Cosmological MHD simulations of cluster formation with anisotropic thermal conduction

Understand

(abridged) The ICM has been suggested to be buoyantly unstable in the presence of magnetic field and anisotropic thermal conduction.

• We perform first cosmological simulations of galaxy cluster formation that simultaneously include magnetic fields, radiative cooling and anisotropic thermal conduction.
• In isolated and idealized cluster models, the magnetothermal instability (MTI) tends to reorient the magnetic fields radially.
• Using cosmological simulations of the Santa Barbara cluster we detect radial bias in the velocity and magnetic fields.