Open AccessStability of cold fronts in clusters: is magnetic field necessary?
Author(s) -
Churazov E.,
Inogamov N.
Publication year - 2004
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 - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07858.x
Subject(s) - physics , cold front , astrophysics , instability , galaxy cluster , classification of discontinuities , cluster (spacecraft) , magnetic field , perturbation (astronomy) , eddy , cooling flow , galaxy , turbulence , astronomy , mechanics , meteorology , mathematics , quantum mechanics , computer science , mathematical analysis , programming language
Cold fronts – sharp discontinuities recently discovered by Chandra in many clusters of galaxies – are believed to be due to a hot gas flow over a colder gravitationally bound gas cloud. We analyse the stability of the fronts with respect to Kelvin–Helmholtz instability and show that an intrinsic width of the interface of the order of a few per cent of the curvature radius strongly limits the growth of perturbation. For the best studied case of a front in the Cluster Abell 3667 we conclude that current observational data on the width and extent of the front can be explained even in the absence of dynamically important magnetic fields.