Jittering jets in cooling flow clusters

TL;DR

This paper proposes a jittering jets model in galaxy cluster cooling flows where jets change direction due to uplifted cool gas, promoting widespread heating of the intracluster medium through mixing and feedback mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel jittering jets scenario incorporating angular momentum and cold feedback, enhancing understanding of ICM heating and feedback cycles in galaxy clusters.

Findings

Jets change direction due to uplifted cool gas.

Heating by mixing operates in all directions over the cooling time.

Angular momentum influences the feedback cycle.

Abstract

I put forth a scenario of jet-driven jittering-jets in cooling flows in galaxies and clusters of galaxies. By uplifting cool gas from the center of the cluster jets and the bubbles they inflate cause the direction of later jets to substantially change. Some uplifted cool clumps fall back to feed the active galactic nucleus, in what is termed the cold feedback mechanism, but with an average angular momentum that is largely inclined to that of the original jets. The proposed jittering jets scenario allows, over the cooling time of the intracluster medium (ICM), the heating by the mixing of hot jet-inflated bubble gas with the ICM to operate in all directions. The proposed scenario further supports the heating by mixing mechanism of the ICM. The feedback heating mechanism of the ICM chiefly refers to the energy cycle. The cold feedback mechanism introduces mass as another ingredient of the feedback cycle, as the mass accretion of future activity cycles is determined by the formation of perturbations by the present activity cycle. The jittering jets scenario that I propose here brings angular momentum to be another ingredient of the feedback cycle.