No Arabic abstract
We present new Chandra observations of Abell 2199 that show evidence of gas sloshing due to a minor merger, as well as impacts of the radio source, 3C 338, hosted by the central galaxy, NGC 6166, on the intracluster gas. The new data are consistent with previous evidence of a Mach 1.46 shock 100 from the cluster center, although there is still no convincing evidence for the expected temperature jump. Other interpretations of this feature are possible, but none is fully satisfactory. Large scale asymmetries, including enhanced X-ray emission 200 southwest of the cluster center and a plume of low entropy, enriched gas reaching 50 to the north of the center, are signatures of gas sloshing induced by core passage of a merging subcluster about 400 Myr ago. An association between the unusual radio ridge and low entropy gas are consistent with this feature being the remnant of a former radio jet that was swept away from the AGN by gas sloshing. A large discrepancy between the energy required to produce the 100 shock and the enthalpy of the outer radio lobes of 3C 338 suggests that the lobes were formed by a more recent, less powerful radio outburst. Lack of evidence for shocks in the central 10 indicates that the power of the jet now is some two orders of magnitude smaller than when the 100 shock was formed.
Abell~1142 is a low-mass galaxy cluster at low redshift containing two comparable Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCG) resembling a scaled-down version of the Coma Cluster. Our Chandra analysis reveals an X-ray emission peak, roughly 100 kpc away from either BCG, which we identify as the cluster center. The emission center manifests itself as a second beta-model surface brightness component distinct from that of the cluster on larger scales. The center is also substantially cooler and more metal rich than the surrounding intracluster medium (ICM), which makes Abell 1142 appear to be a cool core cluster. The redshift distribution of its member galaxies indicates that Abell 1142 may contain two subclusters with each containing one BCG. The BCGs are merging at a relative velocity of ~1200 km/s. This ongoing merger may have shock-heated the ICM from ~ 2 keV to above 3 keV, which would explain the anomalous L_X--T_X scaling relation for this system. This merger may have displaced the metal-enriched cool core of either of the subclusters from the BCG. The southern BCG consists of three individual galaxies residing within a radius of 5 kpc in projection. These galaxies should rapidly sink into the subcluster center due to the dynamical friction of a cuspy cold dark matter halo.
Brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in the cores of galaxy clusters have distinctly different properties from other low redshift massive ellipticals. The majority of the BCGs in cool-core clusters show signs of active star formation. We present observations of NGC 4696, the BCG of the Centaurus galaxy cluster, at far-infrared (FIR) wavelengths with the Herschel space telescope. Using the PACS spectrometer, we detect the two strongest coolants of the interstellar medium, CII at 157.74 micron and OI at 63.18 micron, and in addition NII at 121.90 micron. The CII emission is extended over a region of 7 kpc with a similar spatial morphology and kinematics to the optical H-alpha emission. This has the profound implication that the optical hydrogen recombination line, H-alpha, the optical forbidden lines, NII 6583 Angstrom, the soft X-ray filaments and the far-infrared CII line all have the same energy source. We also detect dust emission using the PACS and SPIRE photometers at all six wavebands. We perform a detailed spectral energy distribution fitting using a two-component modified black-body function and find a cold 19 K dust component with mass 1.6x10^6 solar mass and a warm 46 K dust component with mass 4.0x10^3 solar mass. The total FIR luminosity between 8 micron and 1000 micron is 7.5x10^8 solar luminosity, which using Kennicutt relation yields a low star formation rate of 0.13 solar mass per yr. This value is consistent with values derived from other tracers, such as ultraviolet emission. Combining the spectroscopic and photometric results together with optical H-alpha, we model emitting clouds consisting of photodissociation regions (PDRs) adjacent to ionized regions. We show that in addition to old and young stellar populations, there is another source of energy, such as cosmic rays, shocks or reconnection diffusion, required to excite the H-alpha and CII filaments.
We present new, deep (245 ks) Chandra observations of the galaxy cluster Abell 1664 ($z = 0.1283$). These images reveal rich structure, including elongation and accompanying compressions of the X-ray isophotes in the NE-SW direction, suggesting that the hot gas is sloshing in the gravitational potential. This sloshing has resulted in cold fronts, at distances of 55, 115 and 320 kpc from the cluster center. Our results indicate that the core of A1664 is highly disturbed, as the global metallicity and cooling time flatten at small radii, implying mixing on large scales. The central AGN appears to have recently undergone a mechanical outburst, as evidenced by our detection of cavities. These cavities are the X-ray manifestations of radio bubbles inflated by the AGN, and may explain the motion of cold molecular CO clouds previously observed with ALMA. The estimated mechanical power of the AGN, using the minimum energy required to inflate the cavities as a proxy, is $P_{rm cav} = (1.1 pm 1.0) times 10^{44} $ erg s$^{-1}$, which may be enough to drive the molecular gas flows, and offset the cooling luminosity of the ICM, at $L_{rm cool} = (1.90 pm0.01)times 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$. This mechanical power is orders of magnitude higher than the measured upper limit on the X-ray luminosity of the central AGN, suggesting that its black hole may be extremely massive and/or radiatively inefficient. We map temperature variations on the same spatial scale as the molecular gas, and find that the most rapidly cooling gas is mostly coincident with the molecular gas reservoir centered on the BCGs systemic velocity observed with ALMA and may be fueling cold accretion onto the central black hole.
We investigate the thermodynamic and chemical structure of the intracluster medium (ICM) across a statistical sample of 20 galaxy clusters analysed with the Chandra X-ray satellite. In particular, we focus on the scaling properties of the gas density, metallicity and entropy and the comparison between clusters with and without cool cores (CCs). We find marked differences between the two categories except for the gas metallicity, which declines strongly with radius for all clusters (Z ~ r^{-0.31}), outside ~0.02 r500. The scaling of gas entropy is non-self-similar and we find clear evidence of bimodality in the distribution of logarithmic slopes of the entropy profiles. With only one exception, the steeper sloped entropy profiles are found in CC clusters whereas the flatter slope population are all non-CC clusters. We explore the role of thermal conduction in stabilizing the ICM and conclude that this mechanism alone is sufficient to balance cooling in non-CC clusters. However, CC clusters appear to form a distinct population in which heating from feedback is required in addition to conduction. Under the assumption that non-CC clusters are thermally stabilized by conduction alone, we find the distribution of Spitzer conduction suppression factors, f_c, to be log-normal, with a log (base 10) mean of -1.50+/-0.03 (i.e. f_c=0.032) and log standard deviation 0.39+/-0.02.
We present results from a deep Chandra observation of Abell 2052. A2052 is a bright, nearby, cooling flow cluster, at a redshift of z=0.035. Concentric surface brightness discontinuities are revealed in the cluster center, and these features are consistent with shocks driven by the AGN, both with Mach numbers of approximately 1.2. The southern cavity in A2052 now appears to be split into two cavities with the southernmost cavity likely representing a ghost bubble from earlier radio activity. There also appears to be a ghost bubble present to the NW of the cluster center. The cycle time measured for the radio source is approximately 2 x 10^7 yr using either the shock separation or the rise time of the bubbles. The energy deposited by the radio source, including a combination of direct shock heating and heating by buoyantly rising bubbles inflated by the AGN, can offset the cooling in the core of the cluster.