Radio jet propagation and wide-angle tailed radio sources in merging galaxy cluster environments

Details Radio jet propagation and wide-angle tailed radio sources in merging galaxy cluster environments Radio jet propagation and wide-angle tailed radio sources in merging galaxy cluster environments

May 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995apj...445...80l&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 445, no. 1, p. 80-97

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

61

Galactic Clusters, Galactic Winds, Interacting Galaxies, Intergalactic Media, Radio Jets (Astronomy), Radio Sources (Astronomy), Shock Waves, Supersonic Flow, Astronomical Models, Computerized Simulation, Density Distribution, Hydrodynamics, Shock Wave Interaction, Shock Wave Propagation, Velocity Distribution

Scientific paper

The intracluster medium (ICM) within merging clusters of galaxies is likely to be in a violent or turbulent dynamical state which may have a significant effect on the evolution of cluster radio sources. We present results from a recent gas + N-body simulation of a cluster merger, suggesting that mergers can result in long-lived, supersonic bulk flows, as well as shocks, within a few hundred kiloparsecs of the core of the dominant cluster. These results have motivated our new two-dimensional and three-dimensional simulations of jet propagation in such environments. The first set of simulations models the ISM/ICM transition as a contact discontinuity with a strong velocity shear. A supersonic (Mj = 6) jet crossing this discontinuity into an ICM with a transverse, supersonic wind bends continuously, becomes 'naked' on the upwind side, and forms a distended cocoon on the downwind side. In the case of a mildly supersonic jet (Mj = 3), however, a shock is driven into the ISM and ISM material is pulled along with the jet into the ICM. Instabilities excited at the ISM/ICM interface result in the jet repeatedly pinching off and reestablishing itself in a series of 'disconnection events.' The second set of simulations deals with a jet encountering a shock in the merging cluster environment. A series of relatively high-resolution two-dimensional calculations is used to confirm earlier analysis predicting that the jet will not disrupt when the jet Mach number is greater than the shock Mach number. A jet which survives the encounter with the shock will decrease in radius and disrupt shortly thereafter as a result of the growth of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. We also find, in disagreement with predictions, that the jet flaring angle decreases with increasing jet density. Finally, a three-dimensional simulation of a jet crossing an oblique shock gives rise to a morphology which resembles a wide-angle tailed radio source with the jet flaring at the shock and disrupting to form a long, turbulent tail which is dragged downstream by the preshock wind.

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