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[13.02] 3D FLASH simulations of AGN heating in clusters of galaxies

M. Ruszkowski (JILA, University of Colorado at Boulder), C.R. Kaiser (University of Southampton), M.C. Begelman (JILA & APS, University of Colorado at Boulder)

We present the first three-dimensional Adaptive Mesh Refinement PPM simulations of AGN heating in cooling flow clusters of galaxies. Our simulations demonstrate that the gas, which buoyantly rises in the cluster atmosphere, spreads out laterally on dynamical timescale, until it covers 4pi steradians. This fast isotropization of the injected gas supports the idea that clusters could be heated by AGN in a stable fashion even when cooling is present.

We present X-ray maps of clusters and show that the ghost cavities, even when present in the direction perpendicular to the orientation of the central jet, can correspond to material originally injected along the jet axis. Therefore, these cavities may not necessarily correspond to the previous episodes of AGN activity when the jet orientation was different.

We also present maps of radio emission overlayed on X-ray maps under the assumption that magnetic fields are highly tangled.

This work was supported in part by NSF grant AST 98-76887

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mr@quixote.colorado.edu

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#2
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.