Simulations of AGN feedback in galaxy clusters and groups

Ewald Puchwein, Debora Sijacki, Volker Springel

Published 2009-09-16Version 1

There is compelling evidence that black holes (BHs) in cluster centers vigorously interact with their surroundings, indicating that any realistic model of cluster formation needs to account for these processes. Here we use high-resolution cosmological simulations of a large cluster and group sample to study how BHs affect their host systems. We focus on two specific properties, the halo gas fraction and the X-ray luminosity-temperature scaling relation, both of which are notoriously difficult to reproduce in self-consistent hydrodynamical simulations. We show that BH feedback can solve both of these issues, bringing them in excellent agreement with observations, without alluding to the `cooling only' solution that produces unphysically bright central galaxies.