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Register a new userPlanck intermediate results. X. Physics of the hot gas in the Coma cluster
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We present an analysis of Planck satellite data on the Coma Cluster observed via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. Planck is able, for the first time, to detect SZ emission up to r ~ 3 X R_500. We test previously proposed models for the pressure distribution in clusters against the azimuthally averaged data. We find that the Arnaud et al. universal pressure profile does not fit Coma, and that their pressure profile for merging systems provides a good fit of the data only at r<R_500: by r=2XR_500 it underestimates the observed y profile by a factor of ~2. This may indicate that at these larger radii either i) the cluster SZ emission is contaminated by unresolved SZ sources along the line of sight or ii) the pressure profile of Coma is higher at r>R_500 than the mean pressure profile predicted by the simulations. The Planck image shows significant local steepening of the y profile in two regions about half a degree to the west and to the south-east of the cluster centre. These features are consistent with the presence of shock fronts at these radii, and indeed the western feature was previously noticed in the ROSAT PSPC mosaic as well as in the radio. Using Planck y profiles extracted from corresponding sectors we find pressure jumps of 4.5+0.4-0.2 and 5.0+1.3-0.1 in the west and southeast, respectively. Assuming Rankine-Hugoniot pressure jump conditions, we deduce that the shock waves should propagate with Mach number M_w=2.03+0.09-0.04 and M_se=2.05+0.25-0.02 in the West and Southeast, respectively. Finally, we find that the y and radio-synchrotron signals are quasi-linearly correlated on Mpc scales with small intrinsic scatter. This implies either that the energy density of cosmic-ray electrons is relatively constant throughout the cluster, or that the magnetic fields fall off much more slowly with radius than previously thought.
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The Planck collaboration has recently published precise and resolved measurements of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect in Abell 1656 (the Coma cluster of galaxies), so directly gauging the electron pressure profile in the intracluster plasma. On the other hand, such a quantity may be also derived from combining the density and temperature provided by X-ray observations of the thermal bremsstrahlung radiation emitted by the plasma. We find a model-independent tension between the SZ and the X-ray pressure, with the SZ one being definitely lower by 15-20%. We propose that such a challenging tension can be resolved in terms of an additional, non-thermal support to the gravitational equilibrium of the intracluster plasma. This can be straightforwardly included in our Supermodel, so as to fit in detail the Planck SZ profile while being consistent with the X-ray observables. Possible origins of the nonthermal component include cosmic-ray protons, ongoing turbulence, and relativistic electrons; given the existing observational constraints on the first two options, here we focus on the third. For this to be effective, we find that the electron population must include not only an energetic tail accelerated to gamma> 10^3 responsible for the Coma radiohalo, but also many more, lower energy electrons. The electron acceleration is to be started by merging events similar to those which provided the very high central entropy of the thermal intracluster plasma in Coma.
The Virgo cluster is the largest Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) source in the sky, both in terms of angular size and total integrated flux. Plancks wide angular scale and frequency coverage, together with its high sensitivity, allow a detailed study of this large object through the SZ effect. Virgo is well resolved by Planck, showing an elongated structure, which correlates well with the morphology observed from X-rays, but extends beyond the observed X-ray signal. We find a good agreement between the SZ signal (or Compton paranmeter, y_c) observed by Planck and the expected signal inferred from X-ray observations and simple analytical models. Due to its proximity to us, the gas beyond the virial radius can be studied with unprecedented sensitivity by integrating the SZ signal over tens of square degrees. We study the signal in the outskirts of Virgo and compare it with analytical models and a constrained simulation of the environment of Virgo. Planck data suggest that significant amounts of low-density plasma surround Virgo out to twice the virial radius. We find the SZ signal in the outskirts of Virgo to be consistent with a simple model that extrapolates the inferred pressure at lower radii while assuming that the temperature stays in the keV range beyond the virial radius. The observed signal is also consistent with simulations and points to a shallow pressure profile in the outskirts of the cluster. This reservoir of gas at large radii can be linked with the hottest phase of the elusive warm/hot intergalactic medium. Taking the lack of symmetry of Virgo into account, we find that a prolate model is favoured by the combination of SZ and X-ray data, in agreement with predictions.
X-ray surface brightness fluctuations in the core ($650 times 650$ kpc) region of the Coma cluster observed with XMM-Newton and Chandra are analyzed using a 2D power spectrum approach. The resulting 2D spectra are converted to 3D power spectra of gas density fluctuations. Our independent analyses of the XMM-Newton and Chandra observations are in excellent agreement and provide the most sensitive measurements of surface brightness and density fluctuations for a hot cluster. We find that the characteristic amplitude of the volume filling density fluctuations relative to the smooth underlying density distribution varies from 7-10% on scales of $sim$500 kpc down to $sim$5% at scales $sim$ 30 kpc. On smaller spatial scales, projection effects smear the density fluctuations by a large factor, precluding strong limits on the fluctuations in 3D. On the largest scales probed (hundreds of kpc), the dominant contributions to the observed fluctuations most likely arise from perturbations of the gravitational potential by the two most massive galaxies in Coma, NGC4874 and NGC4889, and the low entropy gas brought to the cluster by an infalling group. Other plausible sources of X-ray surface brightness fluctuations are discussed, including turbulence, metal abundance variations, and unresolved sources. Despite a variety of possible origins for density fluctuations, the gas in the Coma cluster core is remarkably homogeneous on scales from $sim$ 500 to $sim$30 kpc.
By looking at the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (kSZ) in Planck nominal mission data, we present a significant detection of baryons participating in large-scale bulk flows around central galaxies (CGs) at redshift $zapprox 0.1$. We estimate the pairwise momentum of the kSZ temperature fluctuations at the positions of the CGC (Central Galaxy Catalogue) samples extracted from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (DR7) data. For the foreground-cleaned maps, we find $1.8$-$2.5sigma$ detections of the kSZ signal, which are consistent with the kSZ evidence found in individual Planck raw frequency maps, although lower than found in the WMAP-9yr W band ($3.3sigma$). We further reconstruct the peculiar velocity field from the CG density field, and compute for the first time the cross-correlation function between kSZ temperature fluctuations and estimates of CG radial peculiar velocities. This correlation function yields a $3.0$-$3.7$$sigma$ detection of the peculiar motion of extended gas on Mpc scales, in flows correlated up to distances of 80-100 $h^{-1}$ Mpc. Both the pairwise momentum estimates and kSZ temperature-velocity field correlation find evidence for kSZ signatures out to apertures of 8 arcmin and beyond, corresponding to a physical radius of $> 1$ Mpc, more than twice the mean virial radius of halos. This is consistent with the predictions from hydro simulations that most of the baryons are outside the virialized halos. We fit a simple model, in which the temperature-velocity cross-correlation is proportional to the signal seen in a semi-analytic model built upon N-body simulations, and interpret the proportionality constant as an effective optical depth to Thomson scattering. We find $tau_T=(1.4pm0.5)times 10^{-4}$; the simplest interpretation of this measurement is that much of the gas is in a diffuse phase, which contributes little signal to X-ray or thermal SZ observations.
We examine the relation between the galaxy cluster mass M and Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect signal D_A^2 Y for a sample of 19 objects for which weak lensing (WL) mass measurements obtained from Subaru Telescope data are available in the literature. Hydrostatic X-ray masses are derived from XMM-Newton archive data and the SZ effect signal is measured from Planck all-sky survey data. We find an M_WL-D_A^2 Y relation that is consistent in slope and normalisation with previous determinations using weak lensing masses; however, there is a normalisation offset with respect to previous measures based on hydrostatic X-ray mass-proxy relations. We verify that our SZ effect measurements are in excellent agreement with previous determinations from Planck data. For the present sample, the hydrostatic X-ray masses at R_500 are on average ~ 20 per cent larger than the corresponding weak lensing masses, at odds with expectations. We show that the mass discrepancy is driven by a difference in mass concentration as measured by the two methods, and, for the present sample, the mass discrepancy and difference in mass concentration is especially large for disturbed systems. The mass discrepancy is also linked to the offset in centres used by the X-ray and weak lensing analyses, which again is most important in disturbed systems. We outline several approaches that are needed to help achieve convergence in cluster mass measurement with X-ray and weak lensing observations.
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