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Register a new userWitnessing the Growth of the Nearest Galaxy Cluster: Thermodynamics of the Virgo Cluster Outskirts
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We present results from Suzaku Key Project observations of the Virgo Cluster, the nearest galaxy cluster to us, mapping its X-ray properties along four long `arms extending beyond the virial radius. The entropy profiles along all four azimuths increase with radius, then level out beyond $0.5r_{200}$, while the average pressure at large radii exceeds Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich measurements. These results can be explained by enhanced gas density fluctuations (clumping) in the clusters outskirts. Using a standard Navarro, Frenk and White (1997) model, we estimate a virial mass, radius, and concentration parameter of $M_{200}=1.05pm0.02times10^{14}$ M$_odot$, $r_{200}=974.1pm5.7$ kpc, and $c = 8.8 pm0.2$, respectively. The inferred cumulative baryon fraction exceeds the cosmic mean at $rsim r_{200}$ along the major axis, suggesting enhanced gas clumping possibly sourced by a candidate large-scale structure filament along the north-south direction. The Suzaku data reveal a large-scale sloshing pattern, with two new cold fronts detected at radii of 233 kpc and 280 kpc along the western and southern arms, respectively. Two high-temperature regions are also identified 1 Mpc towards the south and 605 kpc towards the west of M87, likely representing shocks associated with the ongoing cluster growth. Although systematic uncertainties in measuring the metallicity for low temperature plasma remain, the data at large radii appear consistent with a uniform metal distribution on scales of $sim 90times180$ kpc and larger, providing additional support for the early chemical enrichment scenario driven by galactic winds at redshifts of 2-3.
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We present results from recent Suzaku and Chandra X-ray, and MMT optical observations of the strongly merging double cluster A1750 out to its virial radius, both along and perpendicular to a putative large-scale structure filament. Some previous studies of individual clusters have found evidence for ICM entropy profiles that flatten at large cluster radii, as compared with the self-similar prediction based on purely gravitational models of hierarchical cluster formation, and gas fractions that rise above the mean cosmic value. Weakening accretion shocks and the presence of unresolved cool gas clumps, both of which are expected to correlate with large scale structure filaments, have been invoked to explain these results. In the outskirts of A1750, we find entropy profiles that are consistent with self-similar expectations, and gas fractions that are consistent with the mean cosmic value, both along and perpendicular to the putative large scale filament. Thus, we find no evidence for gas clumping in the outskirts of A1750, in either direction. This may indicate that gas clumping is less common in lower temperature (kT~4keV), less massive systems, consistent with some (but not all) previous studies of low mass clusters and groups. Cluster mass may therefore play a more important role in gas clumping than dynamical state. Finally, we find evidence for diffuse, cool (<1 keV) gas at large cluster radii (R200) along the filament, which is consistent with the expected properties of the denser, hotter phase of the WHIM.
The results of Suzaku observations of the outskirts of Abell 3395 including a large-scale structure filament toward Abell 3391 are presented. We measured temperature and abundance distributions from the southern outskirt of Abell 3395 to the north at the virial radius, where a filament structure has been found in the former X-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect observations between Abell 3391 and 3395. The overall temperature structure is consistent with the universal profile proposed by Okabe et al.(2014) for relaxed clusters except for the filament region. A hint of the ICM heating is found between the two clusters, which might be due to the interaction of them in the early phase of a cluster merger. Although we obtained relatively low metal abundance of $Z=0.169^{+0.164+0.009+0.018 }_{-0.150-0.004-0.015 }$ solar, where the first, second, and third errors are statistical, cosmic X-ray background systematic, and non X-ray background systematic, respectively, at the virial radius in the filament, our results are still consistent with the former results of other clusters ($Z sim 0.3$ solar) within errors. Therefore, our results are also consistent with the early enrichment scenario. We estimated Compton $y$ parameters only from X-ray results in the region between Abell 3391 and 3395 assuming a simple geometry. They are smaller than the previous SZ results with Planck satellite. The difference could be attributed to a more elaborate geometry such as a filament inclined to the line-of-sight direction, or underestimation of the X-ray temperature because of the unresolved multi-temperature structures or undetected hot X-ray emission of the shock heated gas.
We analyzed the massive star population of the Virgo Cluster galaxy NGC 4535 using archival Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 images in filters F555W and F814W, equivalent to Johnson V and Kron-Cousins I. We performed high precision point spread function fitting photometry of 24353 sources including 3762 candidate blue supergiants, 841 candidate yellow supergiants and 370 candidate red supergiants. We estimated the ratio of blue to red supergiants as a decreasing function of galactocentric radius. Using Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics isochrones at solar metallicity, we defined the luminosity function and estimated the star formation history of the galaxy over the last 60 Myrs. We conducted a variability search in the V and I filters using three variability indexes: the median absolute deviation, the interquartile range and the inverse von-Neumann ratio. This analysis yielded 120 new variable candidates with absolute magnitudes ranging from M$_{V}$ = $-$4 to $-$11 mag. We used the MESA evolutionary tracks at solar metallicity, to classify the variables based on their absolute magnitude and their position on the color-magnitude diagram. Among the new candidate variable sources are eight candidate variable red supergiants, three candidate variable yellow supergiants and one candidate luminous blue variable, which we suggest for follow-up observations.
Galaxy cluster outskirts mark the transition region from the mildly non-linear cosmic web to the highly non-linear, virialised, cluster interior. It is in this transition region that the intra-cluster medium (ICM) begins to influence the properties of accreting galaxies and groups, as ram pressure impacts a galaxys cold gas content and subsequent star formation rate. Conversely, the thermodynamical properties of the ICM in this transition region should also feel the influence of accreting substructure (i.e. galaxies and groups), whose passage can drive shocks. In this paper, we use a suite of cosmological hydrodynamical zoom simulations of a single galaxy cluster, drawn from the nIFTy comparison project, to study how the dynamics of substructure accreted from the cosmic web influences the thermodynamical properties of the ICM in the clusters outskirts. We demonstrate how features evident in radial profiles of the ICM (e.g. gas density and temperature) can be linked to strong shocks, transient and short-lived in nature, driven by the passage of substructure. The range of astrophysical codes and galaxy formation models in our comparison are broadly consistent in their predictions (e.g. agreeing when and where shocks occur, but differing in how strong shocks will be); this is as we would expect of a process driven by large-scale gravitational dynamics and strong, inefficiently radiating, shocks. This suggests that mapping such shock structures in the ICM in a clusters outskirts (via e.g. radio synchrotron emission) could provide a complementary measure of its recent merger and accretion history.
The Virgo cluster of galaxies provides excellent conditions for studying interactions of galaxies with the cluster environment. Both the high-velocity tidal interactions and effects of ram pressure stripping by the intracluster gas can be investigated in detail. We extend our systematic search for possible anomalies in the magnetic field structures of Virgo cluster spirals in order to characterize a variety of effects and attribute them to different disturbing agents. Six angularly large Virgo cluster spiral galaxies (NGC4192, NGC4302, NGC4303, NGC4321, NGC4388, and NGC4535) were targets of a sensitive total power and polarization study using the 100-m radio telescope in Effelsberg at 4.85GHz and 8.35GHz (except for NGC4388 observed only at 4.85GHz, and NGC4535 observed only at 8.35GHz). Magnetic field structures distorted to various extent are found in all galaxies. Three galaxies (NGC4302, NGC4303, and NGC4321) show some signs of possible tidal interactions, while NGC4388 and NGC4535 have very likely experienced strong ram-pressure and shearing effects, respectively, visible as distortions and asymmetries of polarized intensity distributions. As in our previous study, even strongly perturbed galaxies closely follow the radio-far-infrared correlation. In NGC4303 and NGC4321, we observe symmetric spiral patterns of the magnetic field and in NGC4535 an asymmetric pattern. Magnetic fields allow us to trace even weak interactions that are difficult to detect with other observations. Our results show that the degree of distortions of a galaxy is not a simple function of the distance to the cluster center but reflects also the history of its interactions. The angle between the velocity vector and the rotation vector of a galaxy may be a general parameter that describes the level of distortions of galactic magnetic fields.
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