Professor James Binney FRS

Abstract:

It is now clear that AGN heat cooling flows, largely by driving winds. The winds may contain a relativistic component that generates powerful synchrotron radiation, but it is not clear that all winds do so. The spatial and temporal stability of the AGN/cooling flow interaction are discussed. Collimation of the winds probably provides spatial stability. Temporal stability may be possible only for black holes with masses above a critical value. Both the failure of cooling flows to have adiabatic cores and the existence of X-ray cavities confirm the importance of collimated outflows. I quantify the scale of the convective flow that the AGN Hydra would need to drive if it balanced radiative inward flow by outward flow parallel to the jets. At least in Virgo any such flow must be confined to r<~20 kpc. Hydrodynamical simulations suggest that AGN outbursts cannot last longer than ~25 Myr. Data for four clusters with well studied X-ray cavities suggests that heating associated with cavity formation approximately balances radiative cooling. The role of cosmic infall and the mechanism of filament formation are briefly touched on.

Abstract:

The competition between CDM and MOND to account for the `missing mass' phenomena is asymmetric. MOND has clearly demonstrated that a characteristic acceleration $a_0$ underlies the data and understanding what gives rise to $a_0$ is an important task. The reason for MOND's success may lie in either the details of galaxy formation, or an advance in fundamental physics that reduces to MOND in a suitable limit. CDM has enjoyed great success on large scales. The theory cannot be definitively tested on small scales until galaxy formation has been understood because baryons either are, or possibly have been, dominant in all small-scale objects. MOND's predictive power is seriously undermined by its isolation from the rest of physics. In view of this isolation, the way forward is probably to treat CDM as an established theory to be used alongside relativity and electromagnetism in efforts to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies.

Abstract:

We emphasise the importance of the gas entropy in studying the evolution of cluster gas evolving under the influence of radiative cooling. On this basis, we develop an analytical model for this evolution. We then show that the assumptions needed for such a model are consistent with a numerical solution of the same equations. We postulate that the passive cooling phase ends when the central gas temperature falls to very low values. It follows a phase during which an unspecified mechanism heats the cluster gas. We show that in such a scenario the small number of clusters containing gas with temperatures below about 1 keV is simply a consequence of the radiative cooling.

Abstract:

Using only the assumption that all interactions between particles in an accretion flow are electromagnetically mediated, it is shown that the time to establish equipartition between ions and electrons is shorter than the characteristic accretion time. Consequently, two-temperature fits to the spectra of accreting objects are unphysical, and models in which significant thermal energy is carried across the event horizon are effectively ruled out.

Abstract:

Evidence is summarized that suggests that when a protogalaxy collapses, a fraction $f$ of its gas fails to heat to the virial temperature, where $f$ is large for haloes less massive than the value $M^*$ associated with $L^*$ galaxies. Stars and galaxies form only from the cool gas fraction. Hot gas is ejected from low-mass systems as in conventional semi-analytic models of galaxy formation. In high-mass systems it is retained but does not cool and form stars. Instead it builds up as a largely inert atmosphere, in which cooling is inhibited by an episodically active galactic nucleus. Cold gas frequently falls into galactic haloes. In the absence of a dense atmosphere of virial-temperature gas it builds up on nearly circular orbits and forms stars. When there is a sufficiently dense hot atmosphere, cold infalling gas tends to be ablated and absorbed by the hot atmosphere before it can form stars. The picture nicely explains away the surfeit of high-luminosity galaxies that has recently plagued semi-analytic models of galaxy formation, replacing them by systems of moderate luminosity from old stars and large X-ray luminosities from hot gas.