Bubbles, Feedback and the Intra-Cluster Medium: Three-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Simulations

We use a three dimensional hydrodynamical code to simulate the effect of energy injection on cooling flows in the intracluster medium. Specifically, we compare a simulation of a 10 M cluster with radiative cooling only, with a second simulation in which thermal energy is injected 31 kpc off-centre, over 64 kpc at a rate of 4.9×1044ergs s−1 for 50 Myr. The heat injection forms a hot, low density bubble which quickly rises, dragging behind it material from the cluster core. The rising bubble pushes with it a shell of gas which expands and cools. We find the appearance of the bubble in X-ray temperature and luminosity to be in good qualitative agreement with recent Chandra observations of cluster cores. Toward the end of the simulation, at 600 Myr, the displaced gas begins to fall back toward the core, and the subsequent turbulence is very efficient at mixing the low and high entropy gas. The result is that the cooling flow is disrupted for up to ∼ 50 Myr after the injection of energy ceases. Thus, this mechanism provides a very efficient method for regulating cooling flows, if the injection events occur with a 1:1 duty cycle.