Exascale simulations of magnetized turbulence driven by supermassive black hole feedback in galaxy clusters
ORAL
Abstract
Galaxy clusters are the most massive virialized objects in the universe, with masses hundreds to thousands of times that of our own Milky Way and physical scales extending for megaparsecs. The bulk of the baryons contained within these systems is comprised of a hot (107-108 K), diffuse (with particle number densities of n ~ 10-6 - 10-1 cm-3), and magnetized plasma that glows brightly in X-ray wavelengths (with typical X-ray luminosities of 1044-1045 erg/s). The energy radiated away by X-rays is replaced by heating from active galactic nuclei, which are relativistic jets powered by accretion onto the supermassive black hole in the cluster's central galaxy, maintaining the system in a dynamic equilibrium. This heating occurs through interactions of the AGN jet with the intracluster medium, which ultimately is transported throughout the highly X-ray luminous cluster core. In this presentation I will present results from exascale magnetohydrodynamics simulations of idealized galaxy clusters with a cold gas accretion-fed, magnetized AGN jet in the center. I will explain the mechanisms by which cold gas triggers the AGN jet, and how the heating from this jet regulates the amount of cold gas in the system. I will also discuss in detail the generation of turbulence by the magnetized jet, the amplification of the ambient cluster magnetic fields by turbulence-driven dynamos, and I will compare this to more idealized simulations of plasma turbulence.
*Funding for this project is provided by the National Science Foundation through grant #1908109 and #2106575, by NASA ATP grants NNX15AP39G and 80NSSC18K1105, and NASA TCAN grant 80NSSC21K1053,. This project has also received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101030214. This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. These resources were provided by as part of the DOE INCITE Leadership Computing Program under allocation AST-146 (PI: Brian O'Shea).
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Publication:We have several planned papers. The two most relevant are:
"First results from exascale simulations of AGN jet-driven magnetized plasma turbulence in idealized cluster simulations" by P. Grete, B.W. O'Shea, F.W. Glines, D. Prasad, and B. Wibking (to be submitted to The Astrophysical Journal)
"Turbulence statistics and energy transport in exascale simulations of AGN jet-driven magnetized plasma turbulence in idealized cluster simulations" by P. Grete, B.W. O'Shea, F.W. Glines, D. Prasad, and B. Wibking (to be submitted to The Astrophysical Journal)
