Weak shocks in the intracluster medium may accelerate cosmic-ray protons and cosmic-ray electrons differently depending on the angle between the upstream magnetic field and the shock normal. In this work, we investigate how shock obliquity affects the production of cosmic rays in high-resolution simulations of galaxy clusters. For this purpose, we performed a magnetohydrodynamical simulation of a galaxy cluster using the mesh refinement code ENZO. We use Lagrangian tracers to follow the properties of the thermal gas, the cosmic rays and the magnetic fields over time. We tested a number of different acceleration scenarios by varying the obliquity-dependent acceleration efficiencies of protons and electrons, and by examining the resulting hadronic γ-ray and radio emission. We find that the radio emission does not change significantly if only quasi-perpendicular shocks are able to accelerate cosmic-ray electrons. Our analysis suggests that radio-emitting electrons found in relics have been typically shocked many times before z = 0. On the other hand, the hadronic γ-ray emission from clusters is found to decrease significantly if only quasi-parallel shocks are allowed to accelerate cosmic ray protons. This might reduce the tension with the low upper limits on γ-ray emission from clusters set by the Fermi satellite.

Radio relics are the manifestation of electrons presumably being shock (re-)accelerated to high energies in the outskirts of galaxy clusters. However, estimates of the shocks’ strength yield different results when measured with radio or X-ray observations. In general, Mach numbers obtained from radio observations are larger than the corresponding X-ray measurements. In this work, we investigate this Mach number discrepancy. For this purpose, we used the cosmological code enzo to simulate a sample of galaxy clusters that host bright radio relics. For each relic, we computed the radio Mach number from the integrated radio spectrum and the X-ray Mach number from the X-ray surface brightness and temperature jumps. Our analysis suggests that the differences in the Mach number estimates follow from the way in which different observables are related to different parts of the underlying Mach number distribution: radio observations are more sensistive to the high Mach numbers present only in a small fraction of a shock’s surface, while X-ray measurements reflect the average of the Mach number distribution. Moreover, X-ray measurements are very sensitive to the relic’s orientation. If the same relic is observed from different sides, the measured X-ray Mach number varies significantly. On the other hand, the radio measurements are more robust, as they are unaffected by the relic’s orientation.

The detection of the radio signal from filaments in the cosmic web is crucial to distinguish possible magnetogenesis scenarios. We review the status of the different attempts to detect the cosmic web at radio wavelengths. This is put into the context of the advanced simulations of cosmic magnetism carried out in the last few years by our MAGCOW project. While first attempts of imaging the cosmic web with the MWA and LOFAR have been encouraging and could discard some magnetogenesis models, the complexity behind such observations makes a definitive answer still uncertain. A combination of total intensity and polarimetric data at low radio frequencies that the SKA and LOFAR2.0 will achieve is key to removing the existing uncertainties related to the contribution of many possible sources of signal along deep lines of sight. This will make it possible to isolate the contribution from filaments, and expose its deep physical connection with the origin of extragalactic magnetism.

Turbulence generated by large-scale motions during structure formation affects the evolution of the thermal and non-thermal components of the intracluster medium. As enstrophy is a measure of the magnitude of vorticity, we study the generation and evolution of turbulence by analysing the Lagrangian history of enstrophy. For this purpose, we combine cosmological simulations carried out with the enzo code with our Lagrangian post-processing tool CRaTer. This way we are able to quantify the individual source terms of enstrophy in the course of the accretion of groups on to galaxy clusters. Here, we focus on the redshift range from z = 1 to z = 0. Finally, we measure the rate of dissipation of turbulence and estimate the resulting amplification of intracluster magnetic fields. We find that compressive and baroclinic motions are the main sources of enstrophy, while stretching motions and dissipation affect most of the ensuing enstrophy evolution. The rate of turbulent dissipation is able to sustain the amplification of intracluster magnetic fields to observed levels.

Observations of diffuse radio emission in galaxy clusters indicate that cosmic-ray electrons are accelerated on $\sim \mathrm{Mpc}$ scales. However, protons appear to be accelerated less efficiently since their associated hadronic γ-ray emission has not yet been detected. Inspired by recent particle-in-cell simulations, we study the cosmic-ray production and its signatures under the hypothesis that the efficiency of shock acceleration depends on the Mach number and on the shock obliquity. For this purpose, we combine ENZO cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulations with a Lagrangian tracer code to follow the properties of the cosmic rays. Our simulations suggest that the distribution of obliquities in galaxy clusters is random to first order. Quasi-perpendicular shocks are able to accelerate cosmic-ray electrons to the energies needed to produce observable radio emission. However, the γ-ray emission is lowered by a factor of a few, ∼3 , if cosmic-ray protons are only accelerated by quasi-parallel shocks, reducing (yet not entirely solving) the tension with the non-detection of hadronic γ-ray emission by the Fermi-satellite.

We simulate the evolution of relativistic electrons injected into the intracluster medium by five radio galaxies. We study the spatial transport and the emission properties of the injected radio plasma over a ∼5 Gyr period, and the sequence of cooling and re-acceleration events experienced by electrons, using a Lagrangian approach joined with a numerical method to model the evolution of momentum spectra of relativistic electrons. When compared with electrons injected by shock waves, electrons injected by radio galaxies (here limited to a single injection event) in our tests are unable to fuel large ∼Mpc-sized radio relics with fossil electrons, as required by current theoretical models, while electrons previously seeded by other shocks can do this. On the other hand, the combination of seeding from radio galaxies and of re-acceleration events from plasma perturbation can produce detectable, small-scale, and filamentary emissions in the proximity (≤100–200 kpc) of radio galaxies.