TY - JOUR
T1 - Quasi-spiral solution to the mixed intracluster medium and the universal entropy profile of galaxy clusters
AU - Keshet, Uri
AU - Raveh, Itay
AU - Ghosh, Arka
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank I. Gurwich, Y. Gal, Y. Moyal, E. Malka, I. Reiss, and Y. Lyubarsky for helpful discussions. This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (Grants No. 1769/15 and 2126/22), by the IAEC-UPBC joint research foundation (Grant No. 300/18), and by the Ministry of Science, Technology & Space, Israel, and has received funding from the GIF (Grant No. I-1362-303.7/2016).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
PY - 2023/7/1
Y1 - 2023/7/1
N2 - Well-resolved galaxy clusters often show a large-scale quasi-spiral structure in deprojected density ρ and temperature T fields, delineated by a tangential discontinuity known as a cold front, superimposed on a universal radial entropy profile with a linear K(r) ∝ Tρ−2/3 ∝ r adiabat. We show that a spiral structure provides a natural quasi-stationary solution for the mixed intracluster medium (ICM), introducing a modest pressure spiral that confines the locally buoyant or heavy plasma phases. The solution persists in the presence of uniform or differential rotation, and can accommodate both an inflow and an outflow. Hydrodynamic adiabatic simulations with perturbations that deposit angular momentum and mix the plasma thus asymptote to a self-similar spiral structure. We find similar spirals in Eulerian and Lagrangian simulations of 2D and 3D, merger and offset, clusters. The discontinuity surface is given in spherical coordinates {r, θ, φ} by φ(r, θ) ∝ Φ(r), where Φ is the gravitational potential, combining a trailing spiral in the equatorial (θ = π/2) plane and semicircles perpendicular to the plane, in resemblance of a snail shell. A local convective instability can develop between spiral windings, driving a modified global instability in sublinear K(r) regions; evolved spirals thus imprint the observed K ∝ r onto the ICM even after they dissipate. The spiral structure brings hot and cold phases to close proximity, suggesting that the observed fast outflows could sustain the structure even in the presence of radiative cooling.
AB - Well-resolved galaxy clusters often show a large-scale quasi-spiral structure in deprojected density ρ and temperature T fields, delineated by a tangential discontinuity known as a cold front, superimposed on a universal radial entropy profile with a linear K(r) ∝ Tρ−2/3 ∝ r adiabat. We show that a spiral structure provides a natural quasi-stationary solution for the mixed intracluster medium (ICM), introducing a modest pressure spiral that confines the locally buoyant or heavy plasma phases. The solution persists in the presence of uniform or differential rotation, and can accommodate both an inflow and an outflow. Hydrodynamic adiabatic simulations with perturbations that deposit angular momentum and mix the plasma thus asymptote to a self-similar spiral structure. We find similar spirals in Eulerian and Lagrangian simulations of 2D and 3D, merger and offset, clusters. The discontinuity surface is given in spherical coordinates {r, θ, φ} by φ(r, θ) ∝ Φ(r), where Φ is the gravitational potential, combining a trailing spiral in the equatorial (θ = π/2) plane and semicircles perpendicular to the plane, in resemblance of a snail shell. A local convective instability can develop between spiral windings, driving a modified global instability in sublinear K(r) regions; evolved spirals thus imprint the observed K ∝ r onto the ICM even after they dissipate. The spiral structure brings hot and cold phases to close proximity, suggesting that the observed fast outflows could sustain the structure even in the presence of radiative cooling.
KW - X-rays: galaxies: clusters
KW - galaxies: clusters: general
KW - galaxies: clusters: intracluster medium
KW - hydrodynamics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161473043&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stad1044
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stad1044
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85161473043
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 522
SP - 4991
EP - 5012
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 4
ER -