Irregular sloshing cold fronts in the nearby merging groups NGC 7618 and
  UGC 12491: evidence for Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities
  We present results from two \sim30 ks Chandra observations of the hot
atmospheres of the merging galaxy groups centered around NGC 7618 and UGC
12491. Our images show the presence of arc-like sloshing cold fronts wrapped
around each group center and \sim100 kpc long spiral tails in both groups. Most
interestingly, the cold fronts are highly distorted in both groups, exhibiting
'wings' along the fronts. These features resemble the structures predicted from
non-viscous hydrodynamic simulations of gas sloshing, where Kelvin-Helmholtz
instabilities (KHIs) distort the cold fronts. This is in contrast to the
structure seen in many other sloshing and merger cold fronts, which are smooth
and featureless at the current observational resolution. Both magnetic fields
and viscosity have been invoked to explain the absence of KHIs in these smooth
cold fronts, but the NGC 7618/UGC 12491 pair are two in a growing number of
both sloshing and merger cold fronts that appear distorted. Magnetic fields
and/or viscosity may be able to suppress the growth of KHIs at the cold fronts
in some clusters and groups, but clearly not in all. We propose that the
presence or absence of KHI-distortions in cold fronts can be used as a measure
of the effective viscosity and/or magnetic field strengths in the ICM.
