3D Jet Visualization

This shows the AGN jet material (yellow, traced with a passive scalar field) and magnetic field lines (cyan) at a single instant in time for the Perseus-like galaxy cluster simulation. (Credit: Dr. Michael Sandoval, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility.)

Cold gas velocity structure

This shows the line-of-sight velocity structure of cold gas in a galaxy cluster. (Credit: Martin Fournier.)

Jet features

This shows the features that form when the AGN jet feedback turns on.

Static Mesh Refinement

This shows the nested mesh structure of our simulations.

Evolving AGN Jet

The AGN jets have a dramatic effect on the magnetic fields in the intracluster medium (ICM).

Figure Gallery

Magnetic field strength profiles

Mass-weighted magnetic field strength versus radius at various times and intervals (using the median and interquartile ranges as colored extents) for the fiducial, weak cooling, and weak magnetic field simulations (from left to right). The shaded region illustrates the innermost kpc for which the statistic should be interpreted with care given the various active AGN model components.

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Entropy and cooling time profiles

Median and inter quartile ranges (over time between 1.5 < t < 2.0 Gyr) of the mass-weighted mean entropy (top), cooling time (center), and cooling over freefall time (bottom). The shaded region illustrates the innermost kpc for which the statistic should be interpreted with care given the various active AGN model components.

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Mach numbers and plasma beta

Median and inter quartile ranges (over time between 1.5 < t < 2.0 Gyr) of the mass-weighted mean sonic Mach (top), Alfvenic Mach (center), and plasma beta (bottom). The shaded region illustrates the innermost kpc for which the statistic should be interpreted with care given the various active AGN model components.

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Sonic mach number histograms

Mass-weighted sonic Mach number histograms averaged between 1.5 < t < 2.0 Gyr of all simulations. The orange lines indicate the mass-weighted mean sonic Mach number versus radius. The shaded region illustrates the innermost kpc for which the statistics should be interpreted with care given the various active AGN model components.

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Temperature histograms

Mass-weighted temperature histograms at t=1.6 Gyr (top panels) and averaged between 1.5 < t < 2.0 Gyr (bottom panels) of all simulations. The orange lines indicate the mass-weighted mean temperature versus radius and the shaded region illustrate the innermost kpc for which the statistic should be interpreted with care given the various active AGN model components.

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Time-averaged turbulent power spectra

Median turbulent power spectra (with IQR in shaded regions) of the specific kinetic energy (left), the kinetic energy density (center panel), and magnetic energy density (right) between 1.5-2 Gyr for all four simulations. The slopes are just given for reference and do not imply scaling following a certain model or phenomenology.

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Instantaneous turbulent power spectra

Instantaneous turbulent power spectra at various times of the specific kinetic energy (left), the kinetic energy density (center panel), and magnetic energy density (right) in the fiducial simulation. The raw, i.e., uncompensated, spectra are shown in the top panels whereas the spectra in the bottom panels are compensated by k1.2, k1.1, and k1.2, respectively. The inset in the top right shows the kinetic energy density and magnetic energy density spectra at t=1.86 Gyr on one panel for easier comparison with the axis extents equal to the ones in the larger panels.

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Magnetic energy spectra

Left: Magnetic energy spectra of the fiducial (green) and weak magnetic field simulations (orange) at various times. The vertical blue lines indicate scales for which the power is plotted over time in the right panel (normalized to the initial value at the particular scale)

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Temporal evolution of the AGN feedback power

From top to bottom: Temporal evolution of the AGN feedback power, instantaneous stellar feedback power (excluding Type Ia SNe), mass deposition rate, and total amount of cold gas. The extent of the lines indicate the runtime of the simulations. Given the 10x higher output frequency (every 2 Myr) in the first two panels the data is smoothed over 50 Myr using a box filter. The shaded region illustrates the time interval that is used to quantity averaged properties in other figures.

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Publications

This is a list of xMAGNET publications submitted to scientific journals.

The XMAGNET Exascale MHD simulations of SMBH feedback in galaxy groups and clusters: Overview and preliminary cluster results

We present initial results from extremely well-resolved 3D magnetohydrodynamical simulations of idealized galaxy clusters, conducted using the AthenaPK code on the Frontier exascale supercomputer. These simulations explore the self-regulation of galaxy groups and cool-core clusters by cold gas-triggered active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback incorporating magnetized kinetic jets...

[arXiv link]
[ADS link]

XMAGNET: Velocity structure functions of AGN-driven turbulence in the multiphase intracluster medium

We use the fiducial run of XMAGNET, a suite of exascale magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of a cool-core cluster, to compute velocity structure functions.

XMAGNET : The Magnetised AGN - CGM Coupling at Halo Masses ∼1013.5M⊙

Coupling between active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is critical to the interplay between radiative cooling and feedback heating in the atmospheres of the universe's most massive galaxies. This paper presents a detailed analysis of numerical simulations showing how magnetic and kinetic AGN feedback interacts with the CGM.

Collaboration Members

Philipp Grete

Brian W. O'Shea

Forrest W. Glines

Deovrat Prasad

Benjamin D. Wibking

Martin Fournier

Marcus Bruggen

Mark Voit