# AGN jet feedback on a moving mesh: lobe energetics and X-ray properties in a realistic cluster environment

## TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution simulations to explore how AGN jets transfer energy to the intracluster medium, revealing that internal shocks and mixing are key in heating cluster cores and producing observable X-ray cavities.

## Contribution

First high-resolution moving mesh simulations of AGN jets in a realistic galaxy cluster environment, detailing energy transfer mechanisms and X-ray observable features.

## Key findings

- Jet lobes rapidly thermalize energy through shocks and mixing.
- Jets effectively heat the cluster core, balancing radiative cooling.
- X-ray cavities and rims are observable for up to 10^8 years.

## Abstract

Jet feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) harboured by brightest cluster galaxies is expected to play a fundamental role in regulating cooling in the intracluster medium (ICM). While observations and theory suggest energy within jet lobes balances ICM radiative losses, the modus operandi of energy communication with the ICM remains unclear. We present simulations of very high resolution AGN-driven jets launching in a live, cosmological galaxy cluster, within the moving mesh code AREPO. As the jet propagates through the ICM the majority of its energy, which is initially in the kinetic form, thermalizes quickly through internal shocks and inflates lobes of very hot gas. The jets effectively heat the cluster core, with $PdV$ work and weather-aided mixing being the main channels of energy transfer from the lobes to the ICM, while strong shocks and turbulence are subdominant. We additionally present detailed mock X-ray maps at different stages of evolution, revealing clear cavities surrounded by X-ray bright rims, with lobes being detectable for up to $\sim 10^8$ yr even when magnetic draping is ineffective. We find bulk motions in the cluster can significantly affect lobe propagation, offsetting them from the jet direction and imparting bulk velocities that can dominate over the buoyantly rising motion.