Understanding the outskirts of galaxy clusters at the virial radius (R200) and beyond is critical for an accurate determination of cluster masses and to ensure unbiased cosmological parameter estimates from cluster surveys. This problem has drawn ren
ewed interest due to recent determinations of gas mass fractions beyond R200, which appear to be considerably larger than the cosmic mean, and because the clusters total Sunyaev-Zeldovich flux receives a significant contribution from these regions. Here, we use a large suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to study the clumpiness of density and pressure and employ different variants of simulated physics, including radiative gas physics and thermal feedback by active galactic nuclei. We find that density and pressure clumping closely trace each other as a function of radius, but the bias on density remains on average < 20% within the virial radius R200. At larger radius, clumping increases steeply due to the continuous infall of coherent structures that have not yet passed the accretion shock. Density and pressure clumping increase with cluster mass and redshift, which probes on average dynamically younger objects that are still in the process of assembling. The angular power spectra of gas density and pressure show that the clumping signal is dominated by comparably large substructures with scales >R200/5, signaling the presence of gravitationally-driven super-clumping. In contrast, the angular power spectrum of the dark matter (DM) shows an almost uniform size distribution due to unimpeded subhalos. The quadrupolar anisotropy dominates the signal and correlates well across different radii as a result of the prolateness of the DM potential. We provide a synopsis of the radial dependence of the clusters non-equilibrium measures (kinetic pressure support, ellipticity, and clumping) that all increase sharply beyond R200.
The extragalactic gamma-ray sky at TeV energies is dominated by blazars, a subclass of accreting super-massive black holes with powerful relativistic outflows directed at us. Only constituting a small fraction of the total power output of black holes
, blazars were thought to have a minor impact on the universe at best. As we argue here, the opposite is true and the gamma-ray emission from TeV blazars can be thermalized via beam-plasma instabilities on cosmological scales with order unity efficiency, resulting in a potentially dramatic heating of the low-density intergalactic medium. Here, we review this novel heating mechanism and explore the consequences for the formation of structure in the universe. In particular, we show how it produces an inverted temperature-density relation of the intergalactic medium that is in agreement with observations of the Lyman-alpha forest. This suggests that blazar heating can potentially explain the paucity of dwarf galaxies in galactic halos and voids, and the bimodality of galaxy clusters. This also transforms our understanding of the evolution of blazars, their contribution to the extra-galactic gamma-ray background, and how their individual spectra can be used in constraining intergalactic magnetic fields.
Recent improvements in the capabilities of low frequency radio telescopes provide a unique opportunity to study thermal and non-thermal properties of the cosmic web. We argue that the diffuse, polarized emission from giant radio relics traces structu
re formation shock waves and illuminates the large-scale magnetic field. To show this, we model the population of shock-accelerated relativistic electrons in high-resolution cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters and calculate the resulting radio synchrotron emission. We find that individual shock waves correspond to localized peaks in the radio surface brightness map which enables us to measure Mach numbers for these shocks. We show that the luminosities and number counts of the relics strongly depend on the magnetic field properties, the cluster mass and dynamical state. By suitably combining different cluster data, including Faraday rotation measures, we are able to constrain some macroscopic parameters of the plasma at the structure formation shocks, such as models of turbulence. We also predict upper limits for the properties of the warm-hot intergalactic medium, such as its temperature and density. We predict that the current generation of radio telescopes (LOFAR, GMRT, MWA, LWA) have the potential to discover a substantially larger sample of radio relics, with multiple relics expected for each violently merging cluster. Future experiments (SKA) should enable us to further probe the macroscopic parameters of plasma physics in clusters.
We are learning much about how structure forms, in particular how clusters as nodes in the cosmic web evolve and accrete matter, and about the physical processes within these objects. In the next decade, the study of clusters will enable us to tackle
important questions regarding the nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, how clusters co-evolve with super-massive black holes at their centers, and to advance our knowledge about fundamental plasma astrophysics. This science white paper outlines the key questions and research opportunities in cluster astrophysics that are emerging in the coming decade and beyond, and serves as an overview to other cluster related white papers.
We investigate a numerical model for AGN feedback where for the first time a relativistic particle population in AGN-inflated bubbles is followed within a full cosmological context. In our high-resolution simulations of galaxy cluster formation, we a
ssume that BH accretion is accompanied by energy feedback that occurs in two different modes, depending on the accretion rate itself. Unlike in previous work, we inject a non-thermal particle population of relativistic protons into the AGN bubbles, instead of adopting a purely thermal heating. We then follow the subsequent evolution of the cosmic ray (CR) plasma inside the bubbles, considering both its hydrodynamical interactions and dissipation processes relevant for the CR population. Due to the different buoyancy of relativistic plasma and the comparatively long CR dissipation timescale we find substantial changes in the evolution of clusters as a result of CR feedback. In particular, the non-thermal population can provide significant pressure support in central cluster regions at low thermal temperatures, providing a natural explanation for the decreasing temperature profiles found in cool core clusters. At the same time, the morphologies of the bubbles and of the induced X-ray cavities show a striking similarity to observational findings. AGN feedback with CRs also proves efficient in regulating cluster cooling flows so that the total baryon fraction in stars becomes limited to realistic values of the order of 10%. We find that the partial CR support of the intracluster gas also affects the expected signal of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, with typical modifications of the integrated Compton-y parameter within the virial radius of the order of 10%. [Abridged]
