Cosmological Numerical Simulations of Radio Relics in Galaxy Clusters: Insights for Future Observations

Abstract

The acceleration of electrons at shock fronts is thought to be responsible for radio relics, extended radio features in the vicinity of merging galaxy clusters. By combining high resolution Adaptive Mesh Refinement Hydro/N-body cosmological simulations with an accurate shock-finding algorithm and a model for electron acceleration, we calculate the expected synchrotron emission resulting from cosmological structure formation. From these simulations, we produce radio, SZE and X-ray images for a large sample of galaxy clusters along with radio luminosity functions and scaling relationships. We find that with upcoming radio arrays, we expect to see an abundance of radio emission associated with merger shocks in the intracluster medium. By producing observationally motivated statistics, we provide predictions that can be compared with observations to further our understanding of electron shock acceleration and kinematic structure of galaxy clusters.