The effects of thermal conduction on the intracluster medium of the Virgo cluster

Abstract

Thermal conduction has been suggested as a possible mechanism by which sufficient energy is supplied to the central regions of galaxy clusters to balance the effect of radiative cooling. Recent high-resolution observations of the nearby Virgo cluster make it an ideal subject for an attempt to reproduce the properties of the cluster by numerical simulations, because most of the defining parameters are comparatively well known. Here, we present the results of a simulated high-resolution, 3D Virgo cluster for different values of thermal conductivity ( times the full Spitzer value). Starting from an initially isothermal cluster atmosphere, we allow the cluster to evolve freely over time-scales of roughly 1.3–4.7 × 109 yr. Our results show that thermal conductivity at the Spitzer value can increase the central intracluster medium (ICM) radiative cooling time by a factor of roughly 3.6. In addition, for larger values of thermal conductivity, the simulated temperature and density profiles match the observations significantly better than for the lower values. However, no physically meaningful value of thermal conductivity was able to postpone the cooling catastrophe (characterized by a rapid increase in the central density) for longer than a fraction of the Hubble time nor explain the absence of a strong cooling flow in the Virgo cluster today. We also calculate the effective adiabatic index of the cluster gas for both simulation and observational data and compare the values with theoretical expectations. Using this method, it appears that the Virgo cluster is being heated in the cluster centre by a mechanism other than thermal conductivity. Based on this and our simulations, it is also likely that the thermal conductivity is suppressed by a factor of at least 10 and probably more. Thus, we suggest that thermal conductivity, if present at all, has the effect of slowing down the evolution of the ICM, by radiative cooling, but only by a factor of a few.