| Description: | Red weather alert: dangerous cosmic weather forecast, in light of galaxy cluster mergers! Clusters grow through mergers with other clusters, events which give rise to the largest cosmic shock waves, as well as turbulence. Shocks travel like giant tsunamis through the electron plasma located between them, while turbulence stirs the intra-cluster medium.
I will discuss how merger shocks and turbulence accelerate electrons to relativistic speeds, producing diffuse synchrotron emission extended over Mpc regions. I will touch upon the theoretical framework for their formation as well as their observational effects. |
