Speaker
Aurora Simionescu
(SRON NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SPACE RESEARCH)
Description
Although commonly approximated as an ideal fluid in cosmological simulations, the hot tenuous gas permeating clusters of galaxies is known to be a magnetized collisionless plasma sharing some similar physical properties with, e.g., planetary magnetospheres, the solar atmosphere and solar wind, and accretion discs around compact objects. I will discuss the current knowledge and challenges in constraining and understanding the process of particle acceleration in galaxy clusters, as well as the cosmic evolution of large-scale magnetic fields. At the moment, most studies revolve around observations of shock- and turbulent (re)acceleration, however there are a few instances where magnetic reconnection has also been hypothesized to play a role.
Primary author
Aurora Simionescu
(SRON NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SPACE RESEARCH)
