Conduction and the Star-Formation Threshold in Brightest Cluster Galaxies

Abstract

Current models of galaxy evolution suggest that feedback from active galactic nuclei is needed to explain the high-luminosity cutoff in the galaxy luminosity function. Exactly how an AGN outflow couples with the ambient medium and suppresses star formation remains poorly understood. However, we have recently uncovered an important clue to how that coupling might work. Observations of H-alpha emission and blue light from the universe's most luminous galaxies, which occupy the centers of galaxy clusters, show that star formation happens only if the minimum specific entropy of the intracluster gas is less than 30 keV cm^2. Here we suggest that this threshold for star formation is set by the physics of electron thermal conduction, implying that conduction is critical for channeling AGN energy input toward incipient star-forming regions and limiting the progress of star formation.

Accepted to ApJ Letters, 5 pages, 4 figures

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• A Global Model For Circumgalactic and Cluster-Core Precipitation
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• Turbulence in Galaxy Cluster Cores: a Key to Cluster Bimodality?
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• Infrared and Ultraviolet Star Formation in Brightest Cluster Galaxies in the ACCEPT Sample
• Star formation and UV colors of the brightest Cluster Galaxies in the representative XMM-Newton Cluster Structure Survey
• A volume-limited sample of X-ray galaxy groups and clusters - II. X-ray cavity dynamics
• Triggering and Delivery Algorithms for AGN Feedback
• Detecting Star Formation in Brightest Cluster Galaxies with GALEX
• The Effects of Anisotropic Viscosity on Turbulence and Heat Transport in the Intracluster Medium
• AGN Driven Weather and Multiphase Gas in the Core of the NGC 5044 Galaxy Group
• Cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters with feedback from active galactic nuclei: profiles and scaling relations
• Cosmological MHD simulations of cluster formation with anisotropic thermal conduction
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• Quasisteady Configurations of Conductive Intracluster Media
• Molecular Gas Along a Bright H-alpha Filament in 2A 0335+096 Revealed by ALMA
• AGN-stimulated Cooling of Hot Gas in Elliptical Galaxies
• LOFAR Observations of X-ray Cavity Systems
• The UV-optical colours of brightest cluster galaxies in optically and X-ray selected clusters
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• A Chandra X-ray Analysis of Abell 1664: Cooling, Feedback and Star Formation in the Central Cluster Galaxy
• Accurately simulating anisotropic thermal conduction on a moving mesh
• Origins of molecular clouds in early-type galaxies
• The Presence of Thermally Unstable X-ray Filaments and the Production of Cold Gas in the NGC 5044 Group
• Stability of Cool Cores During Galaxy Cluster Growth: A Joint $Chandra$/SPT Analysis of 67 Galaxy Clusters Along a Common Evolutionary Track Spanning 9 Gyr
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• A Study of High-redshift AGN Feedback in SZ Cluster Samples
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• Observable consequences of kinetic and thermal AGN feedback in elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters
• Galaxy Formation with Local Photoionization Feedback -II. Effect of X-Ray Emission from Binaries and Hot Gas
• Shattering and growth of cold clouds in galaxy clusters: the role of radiative cooling, magnetic fields and thermal conduction
• Deep Chandra Observations of HCG 16 - II. The Development of the Intra-group Medium in a Spiral-Rich Group
• Probing within the Bondi radius of the ultramassive black hole in NGC 1600
• Hot versus Cold: the Dichotomy in Spherical Accretion of Cooling Flows onto Supermassive Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies, Galaxy Groups and Clusters
• Powering of H$\alpha$ filaments by cosmic rays
• High-Spectral Resolution Observations of the Optical Filamentary Nebula in NGC 1275
• The detailed nature of active central cluster galaxies
• Chandra Observation of Abell 1142: A Cool-Core Cluster Lacking a Central Brightest Cluster Galaxy?
• Extended, Dusty Star Formation Fueled by a Residual Cooling Flow in the Cluster of Galaxies Sersic 159-03
• Entropy Limit and the Cold Feedback Mechanism in Cooling Flow Clusters
• Seeking Self-Regulating Simulations of Idealized Milky Way-Like Galaxies
• Stellar populations in central cluster galaxies: the influence of cooling flows
• The Chemical and Thermal Structure of the Hot Atmosphere of the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 5813
• High-spectral-resolution Observations of the [S II] Emission-line Doublet in the Filamentary Nebula Surrounding NGC 1275
• Multiwavelength Characterization of a Dynamically Relaxed Cool Core Galaxy Cluster at $z=1.5$