Cosmological Numerical Simulations of Radio Relics in Galaxy Clusters:
  Insights for Future Observations
  The acceleration of electrons at shock fronts is thought to be responsible
for radio relics, extended radio features in the vicinity of merging galaxy
clusters. By combining high resolution Adaptive Mesh Refinement Hydro/N-body
cosmological simulations with an accurate shock-finding algorithm and a model
for electron acceleration, we calculate the expected synchrotron emission
resulting from cosmological structure formation. From these simulations, we
produce radio, SZE and X-ray images for a large sample of galaxy clusters along
with radio luminosity functions and scaling relationships. We find that with
upcoming radio arrays, we expect to see an abundance of radio emission
associated with merger shocks in the intracluster medium. By producing
observationally motivated statistics, we provide predictions that can be
compared with observations to further our understanding of electron shock
acceleration and kinematic structure of galaxy clusters.
