Removing Cool Cores and Central Metallicity Peaks in Galaxy Clusters with Powerful AGN Outbursts

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates through hydrodynamic simulations that powerful AGN outbursts can transform cool core galaxy clusters into non-cool core clusters by removing central gas and metals, explaining observed bimodal properties.

Contribution

It introduces a model showing AGN outbursts can eliminate cool cores and alter metal distributions, providing insights into cluster evolution and bimodal properties.

Findings

AGN outbursts can remove cool cores in galaxy clusters.

Outbursts mix metals and can flatten or remove central abundance peaks.

The model explains the diversity of abundance profiles in NCC clusters.

Abstract

Recent X-ray observations of galaxy clusters suggest that cluster populations are bimodally distributed according to central gas entropy and are separated into two distinct classes: cool core (CC) and non-cool core (NCC) clusters. While it is widely accepted that AGN feedback plays a key role in offsetting radiative losses and maintaining many clusters in the CC state, the origin of NCC clusters is much less clear. At the same time, a handful of extremely powerful AGN outbursts have recently been detected in clusters, with a total energy ~10^{61}-10^{62} erg. Using two dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, we show that if a large fraction of this energy is deposited near the centers of CC clusters, which is likely common due to dense cores, these AGN outbursts can completely remove CCs, transforming them to NCC clusters. Our model also has interesting implications for cluster abundance profiles, which usually show a central peak in CC systems. Our calculations indicate that during the CC to NCC transformation, AGN outbursts efficiently mix metals in cluster central regions, and may even remove central abundance peaks if they are not broad enough. For CC clusters with broad central abundance peaks, AGN outbursts decrease peak abundances, but can not effectively destroy the peaks. Our model may simultaneously explain the contradictory (possibly bimodal) results of abundance profiles in NCC clusters, some of which are nearly flat, while others have strong central peaks similar to those in CC clusters. A statistical analysis of the sizes of central abundance peaks and their redshift evolution may shed interesting insights on the origin of both types of NCC clusters and the evolution history of thermodynamics and AGN activity in clusters.