Core Analysis Papers

  1. The PICO-Cluster Project: presenting the galaxy cluster sample and studying magnetic field growth, Faraday rotation and Braginskii heating Thomas Berlok, Christoph Pfrommer, Ewald Puchwein, Rosie Talbot, Rüdiger Pakmor, Lorenzo Perrone, Rainer Weinberger, Volker Springel, Joseph Whittingham, Larissa Tevlin, Niklas Dusch, Martin Sparre Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (submitted)  —  arXiv:2606.23798 This paper introduces the PICO-Cluster suite: 24 zoom-in simulations of galaxy clusters with M>1015 M☉ using the AREPO code (AREPO-2 version) and IllustrisTNG. We present the cluster sample, validate against observations, and study magnetic field growth, Faraday rotation measure profiles, and Braginskii viscous heating estimates.
  2. Magnetic dynamos in galaxy clusters: The crucial role of galaxy formation physics at high redshifts Tevlin, L.; Berlok, T.; Pfrommer, C.; Talbot, R. Y.; Whittingham, J.; Puchwein, E.; Pakmor, R.; Weinberger, R.; Springel, V. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 701, A114 (2025)  —  ADS  |  arXiv:2411.00103 Four PICO-Cluster halos are re-simulated with non-radiative MHD to study the impact of galaxy formation physics on the cluster magnetic dynamo. Galactic feedback is shown to grow the magnetic coherence length to scales exceeding the particle mean free path, supporting MHD descriptions of the ICM dynamo.
  3. Active galactic nucleus driven jet feedback in cosmologically forming cool-core galaxy clusters I: The effect of hierarchical assembly on intra-cluster medium properties Weinberger, R.; Perrone, L.; Pfrommer, C.; Berlok, T.; Puchwein, E.; Jlassi, L.; Talbot, R.; Whittingham, J.; Pakmor, R.; Springel, V. Astronomy & Astrophysics (submitted)  —  arXiv:2606.23775 Explicit AGN jet feedback maintains a realistic cool core by balancing radiative cooling losses. Cosmological assembly strongly shapes the velocity and multi-phase structure of the ICM beyond the core, and is required to reproduce observed non-thermal pressure support.

Method Papers with PICO-Cluster Data

  1. Anisotropic thermal conduction on a moving mesh for cosmological simulations Talbot, R. Y.; Pakmor, R.; Pfrommer, C.; Springel, V.; Werhahn, M.; Bieri, R.; van de Voort, F. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 541, 2493 (2025)  —  ADS  |  arXiv:2410.07316 One PICO-Cluster halo is re-simulated with two variants of anisotropic thermal conduction to study the impact on ICM thermodynamics. Whistler-electron interactions are shown to suppress thermal conduction along magnetic field lines relative to the classical Spitzer value.
  2. Characterizing turbulence in galaxy clusters: defining turbulent energies and assessing multi-scale versus fixed-scale filters Perrone, L. M.; Berlok, T.; Puchwein, E.; Pfrommer, C. arXiv e-prints (2026)  —  ADS  |  arXiv:2601.06250 Real-space filtering with the Turbocluster library is used to characterise turbulence in PICO-Clusters. Turbulent pressure support of a few percent is found, consistent with recent XRISM micro-calorimeter observations. The magnetic coherence length is found to be ≲150 kpc.
  3. Zooming in on cluster radio relics: I. How density fluctuations explain the Mach number discrepancy, microgauss magnetic fields, and spectral index variations Whittingham, J.; Pfrommer, C.; Werhahn, M.; Jlassi, L.; Girichidis, P. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 706, A39 (2026)  —  ADS  |  arXiv:2411.11947 A late-merging PICO-Cluster is examined to investigate radio relic formation. When a merger shock overtakes a cluster accretion shock, a dense shock-compressed sheet forms that can preferentially emit radio emission at the high-Mach tail, resolving tensions with X-ray Mach numbers and spectral index observations.

Data Availability

Data products from the PICO-Cluster simulations will be made available in due course. Requests for collaboration and early data access can be directed to the principal investigators.

Some of the analysis tools used in PICO-Cluster papers are publicly available, including:

  • Paicos — GPU-parallel line integral implementation and AREPO simulation analysis

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