November 3, 2010, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

November 3, 2010, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Interaction of AGN jet with intra-cluster plasma: Simulation study of cooling flow clusters and kinetic effects

Fathallah Alouani Bibi (Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University)

Cooling flow clusters are a type of galaxy clusters for which the inferred cooling time is less than the Hubble time. Therefore a cooling catastrophe will happen unless a heating or inflow reversal mechanism is taking place. AGN jets been the main candidate for offsetting such cooling are investigated through series of large scale parallel AMR- hydrodynamic simulations. These simulations are performed on a co-moving grid in presence of a dark matter potential. The properties of the plasma and kinetic effects are analyzed. In particular, limitations of the classical Spitzer theory when dealing with steep temperature gradients and in non-Maxwellian plasmas during the jets on phase are discussed.