For those of you interested in galaxy clusters:
Dear all, In our next Galaxy Cluster Seminar this Thursday, May 22nd, 13:00, in the CE 0.12 room and through Zoom (the link will be shared in a few days), we will have a guest speaker. The speaker is Dr. Wonki Lee from Yonsei University, Seoul. Wonki will present his research on radio relics in merging galaxy clusters using simulations. Wonki is visiting us starting today and until the end of this week. The title and abstract of Wonki's talk can be found at the end of the email. The seminar schedule can be found here: https://home.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~kmigkas/clusterseminar.html Cheers, Kostas Title: Why Do We Need More Relics? Statistical Analysis of Radio Relics Using Numerical Simulations Abstract: Radio relics are diffuse synchrotron sources located in the outskirts of merging galaxy clusters, energized by merger shocks. With the growing number of relics discovered by current and upcoming radio surveys, we are entering a new era where statistical studies of relics have become feasible. In this talk, I will show how relic statistics can provide new insights into cluster astrophysics. Using a large library of radio relics extracted from the TNG-Cluster, a suite of cosmological MHD zoom-in simulations of massive galaxy clusters, we find that radio relics serve as robust tracers of the merger history of their host clusters. Additionally, we show that the statistical distribution of luminosity asymmetry in double relics can be reproduced without assuming inhomogeneous acceleration, offering a new test for acceleration models. Finally, using numerical simulations with alternative dark matter models, we demonstrate that relic separation provides a reliable reference for probing the self-interacting nature of dark matter. These approaches require a large sample of relics from both observations and simulations, emphasizing the synergy enabled by future radio surveys and numerical simulations.