ADAPTIVELY REFINED LARGE EDDY SIMULATIONS OF A GALAXY CLUSTER: TURBULENCE MODELING AND THE PHYSICS OF THE INTRACLUSTER MEDIUM

Journal Article · Thu Dec 10 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/707/1/40· OSTI ID:21389340

Maier, A; Schmidt, W ^[1]; Iapichino, L ^[2]; Niemeyer, J C ^[3]

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1. Lehrstuhl fuer Astronomie, Universitaet Wuerzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Wuerzburg (Germany)
2. Zentrum fuer Astronomie der Universitaet Heidelberg, Institut fuer Theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Ueberle-Str 2, D-69120 Heidelberg (Germany)
3. Institut fuer Astrophysik, Universitaet Goettingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, D-37077 Goettingen (Germany)

We present a numerical scheme for modeling unresolved turbulence in cosmological adaptive mesh refinement codes. As a first application, we study the evolution of turbulence in the intracluster medium (ICM) and in the core of a galaxy cluster. Simulations with and without subgrid scale (SGS) model are compared in detail. Since the flow in the ICM is subsonic, the global turbulent energy contribution at the unresolved length scales is smaller than 1% of the internal energy. We find that the production of turbulence is closely correlated with merger events occurring in the cluster environment, and its dissipation locally affects the cluster energy budget. Because of this additional source of dissipation, the core temperature is larger and the density is smaller in the presence of SGS turbulence than in the standard adiabatic run, resulting in a higher entropy core value.

• OSTI ID: 21389340
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 707, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/707/1/40; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ECOSYSTEMS
ENERGY BALANCE
ENTROPY
GALAXY CLUSTERS
HYDRODYNAMICS
LARGE-EDDY SIMULATION
TURBULENCE
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
FLUID MECHANICS
MECHANICS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SIMULATION
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES