No Arabic abstract
The M49 group, resident outside the virial radius of the Virgo cluster, is falling onto the cluster from the south. We report results from deep {sl XMM-Newton} mosaic observations of M49. Its hot gas temperature is 0.8,keV at the group center and rises to 1.5,keV beyond the brightest group galaxy (BGG). The group gas extends to radii of $sim300$,kpc to the north and south. The observations reveal a cold front $sim20$,kpc north of the BGG center and an X-ray bright stripped tail 70,kpc long and 10,kpc wide to the southwest of the BGG. We argue that the atmosphere of the infalling group was slowed by its encounter with the Virgo cluster gas, causing the BGG to move forward subsonically relative to the group gas. We measure declining temperature and metallicity gradients along the stripped tail. The tail gas can be traced back to the cooler and enriched gas uplifted from the BGG center by buoyant bubbles, implying that AGN outbursts may have intensified the stripping process. We extrapolate to a virial radius of 740,kpc and derive a virial mass of $4.6times10^{13},M_odot$ for the M49 group. Its group atmosphere appears truncated and deficient when compared with isolated galaxy groups of similar temperatures. If M49 is on its first infall to Virgo, the infall region of a cluster could have profound impacts on galaxies and groups that are being accreted onto galaxy clusters. Alternatively, M49 may have already passed through Virgo once.
We use imaging from the Next Generation Virgo cluster Survey (NGVS) to present a comparative study of ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxies associated with three prominent Virgo sub-clusters: those centered on the massive, red-sequence galaxies M87, M49 and M60. We show how UCDs can be selected with high completeness using a combination of half-light radius and location in color-color diagrams ($u^*iK_s$ or $u^*gz$). Although the central galaxies in each of these sub-clusters have nearly identical luminosities and stellar masses, we find large differences in the sizes of their UCD populations, with M87 containing ~3.5 and 7.8 times more UCDs than M49 and M60, respectively. The relative abundance of UCDs in the three regions scales in proportion to sub-cluster mass, as traced by X-ray gas mass, total gravitating mass, number of globular clusters, and number of nearby galaxies. We find that the UCDs are predominantly blue in color, with ~85% of the UCDs having colors similar to blue GCs and stellar nuclei of dwarf galaxies. We present evidence that UCDs surrounding M87 and M49 may follow a morphological sequence ordered by the prominence of their outer, low surface brightness envelope, ultimately merging with the sequence of nucleated low-mass galaxies, and that envelope prominence correlates with distance from either galaxy. Our analysis provides evidence that tidal stripping of nucleated galaxies is an important process in the formation of UCDs.
Intra-cluster (IC) populations are expected to be a natural result of the hierarchical assembly of clusters, yet their low space densities make them difficult to detect and study. We present the first definitive kinematic detection of an IC population of globular clusters (GCs) in the Virgo cluster, around the central galaxy, M87. This study focuses on the Virgo core for which the combination of NGVS photometry and follow-up spectroscopy allows us to reject foreground star contamination and explore GC kinematics over the full Virgo dynamical range. The GC kinematics changes gradually with galactocentric distance, decreasing in mean velocity and increasing in velocity dispersion, eventually becoming indistinguishable from the kinematics of Virgo dwarf galaxies at $mathrm{R>320, kpc}$. By kinematically tagging M87 halo and intra-cluster GCs we find that 1) the M87 halo has a smaller fraction ($52pm3%$) of blue clusters with respect to the IC counterpart ($77pm10%$), 2) the $(g-r)_{0}$ vs $(i-z)_{0}$ color-color diagrams reveal a galaxy population that is redder than the IC population that may be due to a different composition in chemical abundance and progenitor mass, and 3) the ICGC distribution is shallower and more extended than the M87 GCs, yet still centrally concentrated. The ICGC specific frequency, $S_{N,mathrm{ICL}}=10.2pm4.8$, is consistent with what is observed for the population of quenched, low-mass galaxies within 1~Mpc from the clusters center. The IC population at Virgos center is thus consistent with being an accreted component from low-mass galaxies tidally stripped or disrupted through interactions, with a total mass of $mathrm{M_{ICL,tot}=10.8pm0.1times10^{11}M_{odot}}$.
We report on a large-scale study of the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) throughout the Virgo cluster, based on photometry from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey, a large imaging survey covering Virgos primary subclusters to their virial radii. Using the g, (g-i) color-magnitude diagram of unresolved and marginally-resolved sources, we constructed 2-D maps of the GC distribution. We present the clearest evidence to date showing the difference in concentration between red and blue GCs over the extent of the cluster, where the red (metal-rich) GCs are largely located around the massive early-type galaxies, whilst the blue (metal-poor) GCs have a more extended spatial distribution, with significant populations present beyond 83 (215 kpc) along the major axes of M49 and M87. The GC distribution around M87 and M49 shows remarkable agreement with the shape, ellipticity and boxiness of the diffuse light surrounding both galaxies. We find evidence for spatial enhancements of GCs surrounding M87 that may be indicative of recent interactions or an ongoing merger history. We compare the GC map to the locations of Virgo galaxies and the intracluster X-ray gas, and find good agreement between these baryonic structures. The Virgo cluster contains a total population of 67300$pm$14400 GCs, of which 35% are located in M87 and M49 alone. We compute a cluster-wide specific frequency S_N,CL=$2.8pm0.7$, including Virgos diffuse light. The GC-to-baryonic mass fraction is e_b=$5.7pm1.1times10^{-4} $and the GC-to-total cluster mass formation efficiency is e_t=$2.9pm0.5times10^{-5}$, values slightly lower than, but consistent with, those derived for individual galactic halos. Our results show that the production of the complex structures in the unrelaxed Virgo cluster core (including the diffuse intracluster light) is an ongoing process.(abridged)
We report on high-resolution JVLA and Chandra observations of the HST Frontier Cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. MACS J0717.5+3745 offers the largest contiguous magnified area of any known cluster, making it a promising target to search for lensed radio and X-ray sources. With the high-resolution 1.0-6.5 GHz JVLA imaging in A and B configuration, we detect a total of 51 compact radio sources within the area covered by the HST imaging. Within this sample we find 7 lensed sources with amplification factors larger than $2$. None of these sources are identified as multiply-lensed. Based on the radio luminosities, the majority of these sources are likely star forming galaxies with star formation rates of 10-50 M$_odot$ yr$^{-1}$ located at $1 lesssim z lesssim 2$. Two of the lensed radio sources are also detected in the Chandra image of the cluster. These two sources are likely AGN, given their $2-10$ keV X-ray luminosities of $sim 10^{43-44}$ erg s$^{-1}$. From the derived radio luminosity function, we find evidence for an increase in the number density of radio sources at $0.6<z<2.0$, compared to a $z < 0.3$ sample. Our observations indicate that deep radio imaging of lensing clusters can be used to study star forming galaxies, with star formation rates as low as $sim10$ M$_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, at the peak of cosmic star formation history.
We cross-correlate the Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources (PCCS) with the fully sampled 84 deg2 Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS) fields. We search for and identify the 857 and 545 GHz PCCS sources in the HeViCS fields by studying their FIR/submm and optical counterparts. We find 84 and 48 compact Planck sources in the HeViCS fields at 857 and 545 GHz, respectively. Almost all sources correspond to individual bright Virgo Cluster galaxies. The vast majority of the Planck detected galaxies are late-type spirals, with the Sc class dominating the numbers, while early-type galaxies are virtually absent from the sample, especially at 545 GHz. We compare the HeViCS SPIRE flux densities for the detected galaxies with the four different PCCS flux density estimators and find an excellent correlation with the aperture photometry flux densities, even at the highest flux density levels. We find only seven PCCS sources in the HeViCS fields without a nearby galaxy as obvious counterpart, and conclude that all of these are dominated by Galactic cirrus features or are spurious detections. No Planck sources in the HeViCS fields seem to be associated to high-redshift proto-clusters of dusty galaxies or strongly lensed submm sources. Finally, our study is the first empirical confirmation of the simulation-based estimated completeness of the PCCS, and provides a strong support of the internal PCCS validation procedure.