Radio relics in cosmological simulations

Details Radio relics in cosmological simulations Radio relics in cosmological simulations

2012-02-10

arxiv.org/abs/1202.2272v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

10 pages, 4 figures, Invited talk at the conference "Diffuse Relativistic Plasmas", Bangalore, 1-4 March 2011; in press in spe

Scientific paper

10.1007/s12036-011-9127-z

Radio relics have been discovered in many galaxy clusters. They are believed to trace shock fronts induced by cluster mergers. Cosmological simulations allow us to study merger shocks in detail since the intra-cluster medium is heated by shock dissipation. Using high resolution cosmological simulations, identifying shock fronts and applying a parametric model for the radio emission allows us to simulate the formation of radio relics. We analyze a simulated shock front in detail. We find a rather broad Mach number distribution. The Mach number affects strongly the number density of relativistic electrons in the downstream area, hence, the radio luminosity varies significantly across the shock surface. The abundance of radio relics can be modeled with the help of the radio power probability distribution which aims at predicting radio relic number counts. Since the actual electron acceleration efficiency is not known, predictions for the number counts need to be normalized by the observed number of radio relics. For the characteristics of upcoming low frequency surveys we find that about thousand relics are awaiting discovery.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Radio relics in cosmological simulations does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Radio relics in cosmological simulations, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Radio relics in cosmological simulations will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-275900