A statistically selected Chandra sample of 20 galaxy clusters – I. Temperature and cooling time profiles

We present an analysis of 20 galaxy clusters observed with the Chandra X-ray satellite, focusing on the temperature structure of the intracluster medium and the cooling time of the gas. Our sample is drawn from a flux-limited catalogue but excludes the Fornax, Coma and Centaurus clusters, owing to their large angular size compared to the Chandra field of view. We describe a quantitative measure of the impact of central cooling, and find that the sample comprises nine clusters possessing cool cores (CCs) and 11 without. The properties of these two types differ markedly, but there is a high degree of uniformity amongst the CC clusters, which obey a nearly universal radial scaling in temperature of the form   T ∝ r ^∼0.4  , within the core. This uniformity persists in the gas cooling time, which varies more strongly with radius in CC clusters  ( t _cool∝ r ^∼1.3)  , reaching   t _cool < 1 Gyr  in all cases, although surprisingly low central cooling times (<5 Gyr) are found in many of the non-CC systems. The scatter between the cooling time profiles of all the clusters is found to be remarkably small, implying a universal form for the cooling time of gas at a given physical radius in virialized systems, in agreement with recent previous work. Our results favour cluster merging as the primary factor in preventing the formation of CCs.     

Probing the growth of supermassive black holes at z > 6 with LOFAR

H  ii regions surrounding supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in an otherwise still neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) are likely to be the most easily detectable sources by future 21-cm experiments like LOFAR. We have made predictions for the size distribution of such H  ii regions for several physically motivated models for BH growth at high redshift and compared this to the expected LOFAR sensitivity to these sources. The number of potentially detectable H  ii regions does not only depend on the ionization state of the IGM and the decoupling of the spin temperature of the neutral hydrogen from the cosmic microwave background temperature, but is also strongly sensitive to the rate of growth of BHs at high redshift. If the SMBHs at redshift 6 were built up via continuous Eddington-limited accretion from low mass seed BHs at high redshift, then LOFAR is not expected to detect isolated QSO H  ii regions at redshifts much larger than 6, and only if the IGM is still significantly neutral. If the high-redshift growth of BHs starts with massive seed BHs and is driven by short-lived accretion events following the merging of BH hosting galaxies then the detection of H  ii regions surrounding SMBHs may extend to redshifts as large as 8–9 but is still very sensitive to the redshift to which the IGM remains significantly neutral. The most optimistic predictions are for a model where the SMBHs at z > 6 have grown slowly. H  ii regions around SMBHs may then be detected to significantly larger redshifts.     

The 21-cm forest

We examine the prospects for studying the pre-reionization intergalactic medium (IGM) through the so-called 21-cm forest in spectra of bright high-redshift radio sources. We first compute the evolution of the mean optical depth τ for models that include X-ray heating of the IGM gas, Wouthuysen–Field coupling, and reionization. Under most circumstances, the spin temperature T _S grows large well before reionization begins in earnest; this occurs so long as the X-ray luminosity of high-redshift starbursts (per unit star formation rate) is comparable to that in nearby galaxies. As a result,  τ≲ 10⁻³  throughout most of reionization, and background sources must sit well beyond the reionization surface in order to experience absorption that is measurable by square-kilometre class telescopes. H  ii regions produce relatively large 'transmission gaps' and may therefore still be observable during the early stages of reionization. Absorption from sheets and filaments in the cosmic web fades once T _S becomes large and should be rare during reionization. Minihaloes can produce strong (albeit narrow) absorption features. Measuring their abundance would yield useful limits on the strength of feedback processes in the IGM as well as their effect on reionization.     

Semi-analytic simulations of galactic winds: volume filling factor, ejection of metals and parameter study

We present a semi-analytic treatment of galactic winds within high-resolution, large-scale cosmological N -body simulations of a Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) universe. The evolution of winds is investigated by following the expansion of supernova-driven superbubbles around the several hundred thousand galaxies that form in an approximately spherical region of space with diameter 52  h ⁻¹ Mpc and mean density close to the mean density of the universe. We focus our attention on the impact of winds on the diffuse intergalactic medium. Initial conditions for mass loss at the base of winds are taken from Shu, Mo & Mao. Results are presented for the volume filling factor and the mass fraction of the intergalactic medium (IGM) affected by winds, and their dependence on the model parameters is carefully investigated. The mass-loading efficiency of bubbles is a key factor to determine the evolution of winds and their global impact on the IGM: the higher the mass loading, the later the IGM is enriched with metals. Galaxies with 10⁹ < M _★ < 10¹⁰ M_⊙ are responsible for most of the metals ejected into the IGM at   z = 3  , while galaxies with   M _★ < 10⁹ M_⊙   give a non-negligible contribution only at higher redshifts, when larger galaxies have not yet assembled. We find a higher mean IGM metallicity than Lyα forest observations suggest, and we argue that the discrepancy may be explained by the high temperatures of a large fraction of the metals in winds, which may not leave detectable imprints in absorption in the Lyα forest.     

On the origin of warps and the role of the intergalactic medium

There is still no consensus as to what causes galactic discs to become warped. Successful models should account for the frequent occurrence of warps in quite isolated galaxies, their amplitude as well as the observed azimuthal and vertical distributions of the H  i layer. Intergalactic accretion flows and intergalactic magnetic fields may bend the outer parts of spiral galaxies. In this paper we consider the viability of these non-gravitational torques to take the gas off the plane. We show that magnetically generated warps are clearly flawed because they would wrap up into a spiral in less than two or three galactic rotations. The inclusion of any magnetic diffusivity to dilute the wrapping effect causes the amplitude of the warp to damp. We also consider the observational consequences of the accretion of an intergalactic plane-parallel flow at infinity. We have computed the amplitude and warp asymmetry in the accretion model, for a disc embedded in a flattened dark matter halo, including self-consistently the contribution of the modes with azimuthal wavenumbers   m = 0  and   m = 1  . Since the m = 0 component, giving a U-shaped profile, is not negligible compared to the m = 1 component, this model predicts quite asymmetric warps, maximum gas displacements on the two sides in the ratio 3 : 2 for the preferred Galactic parameters, and the presence of a fraction ∼3.5 per cent of U-shaped warps, at least. The azimuthal dependence of the moment transfer by the ram pressure would produce a strong asymmetry in the thickness of the H  i layer and asymmetric density distributions in z , in conflict with observational data for the warp in our Galaxy and in external galaxies. The amount of accretion that is required to explain the Galactic warp would give gas scaleheights in the far outer disc that are too small. We conclude that accretion of a flow with no net angular momentum cannot be the main and only cause of warps.     

Non-local diffusion and the chemical structure of molecular clouds

Observations of fluctuations in the redshifted 21-cm radiation from neutral hydrogen (H  i ) are perceived to be an important future probe of the universe at high redshifts. Under the assumption that at redshifts   z ≤ 6  (post-reionization era) the H  i traces the underlying dark matter with a possible bias, we investigate the possibility of using observations of redshifted 21-cm radiation to detect the bispectrum arising from non-linear gravitational clustering and from non-linear bias. We find that the expected signal is ∼ 0.1  mJy at  325  MHz ( z = 3.4)  for the small baselines at the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, the strength being a few times larger at higher frequencies  (610 MHz, z = 1.3)  . Further, the magnitude of the signal from the bispectrum is predicted to be comparable to that from the power spectrum, allowing a detection of both in roughly the same integration time. The H  i signal is found to be uncorrelated beyond frequency separations of ∼1.3 MHz whereas the continuum sources of contamination are expected to be correlated across much larger frequencies. This signature can in principle be used to distinguish the H  i signal from the contamination. We also consider the possibility of using observations of the bispectrum to determine the linear and quadratic bias parameters of the H  i at high redshifts, this having possible implications for theories of galaxy formation.