Simulations of the Virgo Cold Fronts with Magnetic Fields and Viscosity

Relevant Papers

• ZuHone, J. A., Kunz, M. W., Markevitch, M., Stone, J. M., & Biffi, V. 2015, ApJ, 798, 90

• Werner, N., ZuHone, J. A., Zhuravleva, I., et al. 2016, MNRAS, 455, 846

Set Characteristics

• Code: Athena

• Simulation type: SMR

• Box size: L = 4 Mpc

• Finest cell size: \(\Delta{x}_{\rm min}\) = 0.488-0.977 kpc

• Primary cluster mass: \(M_{200} = 1.51\times10^{14}~M_{\odot}\)

Notes

• There is no metallicity field in these simulations; hence for computing X-ray emissivities a constant metallicity of \(Z = 0.3~Z_\odot\) is assumed.

• Simulations with viscosity and/or thermal conduction were restarted from their corresponding ideal HD/MHD simulations at core passage, hence for these simulations there are no earlier snapshots available.

• For each simulation, the main cluster is fixed at r = [0, 0, 0] kpc. A tab-separated ASCII table containing the subcluster position, velocity, and acceleration as a function of time may be found here.

Cosmology

Note

For non-cosmological simulations such as this one, a cosmology and redshift are assumed for the purposes of calculating distance and redshift-dependent quantities.

• \(\Lambda{\rm CDM}\) cosmology

• \(H_0 = 71~{\rm km~s^{-1}~Mpc^{-1}}\)

• \(\Omega_m = 0.27\)

• \(\Omega_\Lambda = 0.73\)

• \(z = 0.0036\) for all epochs

Simulations

For the following simulations, \(\beta = p_{\rm th}/p_B\).

• Unmagnetized, Inviscid
• Unmagnetized, 10% Isotropic Spitzer Viscosity
• \(\beta\) = 1000, Inviscid
• \(\beta\) = 100, Inviscid
• \(\beta\) = 1000, Braginskii Viscosity
• \(\beta\) = 1000, Isotropic Spitzer Viscosity
• \(\beta\) = 1000, 10% Isotropic Spitzer Viscosity
• \(\beta\) = 1000, Anisotropic Thermal Conduction
• \(\beta\) = 1000, Braginskii Viscosity, Anisotropic Thermal Conduction

Acknowledgements

This set of simulations was performed using the Pleiades supercomputer at NASA’s Ames Research Center.