Radio Relics in Cosmological Simulations |
| |
Authors: | M Hoeft S E Nuza S Gottlöber R J van Weeren H J A Röttgering M Brüggen |
| |
Institution: | 1.Thüringer Landessternwarte,Tautenburg,Germany;2.Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam,Potsdam,Germany;3.Sterrewacht Leiden,Leiden,The Netherlands;4.Jacobs University Bremen,Bremen,Germany |
| |
Abstract: | 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. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|