Structure Flows, AGN and the WHIM

Dr. Jones and Dr. Rudnick will conduct a coordinated program of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations and radio observations to study the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM). In the early Universe, low-density gas is mixed with dark matter. As over-dense regions collapse to form the filaments of the 'cosmic web', the gas falls supersonically into these filaments, where it is shock-heated and ionized to form the WHIM. Magnetic fields will be amplified in the shocks, and electrons accelerated to relativistic speeds. This team aims to detect the filamentary WHIM by its polarized radio synchrotron radiation. They will concentrate on a redshift z ~ 0.1, just distant enough that the WHIM filaments appear narrow enough to distinguish them from the Galactic foreground, which predominates on angular scales larger than a degree across. The team will use MHD simulations to follow outflows from giant radio galaxies over megaparsec scales as they impinge on the WHIM, including a self-consistent treatment of cosmic ray acceleration and transport. The simulated objects will be compared to observed structures over the whole spectrum from radio to gamma-rays, to test models for the WHIM and the origin of intergalactic magnetic fields.

Two graduate students will be trained by participating in the research, along with undergraduate students. The team will visit schools, churches, civic organizations and state parks to share information about basic astronomy as well as their own research.