Synthetic Observations of Simulated AGN Jets: X-ray Cavities

Authors: Peter J. Mendygral, Sean M. O'Neill, Thomas W. Jones
Link to paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.1481

X-ray cavities in galaxy clusters are now commonly used to determine the mechanical energy input from radio sources. The authors provide a detailed assessment of these observational methods by computing realistic X-ray emission maps for the simulated sources, determining the cavity enthalpy as done for real observations and comparing the results to the known and directly measureable properties in the simulation. Determined cavity enthalpies are typically within a factor of 2 of the simulation values; cavity ages seem more vulnerable to projection effects and problems of the methods, in particular the buoyant rise time.