Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 0712.0187

The Broadband Spectrum of Galaxy Clusters

Brandon Wolfe·Fulvio Melia
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We examine whether nonthermal protons energized during a cluster merger are simultaneously responsible for the Coma cluster's diffuse radio flux (via secondary decay) and the departure of its intra-cluster medium (ICM) from a thermal profile via Coulomb collisions between the quasithermal electrons and the hadrons. Rather than approximating the influence of nonthermal proton/thermal electron collisions as extremely rare events which cause an injection of nonthermal, power-law electrons (the `knock-on' approximation), we self-consistently solve (to our knowledge, for the first time) the covariant kinetic equations for the two populations. The electron population resulting from these collisions is out of equilibrium, yet not a power law, and importantly displays a higher bremsstrahlung radiative efficiency than a pure power law. Observations with GLAST will test this model directly.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Brandon Wolfe, Fulvio Melia. 2007-12-02. The Broadband Spectrum of Galaxy Clusters. https://doi.org/10.1086/527406

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2018

Sky coverage of orbital detectors. Analytical approach

Orbital detectors without pointing capability have to keep their field of view axis laying on their orbital plane, to observe the largest sky fraction. A general approach to estimate the exposure of each sky element for such detectors is a valuable tool in the R&D phase of a project, when the detector characteristics are still to be fixed. An analytical method to estimate the sky exposure is developed, which makes only few very reasonable approximations. The formulae obtained with this method are used to compute the histogram of the sky exposure of a hypothetical gamma-ray detector installed on the ISS. The C++ code used in this example is freely available on the https://github.com/dcasadei/SkyCoverage web page.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2017

The Role of Primordial Kicks on Black Hole Merger Rates

Primordial stars are likely to be very massive >30 Msun, form in isolation, and will likely leave black holes as remnants in the centers of their host dark matter halos. We expect primordial stars to form in halos in the mass range 10^6-10^10 Msun. Some of these early black holes, formed at redshifts z>10, could be the seed black hole for a significant fraction of the supermassive black holes found in galaxies in the local universe. If the black hole descendants of the primordial stars exist, their mergers with nearby supermassive black holes may be a prime candidate for long wavelength gravitational wave detectors. We simulate formation and evolution of dark matter halos in LambdaCDM universe. We seed high-redshift dark matter halos with early black holes, and explore the merger history of the host halos and the implications of black hole's kick velocities arising from their coalescence. The central concentration of low mass early black holes in present day galaxies is reduced if they experience even moderate kicks of tens of km/s. Even such modest kicks allow the black holes to leave their parent halo, which consequently leads to dynamical friction being less effective on the low mass black holes that were ejected, compared to those still embedded in their parent halos. Therefore, merger rates with central supermassive black holes in the largest halos may be reduced by more than an order of magnitude. Using analytical and illustrative cosmological N-body simulations, we quantify the role of kicks on the merger rates of black holes formed from massive metal free stars with supermassive black holes in present day galaxies.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2017

Pulsar Magnetic Field Oscillation Model and Verification Methods

We constructed the magnetic field oscillation model (hereafter the MO model) by analogizing the periodically reversing phenomenon of the solar magnetic field to pulsars. Almost all kinds of pulsar radiation phenomena are best explained using the MO model, especially polarization characteristics, glitch, generation rate, the geodetic precession of pulsars and the configuration of pulsar-wind nebula of the Crab. The MO model also provides satisfactory explanation for other characteristics of pulsars, e.g., interpulse, spin-down, pulse nulling, beat and pulse drift, the loss rate of the rotating energy, and the accuracy of frequency. We present eight verification methods for the MO model. In addition to pulsars, our MO model can also be used to explain the pulse emission from non-compact stars such as the ultracool dwarf TVLM 513-46546 and the magnetic chemically peculiar star CU Virginis.

astro-ph↗