Open AccessProblems in suppressing cooling flows in clusters of galaxies by global heat conduction
Author(s) -
Soker Noam
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06548.x
Subject(s) - physics , thermal conduction , cooling flow , radiative cooling , perturbation (astronomy) , mechanics , cluster (spacecraft) , amplitude , astrophysics , galaxy cluster , radiative transfer , galaxy , thermodynamics , astronomy , optics , computer science , programming language
I use a simple analytical model to show that simple heat conduction models cannot significantly suppress cluster cooling flows. I build a static medium where heat conduction globally balances radiative cooling, and then perturb it. I show that a perturbation extending over a large fraction of the cooling flow region and with an amplitude of ∼10 per cent, will grow to the non‐linear regime within a Hubble time. Such perturbations are reasonable in clusters that frequently experience mergers and/or active galactic nuclei activity. This result strengthens previous findings which show that a steady solution does not exist for a constant heat conduction coefficient.