The generation of optical emission-line filaments in galaxy clusters

Abstract

Recent data support the idea that the filaments observed in Hα emission near the centres of some galaxy clusters were shaped by bulk flows within their intracluster medium (ICM). We present numerical simulations of evaporated clump material interacting with impinging winds to investigate this possibility. In each simulation, a clump falls due to gravity while the drag of a wind retards the fall of evaporated material leading to elongation of the tail. However, we find that long filaments can only form if the outflowing wind velocity is sufficiently large, ∼108 cm s-1. Otherwise, the tail material sinks almost as quickly as the cloud. For reasonable values of parameters, the morphological structure of a tail is qualitatively similar to those observed in clusters. Under certain conditions, the kinematics of the tail resemble those reported in Hatch et al. A comparison of the observations with the numerical results indicates that the filaments are likely to be a few tens of Myr old. We also present arguments which suggest that the momentum transfer, from an outflowing wind, in the formation of these filaments is probably significant. As a result, tail formation could play a role in dissipating some of the energy injected by a central active galactic nuclei (AGN) close to the cluster centre where it is needed most. The trapping of energy by the cold gas may provide an additional feedback mechanism that helps to regulate the heating of the central regions of galaxy clusters and couple the AGN to the ICM. © 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 RAS.