We present a set of high-resolution 3D MHD simulations exploring the evolution of light, supersonic jets in cluster environments. We model sets of high- and low-Mach jets entering both uniform surroundings and King-type atmospheres and propagating distances more than 100 times the initial jet radius. Through complimentary analyses of synthetic observations and energy flow, we explore the detailed interactions between these jets and their environments. We find that jet cocoon morphology is strongly influenced by the structure of the ambient medium. Jets moving into uniform atmospheres have more pronounced backflow than their non-uniform counterparts, and this difference is clearly reflected by morphological differences in the synthetic observations. Additionally, synthetic observations illustrate differences in the appearances of terminal hotspots and the x-ray and radio correlations between the high- and low-Mach runs. Exploration of energy flow in these systems illustrates the general conversion of kinetic to thermal and magnetic energy in all of our simulations. Specifically, we examine conversion of energy type and the spatial transport of energy to the ambient medium. Determination of the evolution of the energy distribution in these objects will enhance our understanding of the role of AGN feedback in cluster environments.

We introduce a method of identifying evidence of shocks in the X-ray emitting gas in clusters of galaxies. Using information from synthetic observations of simulated clusters, we do a blind search of the synthetic image plane. The locations of likely shocks found using this method closely match those of shocks identified in the simulation hydrodynamic data. Though this method assumes nothing about the geometry of the shocks, the general distribution of shocks as a function of Mach number in the cluster hydrodynamic data can be extracted via this method. Characterization of the cluster shock distribution is critical to understanding production of cosmic rays in clusters and the use of shocks as dynamical tracers.

We present results from an extensive synthetic observation analysis of numerically-simulated radio galaxy (RG) jets. This analysis is based on the first three-dimensional simulations to treat cosmic ray acceleration and transport self-consistently within a magnetohydrodynamical calculation. We use standard observational techniques to calculate both minimum-energy and inverse-Compton field values for our simulated objects. The latter technique provides meaningful information about the field. Minimum-energy calculations retrieve reasonable field estimates in regions physically close to the minimum-energy partitioning, though the technique is highly susceptible to deviations from the underlying assumptions. We also study the reliability of published rotation measure analysis techniques. We find that gradient alignment statistics accurately reflect the physical situation, and can uncover otherwise hidden information about the source. Furthermore, correlations between rotation measure (RM) and position angle (PA) can be significant even when the RM is completely dominated by an external cluster medium.

Shock waves form in the intergalactic space as an ubiquitous consequence of cosmic structure formation. Using N-body/hydrodynamic simulation data of a ACDM universe, we examined the properties of cosmological shock waves including their morphological distribution. Adopting a diffusive shock acceleration model, we then calculated the amount of cosmic ray energy as well as that of gas thermal energy dissipated at the shocks. Finally, the dynamical consequence of those cosmic rays on cluster properties is discussed.

A high performance computing cluster for astronomical computations has been built at Korea Astronomy Observatory. The 64 node cluster interconnected with Gigabit Ethernet is composed of 128 Intel Xeon processors, 160 GB memory, 6 TB global storage space, and an LTO (Linear Tape-Open) tape library. The cluster was installed and has been managed with the Open Source Cluster Application Resource (OSCAR) framework. Its performance for parallel computations was measured with a three-dimensional hydrodynamic code and showed quite a good scalability as the number of computational cells increases. The cluster has already been utilized for several computational research projects, some of which resulted in a few publications, even though its full operation time is less than one year. As a major resource of the K∗Grid testbed, the cluster has been used for Grid computations, too.

Recent observations of galaxy clusters in radio and X-ray indicate that cosmic rays and magnetic fields may be energetically important in the intracluster medium. According to the estimates based on theses observational studies, the combined pressure of these two components of the intracluster medium may range between 10% ~ 100% of gas pressure, although their total energy is probably time dependent. Hence, these non-thermal components may have influenced the formation and evolution of cosmic structures, and may provide unique and vital diagnostic information through various radiations emitted via their interactions with surrounding matter and cosmic background photons. We suggest that shock waves associated with cosmic structures, along with individual sources such as active galactic nuclei and radio galaxies, supply the cosmic rays and magnetic fields to the intracluster medium and to surrounding large scale structures. In order to study 1) the properties of cosmic shock waves emerging during the large scale structure formation of the universe, and 2) the dynamical influence of cosmic rays, which were ejected by AGN-like sources into the intracluster medium, on structure formation, we have performed two sets of N-body /hydrodynamic simulations of cosmic structure formation. In this contribution, we report the preliminary results of these simulations.

Compressible, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in two dimension is studied through high-resolution, numerical simulations with the isothermal equation of state. First, hydrodynamic turbulence with Mach number (M)rms ~ 1 is generated by enforcing a random force. Next, initial, uniform magnetic field of various strengths with Alfvenic Mach number Ma ≫ 1 is added. Then, the simulations are followed until MHD turbulence is fully developed. Such turbulence is expected to exist in a variety of astrophysical environments including clusters of galaxies. Although no dissipation is included explicitly in our simulations, truncation errors produce dissipation which induces numerical resistivity. It mimics a hyper-resistivity in our second-order accurate code. After saturation, the resulting flows are categorized as SF (strong field), WF (weak field), and VWF (very weak field) classes respectively, depending on the average magnetic field strength described with Alfvenic Mach number, (Ma)rms ~1, (Ma)rms≥1, and (Ma)rms ≫ 1. The characteristics of each class are discussed.

As a companion to an adiabatic version developed by Ryu and his coworkers, we have built an isothermal magnetohydrodynamic code for astrophysical flows. It is suited for the dynamical simulations of flows where cooling timescale is much shorter than dynamical timescale, as well as for turbulence and dynamo simulations in which detailed energetics are unimportant. Since a simple isothermal equation of state substitutes the energy conservation equation, the numerical schemes for isothermal flows are simpler (no contact discontinuity) than those for adiabatic flows and the resulting code is faster. Tests for shock tubes and Alfven wave decay have shown that our isothermal code has not only a good shock capturing ability, but also numerical dissipation smaller than its adiabatic analogue. As a real astrophysical application of the code, we have simulated the nonlinear three-dimensional evolution of the Parker instability. A factor of two enhancement in vertical column density has been achieved at most, and the main structures formed are sheet-like and aligned with the mean field direction. We conclude that the Parker instability alone is not a viable formation mechanism of the giant molecular clouds.

This paper describes the numerical solution to the hyperbolic system of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. First, by pointing out the approximations involved, the deal MHD equations are presented. Next, the MHD waves as well as the associated shocks and discontinuities, are presented. Then, based on the hyperbolicity of the ideal MHD equations, the application of upwind schemes, which have been developed for hydrodynamics, is discussed to solve the equations numerically. As an definite example, one and multi-dimensional codes based on the Total Variation Diminishing scheme are presented. The treatment in the multi-dimensional code, which maintains ∇·B = 0, is described. Through tests, the robustness of the upwind schemes for MHDs is demonstrated.

Many models of globular cluster formation assume the presence of cold dense clouds in early universe. Here we re-examine the Fall & Rees (1985) model for formation of proto-globular cluster clouds (PGCCs) via thermal instabilities in a protogalactic halo. We first argue, based on the previous study of two-dimensional numerical simulations of thermally unstable clouds in a stratified halo of galaxy clusters by Real et al. (1991), that under the protogalactic environments only nonlinear (δ≳1) density inhomogeneities can condense into PGCCs without being disrupted by the buoyancy-driven dynamical instabilities. We then carry out numerical simulations of the collapse of overdense douds in one-dimensional spherical geometry, including self-gravity and radiative cooling down to T = 10 4 K. Since imprinting of Jeans mass at 10 4 K is essential to this model, here we focus on the cases where external UV background radiation prevents the formation of H2 molecules and so prevent the cloud from cooling below 10 4 K. The quantitative results from these simulations can be summarized as follows: 1) Perturbations smaller than Mmin ~(10 5.6 M⊙)(nh/0.05cm-3)-2 cool isobarically, where nh is the unperturbed halo density, while perturbations larger than Mmax ~(10 8 M⊙)(nh/0.05 cm-3)-2 cool isochorically and thermal instabilities do not operate. On the other hand, intermediate size perturbations (Mmin < Mpgcc < Mmax) are compressed supersonically, accompanied by strong accretion shocks. 2) For supersonically collapsing clouds, the density compression factor after they cool to Tc = 10 4 K range 10 2.5 - 10 6, while the isobaric compression factor is only 10 2.5. 3) Isobarically collapsed clouds (M < Mmin) are too small to be gravitationally bound. For supersonically collapsing clouds, however, the Jeans mass can be reduced to as small as 10 5.5 M⊙(nh/0.05 cm-3)-1/2 at the maximum compression owing to the increased density compression. 4) The density profile of simulated PGCCs can be approximated by a constant core with a halo of p∝ r-2 rather than a singular isothermal sphere.

The international ultraviolet explorer (IUE) spectra of a low dispersion ~6 Å, have been investigated for two Seyfert 1 galaxies, Mrk 335 and NGC 4051, well known for the line variability. The electron densities of broad line region (BLR) of these variable Seyfert 1 galaxies have been derived, which showed a non-linear abrupt variation from 10 8 to 10 10 cm-3 within a month. We also found the excitation (or temperature) changes in the Mrk 335 BLR from the IUE broad line profiles analysis, but no such evidence in the NGC 4051. The large amount of mass inflow activity through the bar or spiral structure of host galaxies, may trigger the density change in BLR and emission line variability for both objects. Mass of the giant black holes appear to be order of 10 7 M⊙ for both variable Seyfert l's.

In the standard theory of the large scale structure formation, matter accretes onto high density perturbations via gravitational instability. Collision less dark matter forms caustics around such structures, while collisional baryonic matter forms accretion shocks which then halt and heat the infalling gas. Here we discuss the characteristics. roles, and observational consequences of these accretion shocks.