Chandra X-Ray Spectral Analysis of Cooling Flow Clusters, 2A 0335+096 and Abell 2199


Abstract in English

We report on a spatially resolved analysis of Chandra X-ray data on a nearby typical cooling flow cluster of galaxies 2A 0335+096, together with A 2199 for a comparison. As recently found in the cores of other clusters, the temperature around the central part of 2A 0335+096 is 1.3--1.5 keV, which is higher than that inferred from the cooling flow picture. Furthermore, the absorption column density is almost constant against the radius in 2A 0335+096; there is no evidence of excess absorption up to 200--250 kpc. This indicates that no significant amount of cold material, which has cooled down, is present. These properties are similar to those of A 2199. Since the cooling time in the central part is much shorter than the age of the clusters, a heating mechanism, which weakens the effect of radiative cooling, is expected to be present in the central part of both clusters of galaxies. Both 2A 0335+096 and A 2199 have radio jets associated with their cD galaxy. We discuss the possibility of heating processes caused by these radio jets by considering the thermal conduction and the sound velocity together with the observed disturbance of the ICM temperature and density. We conclude that the observed radio jets can produce local heating and/or cooling, but do not sufficiently reduce the overall radiative cooling. This implies that much more violent jets, whose emission has now decayed, heated up the cooling gas $>10^9$ years ago.

Download