Magneto-Thermal Instability In Galaxy Clusters II: Three-Dimensional Simulations

Understand

In the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxies, exchanges of heat across magnetic field lines are strongly suppressed.

• This anisotropic heat conduction, in the presence of a large-scale temperature gradient, destabilizes the outskirts of galaxy clusters via the magneto-thermal instability (MTI), and thus supplies a source of observed ICM turbulence.
• In this paper we continue our investigation of the MTI with 3D simulations using the Boussinesq code SNOOPY.
• We redress two issues intrinsic to our previous 2D study: an inverse energy cascade and the impossibility of dynamo action.