Thermal Conduction in Clusters of Galaxies
نویسندگان
چکیده
We estimate the thermal conductivity of a weakly collisional magnetized plasma with chaotic magnetic field fluctuations. When the fluctuation spectrum extends over two or more decades in wave-vector, we find that thermal conduction is very efficient; the conduction coefficient is only a factor ∼ 5 below the classical Spitzer estimate. We suggest that conduction could play a significant role in cooling flows in clusters of galaxies. Subject headings: galaxies: clusters: general — cooling flows — conduction — magnetic fields
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