The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect of simulated jet-inflated bubbles in clusters

Abstract

Feedback by active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is essential for regulating the fast radiative cooling of low-entropy gas at the centers of galaxy clusters and for reducing star formation rates of central ellipticals. The details of self-regulation depend critically on the unknown contents of AGN-inflated bubbles. Observations of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) signal of AGN bubbles provide us with the ability to directly measure the lobe electron pressure given a bubble morphology. Here we compute the SZ signal of jet-inflated bubbles in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical simulations of the galaxy cluster MS0735.6+7421 with the Arepo code, and compare our synthetic SZ results to inferences obtained with popular modelling approaches. We find that cutting out ellipsoidal bubbles from a double-beta pressure profile only matches the inner bubble edges in the simulations and fails to account for the emission of the shock-enhanced pressure cocoon outside the bubbles. This additional contribution significantly worsens the accuracy of the cut-out method for jets with small inclinations with respect to the line of sight. Also, the kinetic SZ effect of the bubbles, a previously neglected contribution, becomes relevant at these smaller inclinations due to entrainment and mixing of the intracluster medium with low-density jet material. Fortunately, the different signs of the kinetic SZ signal in opposite lobes allow modelling this effect. We present an approximate method to determine the jet inclination, which combines jet power and lifetime estimates, the stand-off distance between jet head and bow shock, and the kinetic SZ effect, thereby helping to correctly infer the bubble contents.

7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJ letters. Comments welcome!

References in corpus (12)

• Turbulent Heating in Galaxy Clusters Brightest in X-rays
• Feedback Heating by Cosmic Rays in Clusters of Galaxies
• The answer is blowing in the wind: Simulating the interaction of jets with dynamic cluster atmospheres
• Impact of tangled magnetic fields on AGN-blown bubbles
• Simulations of cosmic ray feedback by AGN in galaxy clusters
• Do sound waves transport the AGN energy in the Perseus Cluster?
• Cycling of the powerful AGN in MS 0735.6+7421 and the duty cycle of radio AGN in Clusters
• Physical viscosity in smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of galaxy clusters
• Constraining the Nature of X-ray Cavities in Clusters and Galaxies
• Evolution of X-ray cavities
• Radio mode feedback: Does relativity matter?
• The SZ effect from cluster cavities

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Recent Progress in Modeling the Macro- and Micro-Physics of Radio Jet Feedback in Galaxy Clusters
• Non-Kolmogorov turbulence in multiphase intracluster medium driven by cold gas precipitation and AGN jets
• Self-regulated AGN feedback of light jets in cool-core galaxy clusters
• Two striking head-tail galaxies in the galaxy cluster IIZW108: insights into transition to turbulence, magnetic fields and particle re-acceleration
• Cosmic rays and thermal instability in self-regulating cooling flows of massive galaxy clusters
• GBT/MUSTANG-2 9" resolution imaging of the SZ effect in MS0735.6+7421: Confirmation of the SZ Cavities through direct imaging
• On the Mass Loading of AGN-Driven Outflows in Elliptical Galaxies and Clusters
• Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) Science: Resolving the Hot and Ionized Universe through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect
• Thermal and non-thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in the cavities of the galaxy cluster MS 0735.6+7421: the role of the thermal density in the cavity
• Supermassive Black Hole Feedback
• Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect in galaxy clusters cavities: thermal or non-thermal origin?
• Predicting Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect observations of galaxy cluster cavities with the Square Kilometre Array