The XMAGNET 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, diffuse, and magnetized plasma that glows brightly in X-ray wavelengths. 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 the XMAGNET 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 the formation of multiphase gas (which is created via thermal instability) and its relationship with the cluster magnetic fields.

*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, by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2121 “Quantum Universe” – 390833306 and project number 443220636 (DFG research unit FOR 5195: “Relativistic Jets in Active Galaxies”), by grant NSF PHY-2309135 to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics(KITP), and hrough UKRI grant RF-ERE-210263 (PI: Freeke van de Voort). 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: "The XMAGNET Exascale MHD Simulations of SMBH Feedback in Galaxy Groups and Clusters: Overview and Preliminary Cluster Results", P. Grete et al. 2025, The Astrophysical Journal, 988, 155 (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025ApJ...988..155G/abstract)

"XMAGNET: Velocity structure functions of active galactic nucleus-driven turbulence in the multiphase intracluster medium", M. Fournier et al. 2025, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 698, id.A121

"XMAGNET: Exascale MHD simulations of AGN-driven turbulence in an idealized cluster environment" (working title), P. Grete et al. 2025, in preparation for submission to Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

"XMAGNET: Exascale MHD simulations of SMBH Feedback over a Range of Cluster Masses" (working title). B.W. O'Shea et al. 2025, in preparation for submission to The Astrophysical Journal

Presenters

  • Brian W O'Shea

    • Michigan State University

Authors

  • Brian W O'Shea

    • Michigan State University

  • Philipp Grete

    • Hamburg University

  • Forrest Glines

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

  • Mark Voit

    • Michigan State University

  • Martin Fournier

    • University of Hamburg

  • Marcus Brüggen

    • University of Hamburg

  • Deovrat Prasad

    • Cardiff University

  • Benjamin Wibking

    • Michigan State University