Simulations of AGN Feedback in Galaxy Clusters and Groups: Impact on Gas Fractions and the LX-T Scaling Relation

By E. Puchwein, D. Sijacki, Volker Springel. 2008

156 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recently, rapid observational and theoretical progress has established that black holes (BHs) play a decisive role in the formation and evolution of individual galaxies as well as galaxy groups and clusters. In particular, there is compelling evidence that BHs vigorously interact with their surroundings in the central regions of galaxy clusters, indicating that any realistic model of cluster formation needs to account for these processes. This is also suggested by the failure of previous generations of hydrodynamical simulations without BH physics to simultaneously account for the paucity of strong cooling flows in clusters, the slope and amplitude of the observed cluster scaling relations, and the high-luminosity cutoff of central cluster galaxies. Here we use high-resolution cosmological simulations of a large cluster and group sample to study how BHs affect their host systems. We focus on two specific properties, the halo gas fraction and the X-ray luminosity-temperature scaling relation, both of which are notoriously difficult to reproduce in self-consistent hydrodynamical simulations. We show that BH feedback can solve both of these issues, bringing them in excellent agreement with observations, without alluding to the “cooling only” solution that produces unphysically bright central galaxies. By comparing a large sample of simulated AGN-heated clusters with observations, our new simulation technique should make it possible to reliably calibrate observational biases in cluster surveys, thereby enabling various high-precision cosmological studies of the dark matter and dark energy content of the universe.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/98ffb7d77a16c6b16b6bc5b84e7c0e01b0b10ce7

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Citations in the corpus

First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: the stellar mass content of groups and clusters of galaxies (2017, background): “…project, Sembolini et al. 2016) or of the cluster physics, like the impact of AGN feedback on the thermodynamical properties of the ICM (e.g. Puchwein et al. 2008; Planelles et al. 2014), the stellar properties and profiles of the brightest central galaxies (Puchwein et al. 2010; Martizzi…”
STELLAR AND TOTAL BARYON MASS FRACTIONS IN GROUPS AND CLUSTERS SINCE REDSHIFT 1 (2009, background): “This may be produced by feedback (stellar and/or AGN), as suggested by high-resolution cosmological simulations including cooling, star formation, supernova feedback, and AGN radio–mode feedback in galaxy clusters and groups (Puchwein et al. 2008, Bower et al. 2008, Short & Thomas 2008).”
A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGN JET POWER AND RADIO POWER (2010, background): “Though we measure similar scatters and slopes for the gEs as the clusters, the scatter inPjet-Pradio may be particularly important for gEs, which have steeper pressure profiles and are more susceptible to disruption by AGN outbursts (Weinmann et al. 2006; Puchwein et al. 2008).”
CHANDRA STUDIES OF THE X-RAY GAS PROPERTIES OF GALAXY GROUPS (2008, background): “The enclosed gas fraction can also be modified by the AGN feedback (e.g., Puchwein et al. 2008), thus bearing the imprint of the feedback history.”
SIMULATIONS OF THE SUNYAEV–ZEL'DOVICH POWER SPECTRUM WITH ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS FEEDBACK (2010, methodology): “The AGN feedback model of Sijacki et al. (2007) was also able to reconcile the cluster X-ray luminosity and temperature scaling relation (Puchwein et al. 2008).”
MASSIVE HALOS IN MILLENNIUM GAS SIMULATIONS: MULTIVARIATE SCALING RELATIONS (2009, background): “…supernova and AGN feedback, galactic winds and thermal conduction have been included in recent simulations (Dolag et al. 2005; Borgani et al. 2006; Kravtsov et al. 2006; Sijacki et al. 2008; Puchwein et al. 2008), the computational expense has limited sample sizes to typically a few dozen objects.”
The case for AGN feedback in galaxy groups (2009, methodology): “While both include galactic winds driven by supernovae, only one of the models includes feedback from accreting BHs.”
Intracluster stars in simulations with active galactic nucleus feedback (2010, methodology): “When AGN are included, this holds only for the most massive clusters, while there is a significant baryon depletion in poor clusters and groups due to the AGN heating (see also Puchwein et al. 2008).”
Simulating the effect of active galactic nuclei feedback on the metal enrichment of galaxy clusters (2009, methodology): “However, this result is in disagreement with that presented by Puchwein et al. (2008),who showed instead a good agreement at all temperatures betweentheir simulations including AGN feedback and observational data.”
Modified Gravity-GADGET: A new code for cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of modified gravity models (2013, background): “The same scales and mass ranges, however, appear to be heavily affected by a number of baryonic astrophysical processes (see e.g. Puchwein et al. 2005, 2008; Stanek et al. 2009; van Daalen et al. 2011; Semboloni et al. 2011; Casarini et al. 2011) that have not been fully understood yet and whose…”
Shaping the galaxy stellar mass function with supernova- and AGN-driven winds (2012, background): “It was also found that feedback from the BHs significantly lowers the baryon fractions and X-ray luminosities of poor galaxy clusters and groups, bringing them into excellent agreement with observations (Puchwein et al. 2008).”