No Arabic abstract
Abell1758 is a system of two galaxy clusters, a more massive, northern cluster and a southern cluster. Both parts are undergoing major merger events at different stages. Although the mass of the merger constituents provides enough energy to produce visible shock fronts in the X-ray, none have been found to date. We present detailed temperature and abundance maps based on Chandra ACIS data, and identify several candidates for shocks and cold fronts from a smoothed gradient map of the surface brightness. One candidate can be confirmed as the missing shock front in the northern cluster through X-ray spectroscopy. Non-thermal radio emission observed with the GMRT confirms the presence of radio halos in the northern and southern clusters, and shows evidence for a relic in the periphery of the southern cluster. We do not find evidence for shocked gas between A1758N and A1758S.
Collisions between galaxy clusters dissipate enormous amounts of energy in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) through turbulence and shocks. In the process, Mpc-scale diffuse synchrotron emission in form of radio halos and relics can form. However, little is known about the very early phase of the collision. We used deep radio observations from 53 MHz to 1.5 GHz to study the pre-merging galaxy clusters A1758N and A1758S that are $sim2$ Mpc apart. We confirm the presence of a giant bridge of radio emission connecting the two systems that was reported only tentatively in our earlier work. This is the second large-scale radio bridge observed to date in a cluster pair. The bridge is clearly visible in the LOFAR image at 144 MHz and tentatively detected at 53 MHz. Its mean radio emissivity is more than one order of magnitude lower than that of the radio halos in A1758N and A1758S. Interestingly, the radio and X-ray emissions of the bridge are correlated. Our results indicate that non-thermal phenomena in the ICM can be generated also in the region of compressed gas in-between infalling systems.
We present a weak-lensing and dynamical study of the complex cluster Abell 1758 (A1758, z = 0.278) supported by hydrodynamical simulations. This cluster is composed of two main structures, called A1758N and A1758S. The Northern structure is composed of A1758NW & A1758NE, with lensing determined masses of 7.90_{-1.55}^{+1.89} X 10^{14} M_odot and 5.49_{-1.33}^{+1.67} X 10^{14} M_odot, respectively. They show a remarkable feature: while in A1758NW there is a spatial agreement among weak lensing mass distribution, intracluster medium and its brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in A1758NE the X-ray peak is located 96_{-15}^{+14} arcsec away from the mass peak and BCG positions. Given the detachment between gas and mass we could use the local surface mass density to estimate an upper limit for the dark matter self-interaction cross section: sigma/m<5.83 cm^2 g^{-1}. Combining our velocity data with hydrodynamical simulations we have shown that A1758 NW & NE had their closest approach 0.27 Gyr ago and their merger axis is 21+-12 degrees from the plane of the sky. In the A1758S system we have measured a total mass of 4.96_{-1.19}^{+1.08} X 10^{14} M_odot and, using radial velocity data, we found that the main merger axis is located at 70+-4 degrees from the plane of the sky, therefore closest to the line-of-sight.
We present a multi wavelength analysis of 28 of the most luminous low-redshift narrow-line, ultra-hard X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) drawn from the 70 month Swift/BAT all-sky survey, with bolometric luminosities of log(L_bol/erg/s) > 45.25. The broad goal of our study is to determine whether these objects have any distinctive properties, potentially setting them aside from lower-luminosity obscured AGN in the local Universe. Our analysis relies on the first data release of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS/DR1) and on dedicated observations with the VLT, Palomar, and Keck observatories. We find that the vast majority of our sources agree with commonly used AGN selection criteria which are based on emission line ratios and on mid-infrared colours. Our AGN are predominantly hosted in massive galaxies (9.8 < log(M_*/M_sun) < 11.7); based on visual inspection of archival optical images, they appear to be mostly ellipticals. Otherwise, they do not have distinctive properties. Their radio luminosities, determined from publicly available survey data, show a large spread of almost 4 orders of magnitude - much broader than what is found for lower X-ray luminosity obscured AGN in BASS. Moreover, our sample shows no preferred combination of black hole masses (M_BH) and/or Eddington ratio (lambda_Edd), covering 7.5 < log(M_BH/M_sun) < 10.3 and 0.01 < lambda_Edd < 1. Based on the distribution of our sources in the lambda_Edd-N_H plane, we conclude that our sample is consistent with a scenario where the amount of obscuring material along the line of sight is determined by radiation pressure exerted by the AGN on the dusty circumnuclear gas.
We present a Chandra X-ray observation and VLA radio observations of the nearby (z=0.11) galaxy cluster Abell 562 and the wide angle tail (WAT) radio source 0647+693. The cluster displays signatures of an ongoing merger leading to the bending of the WAT source including an elongation of the X-ray surface brightness distribution along the line that bisects the WAT, an excess of displaced gas found between the radio lobes, and anisotropies within the ICM projected temperature and abundance distributions. The most likely geometry of the ongoing interaction is a head-on merger occurring along the WAT bending axis. By combining observable properties of A562 and 0647+693 with common values for the conditions within merging clusters at the time of core crossing, we constrain the internal density (rho[ j ] = 0.001 rho[ICM]) of the jets and plasma flow velocity within the lobes (v = 0.02c - 0.03c) of the WAT source.