The former has properties more similar to cluster and group galaxies, and the latter is more similar to those of field galaxies. We therefore did not detect the strong effects of filaments themselves on the gas content of galaxies, and we ascribe the results to the presence of groups in filaments. 

   more » « less
4. Estimating the Masses of Supercluster-scale Filaments from Redshift Dispersions

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad8ba8  

   Crone_Odekon, Mary; Viscardi, Trevor_W; Rabinowitz, Jake; Young, Brandon (November 2024, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We present a strategy for estimating the mass per unit length along supercluster-scale filaments that are oriented across the sky, based on mock redshift surveys of 264 filaments from the Millennium simulation. In our fiducial scenario, we place each simulated filament at a distance of 300 Mpc, perpendicular to the line of sight, and calculate the redshift dispersion using galaxies with magnitudesr< 19.5. Some regions are dynamically complicated in ways that interfere with finding a simple relationship between dispersionσand linear mass densityμ. However, by examining individual overlapping segments along the filaments, we find a relationship that allows us to successfully predict $\log \mu$from $\log \sigma$with a scatter of about ±0.20 dex, for ∼70% of the regions along filaments. This relationship is robust to changes in the distance to the filament if the physical segment length and the absolute magnitude for galaxy selection are held constant. The relationship between redshift dispersion and mass is similar to that obtained for a simple analytical model where filaments are dynamically relaxed, and we examine the possibility that the galaxies are indeed relaxed within the gravitational potential of the filament. We find that this is not the case; galaxy dynamics are strongly affected by infall to the filament and by orbits within groups and clusters. 

   more » « less
5. The nature of the motions of multiphase filaments in the centers of galaxy clusters

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2023.1138613  

   Ganguly, Shalini; Li, Yuan; Olivares, Valeria; Su, Yuanyuan; Combes, Francoise; Prakash, Sampadaa; Hamer, Stephen; Guillard, Pierre; Ha, Trung (May 2023, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences)

   The intracluster medium (ICM) in the centers of galaxy clusters is heavily influenced by the “feedback” from supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Feedback can drive turbulence in the ICM and turbulent dissipation can potentially be an important source of heating. Due to the limited spatial and spectral resolutions of X-ray telescopes, direct observations of turbulence in the hot ICM have been challenging. Recently, we developed a new method to measure turbulence in the ICM using multiphase filaments as tracers. These filaments are ubiquitous in cluster centers and can be observed at very high resolution using optical and radio telescopes. We study the kinematics of the filaments by measuring their velocity structure functions (VSFs) over a wide range of scales in the centers of ∼ 10 galaxy clusters. We find features of the VSFs that correlate with the SMBHs activities, suggesting that SMBHs are the main driver of gas motions in the centers of galaxy clusters. In all systems, the VSF is steeper than the classical Kolmogorov expectation and the slopes vary from system to system. One theoretical explanation is that the VSFs we have measured so far mostly reflect the motion of the driver (jets and bubbles) rather than the cascade of turbulence. We show that in Abell 1795, the VSF of the outer filaments far from the SMBH flattens on small scales to a Kolmogorov slope, suggesting that the cascade is only detectable farther out with the current telescope resolution. The level of turbulent heating computed at small scales is typically an order of magnitude lower than that estimated at the driving scale. Even though SMBH feedback heavily influences the kinematics of the ICM in cluster centers, the level of turbulence it drives is rather low, and turbulent heating can only offset ≲ 10% of the cooling loss, consistent with the findings of numerical simulations. 

   more » « less