AGN feedback in clusters: shock and sound heating

TL;DR

This paper discusses how AGN-driven shocks and sound waves heat galaxy cluster gas, preventing cooling and star formation, with viscosity playing a key role in energy dissipation.

Contribution

It introduces the significance of weak shocks and sound wave dissipation, governed by viscosity, as primary mechanisms for AGN feedback heating in galaxy clusters.

Findings

Weak shocks effectively heat gas near AGN.

Sound wave dissipation contributes to large-scale heating.

Viscosity determines sound damping rates in the ICM.

Abstract

Observations support the view that feedback, in the form of radio outbursts from active nuclei in central galaxies, prevents catastrophic cooling of gas and rapid star formation in many groups and clusters of galaxies. Variations in jet power drive a succession of weak shocks that can heat regions close to the active galactic nuclei (AGN). On larger scales, shocks fade into sound waves. The Braginskii viscosity determines a well-defined sound damping rate in the weakly magnetized intracluster medium (ICM) that can provide sufficient heating on larger scales. It is argued that weak shocks and sound dissipation are the main means by which radio AGN heat the ICM, in which case, the power spectrum of AGN outbursts plays a central role in AGN feedback.