Building New Insights to Galaxy Cluster Physics and Evolution

Galaxy clusters are the largest self-gravitating structures in the universe, sometimes containing thousands of galaxies. On the largest scales, matter in the universe - galaxies, gas and dark matter - is distributed in a vast cosmic web of interconnecting filaments. Galaxy clusters are believed to form at the intersection of these filaments through accretion – gas funneled through the filaments onto the cluster – or through mergers of smaller galaxy clusters. A team from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, will use high resolution computer simulations to better understand observational signatures of merging and other dynamical events on the intracluster medium (ICM). Such features include shocks, turbulence, and cold fronts. In addition, they will carry out high resolution simulations of the effect of radio jets – jets of plasma emitted from black holes that reside in the centers of galaxies – on the ICM. The Principal Investigator (PI) will continue training students in high performance computing and will create videos to be used by the the Bell Museum of Natural History and Planetarium. In addition, he will continue his work with the Radio Galaxy Zoo citizen science project. The proposal includes a collaboration with the Hewlett Packard Enterprise High Performance Computing Team.The aims of this project include; applying novel magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to better understand the interaction of radio jets and the ICM; modeling the physics of non-thermal particle transport and acceleration needed for reliable links between non-thermal, cosmic ray emissions and ICM dynamics; conducting cosmological, MHD cluster assembly simulations in order to better relate observed ICM structures to the dynamical state and history of a given cluster.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.