Recent Progress in Modeling the Macro- and Micro-Physics of Radio Jet Feedback in Galaxy Clusters

TL;DR

This review summarizes recent advances in simulating radio jet feedback in galaxy clusters, emphasizing multi-scale physical processes and the integration of microphysics into large-scale models.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the progress in modeling macro- and micro-physical processes in jet feedback simulations over the past decade.

Findings

Inclusion of magnetic fields, cosmic rays, and viscosity improves simulation realism.

Simulations now incorporate cosmological evolution and large-scale structure effects.

Open questions remain in microphysics modeling and multi-scale integration.

Abstract

Radio jets and the lobes they inflate are common in cool-core clusters and are known to play a critical role in regulating the heating and cooling of the intracluster medium (ICM). This is an inherently multi-scale problem, and much effort has been made to understand the processes governing the inflation of lobes and their impact on the cluster, as well as the impact of the environment on the jet-ICM interaction, on both macro- and microphysical scales. Developments of new numerical techniques and improving computational resources have seen simulations of jet feedback in galaxy clusters become ever more sophisticated. This ranges from modelling ICM plasma physics processes such as the effects of magnetic fields, cosmic rays and viscosity to including jet feedback in cosmologically evolved cluster environments in which the ICM thermal and dynamic properties are shaped by large-scale structure formation. In this review, we discuss the progress made over the last ~decade in capturing both the macro- and microphysical processes in numerical simulations, highlighting both the current state of the field as well as open questions and potential ways in which these questions can be addressed in the future.