Turbulence in the intracluster medium: simulations, observables & thermodynamics

Understand

We conduct two kinds of homogeneous isotropic turbulence simulations relevant for the intracluster medium (ICM): (i) pure turbulence runs without radiative cooling; (ii) turbulent heating$+$radiative cooling runs with global thermal balance.

• For pure turbulence runs in the subsonic regime, the rms density and surface brightness (SB) fluctuations vary as the square of the rms Mach number ($\mathcal{M}_{\text{rms}}$).
• However, with thermal balance, the density and SB fluctuations $(\delta SB/SB)$ are much larger.
• These scalings have implications for translating SB fluctuations into a turbulent velocity, particularly for cool cores.