Simulations of AGN feedback in galaxy clusters and groups

TL;DR

This paper uses high-resolution cosmological simulations to demonstrate that black hole feedback effectively regulates gas content and X-ray properties in galaxy clusters and groups, aligning models with observations.

Contribution

It introduces a realistic black hole feedback model that accurately reproduces observed gas fractions and X-ray scaling relations in galaxy clusters and groups.

Findings

Black hole feedback reduces halo gas fractions to observed levels.

The model reproduces the observed X-ray luminosity-temperature relation.

It avoids unphysical bright central galaxies seen in cooling-only models.

Abstract

There is compelling evidence that black holes (BHs) in cluster centers vigorously interact with their surroundings, indicating that any realistic model of cluster formation needs to account for these processes. Here we use high-resolution cosmological simulations of a large cluster and group sample to study how BHs affect their host systems. We focus on two specific properties, the halo gas fraction and the X-ray luminosity-temperature scaling relation, both of which are notoriously difficult to reproduce in self-consistent hydrodynamical simulations. We show that BH feedback can solve both of these issues, bringing them in excellent agreement with observations, without alluding to the `cooling only' solution that produces unphysically bright central galaxies.