Stable Heating of Cluster Cooling Flows by Cosmic-Ray Streaming

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates through simulations that cosmic-ray streaming can provide stable heating to galaxy cluster cores, preventing cooling flows without relying heavily on thermal conduction, and highlighting the insensitivity of CR pressure to ICM variations.

Contribution

The study introduces a model where cosmic-ray streaming effectively heats cluster cores, showing stability and independence from thermal conduction, which is a novel approach in understanding cluster cooling flows.

Findings

CR streaming can stably heat cluster cores for long periods.

CR heating prevents the development of massive cooling flows.

Thermal conduction enhances the stability of CR heating.

Abstract

We study heating of cool cores in galaxy clusters by cosmic-ray (CR) streaming using numerical simulations. In this model, CRs are injected by the central active galactic nucleus (AGN) and move outward with Alfven waves. The waves are excited by the streaming itself and become non-linear. If magnetic fields are large enough, CRs can prevail in and heat the entire core because of a large Alfven velocity. We find that the CR streaming can stably heat both high and low temperature clusters for a long time without the assistance of thermal conduction, and it can prevent the development of massive cooling flows. If there is even minor contribution of thermal conduction, the heating can be more stabilized. We discuss the reason of the stability and indicate that the CR pressure is insensitive to the change of intracluster medium (ICM), and that the density dependence of the heating term is similar to that of the radiative cooling.