Academic literature on the topic 'AGN-Driven Turbulence'

ABSTRACT Turbulence in the intracluster, intragroup, and circumgalactic medium plays a crucial role in the self-regulated feeding and feedback loop of central supermassive black holes. We dissect the 3D turbulent ‘weather’ in a high-resolution Eulerian simulation of active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback, shown to be consistent with multiple multiwavelength observables of massive galaxies. We carry out post-processing simulations of Lagrangian tracers to track the evolution of enstrophy, a proxy of turbulence, and its related sinks and sources. This allows us to isolate in depth the physical processes that determine the evolution of turbulence during the recurring strong and weak AGN feedback events, which repeat self-similarly over the Gyr evolution. We find that the evolution of enstrophy/turbulence in the gaseous halo is highly dynamic and variable over small temporal and spatial scales, similar to the chaotic weather processes on Earth. We observe major correlations between the enstrophy amplification and recurrent AGN activity, especially via its kinetic power. While advective and baroclinc motions are always subdominant, stretching motions are the key sources of the amplification of enstrophy, in particular along the jet/cocoon, while rarefactions decrease it throughout the bulk of the volume. This natural self-regulation is able to preserve, as ensemble, the typically observed subsonic turbulence during cosmic time, superposed by recurrent spikes via impulsive anisotropic AGN features (wide outflows, bubbles, cocoon shocks). This study facilitates the preparation and interpretation of the thermo-kinematical observations enabled by new revolutionary X-ray integral field unit telescopes, such as XRISM and Athena.

Abstract The hot intracluster medium (ICM) is thought to be quiescent with low observed velocity dispersions. Surface brightness fluctuations of the ICM also suggest that its turbulence is subsonic with a Kolmogorov scaling relation, indicating that the viscosity is suppressed and the kinetic energy cascades to small scales unscathed. However, recent observations of the cold gas filaments in galaxy clusters find that the scaling relations are steeper than that of the hot plasma, signaling kinetic energy losses and the presence of supersonic flows. In this work we use high-resolution simulations to explore the turbulent velocity structure of the cold filaments at the cores of galaxy clusters. Our results indicate that supersonic turbulent structures can be “frozen” in the cold gas that cools and fragments out of a fast, ∼107 K outflow driven by the central active galactic nucleus (AGN), when the radiative cooling time is shorter than the dynamical sound-crossing time. After the cold gas formation, however, the slope of the velocity structure function (VSF) flattens significantly over short, ∼10 Myr timescales. The lack of flattened VSF in observations of Hα filaments indicates that the Hα-emitting phase is short-lived for the cold gas in galaxy clusters. On the other hand, the ubiquity of supersonic turbulence revealed by observed filaments strongly suggests that supersonic outflows are an integral part of AGN–ICM interaction, and that AGN activity plays a crucial role at driving turbulence in galaxy clusters.

Abstract The hot intracluster medium (ICM) is thought to be quiescent with low observed velocity dispersions. Surface brightness fluctuations of the ICM also suggest that its turbulence is subsonic with a Kolmogorov scaling relation, indicating that the viscosity is suppressed and the kinetic energy cascades to small scales unscathed. However, recent observations of the cold gas filaments in galaxy clusters find that the scaling relations are steeper than that of the hot plasma, signaling kinetic energy losses and the presence of supersonic flows. In this work we use high-resolution simulations to explore the turbulent velocity structure of the cold filaments at the cores of galaxy clusters. Our results indicate that supersonic turbulent structures can be “frozen” in the cold gas that cools and fragments out of a fast, ∼107 K outflow driven by the central active galactic nucleus (AGN), when the radiative cooling time is shorter than the dynamical sound-crossing time. After the cold gas formation, however, the slope of the velocity structure function (VSF) flattens significantly over short, ∼10 Myr timescales. The lack of flattened VSF in observations of Hα filaments indicates that the Hα-emitting phase is short-lived for the cold gas in galaxy clusters. On the other hand, the ubiquity of supersonic turbulence revealed by observed filaments strongly suggests that supersonic outflows are an integral part of AGN–ICM interaction, and that AGN activity plays a crucial role at driving turbulence in galaxy clusters.

ABSTRACT Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) feedback is responsible for maintaining plasma in global thermal balance in extended haloes of elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters. Local thermal instability in the hot gas leads to the formation of precipitating cold gas clouds that feed the central supermassive black holes, thus heating the hot gas and maintaining global thermal equilibrium. We perform 3D magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of self-regulated AGNs feedback in a Perseus-like galaxy cluster with the aim of understanding the impact of the feedback physics on the turbulence properties of the hot and cold phases of the intracluster medium (ICM). We find that, in general, the cold phase velocity structure function (VSF) is steeper than the prediction from Kolmogorov’s theory. We attribute the physical origin of the steeper slope of the cold phase VSF to the driving of turbulent motions primarily by the gravitational acceleration acting on the ballistic clouds. We demonstrate that, in the pure hydrodynamical case, the precipitating cold filaments may be the dominant agent driving turbulence in the hot ICM. The arguments in favour of this hypothesis are that: (i) the cold phase mass dominates over hot gas mass in the inner cool core; (ii) hot and cold gas velocities are spatially correlated; (iii) both the cold and hot phase velocity distributions are radially biased. We show that, in the MHD case, the turbulence in the ambient hot medium (excluding the jet cone regions) can also be driven by the AGN jets. The driving is then facilitated by enhanced coupling due to magnetic fields of the ambient gas and the AGN jets. In the MHD case, turbulence may thus be driven by a combination of AGN jet stirring and filament motions. We conclude that future observations, including those from high spatial and spectral resolution X-ray missions, may help to constrain self-regulated AGN feedback by quantifying the multitemperature VSF in the ICM.

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, K 0, 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.

Abstract We perform 3D radiation hydrodynamic local shearing-box simulations to study the outcome of gravitational instability (GI) in optically thick active galactic nuclei (AGNs) accretion disks. GI develops when the Toomre parameter Q T ≲ 1, and may lead to turbulent heating that balances radiative cooling. However, when radiative cooling is too efficient, the disk may undergo runaway gravitational fragmentation. In the fully gas-pressure-dominated case, we confirm the classical result that such a thermal balance holds when the Shakura–Sunyaev viscosity parameter (α) due to the gravitationally driven turbulence is ≲0.2, corresponding to dimensionless cooling times Ωt cool ≳ 5. As the fraction of support by radiation pressure increases, the disk becomes more prone to fragmentation, with a reduced (increased) critical value of α (Ωt cool). The effect is already significant when the radiation pressure exceeds 10% of the gas pressure, while fully radiation-pressure-dominated disks fragment at t cool ≲ 50 Ω−1. The latter translates to a maximum turbulence level α ≲ 0.02, comparable to that generated by magnetorotational instability. Our results suggest that gravitationally unstable (Q T ∼ 1) outer regions of AGN disks with significant radiation pressure (likely for high/near-Eddington accretion rates) should always fragment into stars, and perhaps black holes.

Synopsis According to the hierarchical structure formation model, massive structures like galaxy clusters are formed due to the gravitational collapse of initial density perturbations and their subsequent mergers. As the formation of galaxy clusters is driven by gravity, they are expected to follow self-similar profiles for density, temperature, entropy etc (Kaiser 1986). However, observations show that self-similarity assumption is not followed in clusters due to the presence of cooling and other such non-gravitational processes (Markevitch et al. 1998; Ponman et al. 1999). More than a third of galaxy clusters have cooling time of the hot diffuse gas in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) in their core smaller than their lifetime (Cavagnolo et al. 2009). As a result, the hot gas in cluster core is expected to cool down catastrophically with total cold gas mass deposition in the core greater than 1012 M⊙ during their lifetime and a star formation rate of several 100 M⊙yr−1. However, lack of observational support of these cooling flow signatures (Peterson et al. 2003) in clusters with short cooling time (cool core clusters) point to the presence of some heating mechanism to compensate the cooling loses and prevent the runway cooling. Among many possible candidates, AGN jets associated with the supermassive black hole present in member central galaxy of the cluster has emerged as the principle heating source (McNamara and Nulsen 2007). Observations show that the energy required to form the structures in the ICM as a result of AGN outbursts, are sufficient to overcome the radiative losses of the ICM. However, the details of AGN feedback to control the cooling flow remains sketchy. My thesis is based on numerical study of AGN feedback in galaxy clusters and trying to answer some important questions related to it. In chapter 1, we discuss the process of galaxy cluster formation and how self-similarity arises naturally in such systems. We then discuss the observational evidences of the breaking of self-similarity in galaxy clusters. We look at the early history of X-ray observations of galaxy clusters and the quest to find signatures of cooling flow as predicted by theoretical models. The non-detection of cooling flow signatures like absence of line emissions below 0.5 keV in several cool core clusters gave rise to the possibility of presence of some heating mechanism to control the cooling flow. We discuss the observational evidences pointing to AGN jets being the possible heating source to compensate for the cooling losses of the ICM. We discuss the different modes of AGN feedback in galaxy clusters and their role in the evolution of these systems. We finally give a brief history of the numerical work done in the area of AGN feedback in galaxy clusters. This chapter ends with the big questions in AGN feedback model that needed investigation. In chapter 2, using high-resolution 3-D and 2-D (axisymmetric) hydrodynamic simulations in spherical geometry, we study the evolution of cool cluster cores heated by feedback-driven bipolar active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets. Condensation of cold gas, and the consequent en-hanced accretion, is required for AGN feedback to balance radiative cooling with reasonable efficiencies, and to match the observed cool core properties. A feedback efficiency (mechanical luminosity ≈ ǫM˙accc2; where M˙acc is the mass accretion rate at 1 kpc) as small as 6 × 10−5 is sufficient to reduce the cooling/accretion rate by ∼ 10 compared to a pure cooling flow in clusters (with M200 � 7 × 1014 M⊙). This value is much smaller compared to the ones consid-ered earlier, and is consistent with the jet efficiency and the fact that only a small fraction of gas at 1 kpc is accreted on to the super-massive black hole (SMBH). The feedback efficiency in earlier works was so high that the cluster core reached equilibrium in a hot state without much precipitation, unlike what is observed in cool-core clusters. We find hysteresis cycles in all our simulations with cold mode feedback: condensation of cold gas when the ratio of the cooling-time to the free-fall time (tcool/tff ) is � 10 leads to a sudden enhancement in the accretion rate; a large accretion rate causes strong jets and overheating of the hot ICM such that tcool/tff > 10; further condensation of cold gas is suppressed and the accretion rate falls, leading to slow cooling of the core and condensation of cold gas, restarting the cycle. Therefore, there is a spread in core properties, such as the jet power, accretion rate, for the same value of core entropy or tcool/tff . A fewer number of cycles are observed for higher efficiencies and for lower mass halos because the core is overheated to a longer cooling time. The 3-D simulations show the formation of a few-kpc scale, rotationally-supported, massive (∼ 1011M⊙) cold gas torus. Since the torus gas is not accreted on to the SMBH, it is largely decoupled from the feedback cycle. The radially dominant cold gas (T < 5 × 104 K; |vr| > |vφ|) consists of fast cold gas uplifted by AGN jets and freely-infalling cold gas condensing out of the core. The radially dominant cold gas extends out to 25 kpc for the fiducial run (halo mass 7 × 1014M⊙ and feedback efficiency 6 × 10−5), with the average mass inflow rate dominating the outflow rate by a factor of ≈ 2. We compare our simulation results with recent observations. In chapter 3, we investigate the stochastic condensation of cold gas and its accretion onto the central super-massive black hole (SMBH) which is essential for active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback to work in the most massive galaxies that lie at the centres of galaxy clusters. Our 3-D hydrodynamic AGN jet-ICM (intracluster medium) simulations, looking at the detailed angular momentum distribution of cold gas and its time variability for the first time, show that the angular momentum of the cold gas crossing � 1 kpc is essentially isotropic. With almost equal mass in clockwise and counter-clockwise orientations, we expect a cancellation of angular momentum on roughly the dynamical time. This means that a compact accretion flow with a short viscous time ought to form, through which enough accretion power can be channeled into jet mechanical energy sufficiently quickly to prevent a cooling flow. The inherent stochasticity, expected in feedback cycles driven by cold gas condensation, gives rise to a large variation in the cold gas mass at the centres of galaxy clusters, for similar cluster and SMBH masses, in agreement with the observations. Such correlations are expected to be much tighter for the smoother hot/Bondi accretion. The weak correlation between cavity power and Bondi power obtained from our simulations also match observations. Recent analysis shows that it is important to explicitly include the gravitational potential of the central brightest central galaxy (BCG) to infer the acceleration due to gravity (g) and the free-fall time (tff ≡ [2r/g]1/2 ) in cool cluster cores. Accurately measuring tff is crucial because according to numerical simulations cold gas condensation and strong feedback occur in cluster cores with min(tcool/tff ) below a threshold value close to 10. Recent observations which include the BCG gravity show that the observed threshold in min(tcool/tff ) lies at a somewhat higher value, close to 10-30; there are only a few clusters in which this ratio falls much below 10. In chapter 4, we compare numerical simulations of feedback AGN (Active Galactic Nuclei) jets interacting with the intracluster medium (ICM), with and without a BCG potential. We find that, for a fixed feedback efficiency, the presence of a BCG does not significantly affect the temperature but increases (decreases) the core density (entropy) on average. Most importantly, min(tcool/tff ) is only affected slightly by the inclusion of the BCG gravity. Also notable is that the lowest value of min(tcool/tff ) in the NFW+BCG runs are about twice larger than in the NFW runs because of a shorter time for feedback heating (which scales with the free-fall time) in the former. We also look at the role of depletion of cold gas due to star formation and show that it only affects the rotationally dominant component (torus), while the radially dominant component (which regulates the feedback cycle) remains largely unaffected. Stellar gas depletion also increases the duty cycle of AGN jets. The distribution of metals due to AGN jets in our simulations is predominantly along the jet direction and the radial spread of metals is less compared to the observations. We also show that the turbulence in cool core clusters is weak, consistent with recent Hitomi results on Perseus cluster.