52 research outputs found
The Outer Limits of Galaxy Clusters: Observations to the Virial Radius with Suzaku, XMM, and Chandra
The outskirts of galaxy clusters, near the virial radius, remain relatively
unexplored territory and yet are vital to our understanding of cluster growth,
structure, and mass. In this presentation, we show the first results from a
program to constrain the state of the outer intracluster medium (ICM) in a
large sample of galaxy clusters, exploiting the strengths of three
complementary X-ray observatories: Suzaku (low, stable background), XMM-Newton
(high sensitivity), and Chandra (good spatial resolution). By carefully
combining observations from the cluster core to beyond r_200, we are able to
identify and reduce systematic uncertainties that would impede our spatial and
spectral analysis using a single telescope. Our sample comprises nine clusters
at z ~ 0.1-0.2 fully covered in azimuth to beyond r_200, and our analysis
indicates that the ICM is not in hydrostatic equilibrium in the cluster
outskirts, where we see clear azimuthal variations in temperature and surface
brightness. In one of the clusters, we are able to measure the diffuse X-ray
emission well beyond r_200, and we find that the entropy profile and the gas
fraction are consistent with expectations from theory and numerical
simulations. These results stand in contrast to recent studies which point to
gas clumping in the outskirts; the extent to which differences of cluster
environment or instrumental effects factor in this difference remains unclear.
From a broader perspective, this project will produce a sizeable fiducial data
set for detailed comparison with high-resolution numerical simulations.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the Suzaku 2011
Conference, "Exploring the X-ray Universe: Suzaku and Beyond.
Chandra X-ray Observations of the Hydra A Cluster: An Interaction Between the Radio Source and the X-Ray-Emitting Gas
We present Chandra X-ray Observations of the Hydra A cluster of galaxies, and
we report the discovery of structure in the central 80 kpc of the cluster's
X-ray-emitting gas. The most remarkable structures are depressions in the X-ray
surface brightness, kpc diameter, that are coincident with Hydra
A's radio lobes. The depressions are nearly devoid of X-ray-emitting gas, and
there is no evidence for shock-heated gas surrounding the radio lobes. We
suggest the gas within the surface brightness depressions was displaced as the
radio lobes expanded subsonically, leaving cavities in the hot atmosphere. The
gas temperature declines from 4 keV at 70 kpc to 3 keV in the inner 20 kpc of
the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), and the cooling time of the gas is Myr in the inner 10 kpc. These properties are consistent with the presence
of a \sim 34 \msunyr cooling flow within a 70 kpc radius. Bright X-ray
emission is present in the BCG surrounding a recently-accreted disk of nebular
emission and young stars. The star formation rate is commensurate with the
cooling rate of the hot gas within the volume of the disk, although the sink
for the material cooling at larger radii remains elusive.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; submitted to ApJ Letter
Simulating Reionization: Character and Observability
In recent years there has been considerable progress in our understanding of
the nature and properties of the reionization process. In particular, the
numerical simulations of this epoch have made a qualitative leap forward,
reaching sufficiently large scales to derive the characteristic scales of the
reionization process and thus allowing for realistic observational predictions.
Our group has recently performed the first such large-scale radiative transfer
simulations of reionization, run on top of state-of-the-art simulations of
early structure formation. This allowed us to make the first realistic
observational predictions about the Epoch of Reionization based on detailed
radiative transfer and structure formation simulations. We discuss the basic
features of reionization derived from our simulations and some recent results
on the observational implications for the high-redshift Ly-alpha sources.Comment: 3 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of First Stars III, Santa Fe,
July 2007, AIP Conference Serie
Chandra Observation of Abell 2142: Survival of Dense Subcluster Cores in a Merger
We use Chandra data to map the gas temperature in the central region of the
merging cluster A2142. The cluster is markedly nonisothermal; it appears that
the central cooling flow has been disturbed but not destroyed by a merger. The
X-ray image exhibits two sharp, bow-shaped, shock-like surface brightness edges
or gas density discontinuities. However, temperature and pressure profiles
across these edges indicate that these are not shock fronts. The pressure is
reasonably continuous across these edges, while the entropy jumps in the
opposite sense to that in a shock (i.e. the denser side of the edge has lower
temperature, and hence lower entropy). Most plausibly, these edges delineate
the dense subcluster cores that have survived a merger and ram pressure
stripping by the surrounding shock-heated gas.Comment: Latex, 9 pages, 5 figures (including color), uses emulateapj.sty.
Submitted to Ap
Parameterization Effects in the analysis of AMI Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Observations
Most Sunyaev--Zel'dovich (SZ) and X-ray analyses of galaxy clusters try to
constrain the cluster total mass and/or gas mass using parameterised models and
assumptions of spherical symmetry and hydrostatic equilibrium. By numerically
exploring the probability distributions of the cluster parameters given the
simulated interferometric SZ data in the context of Bayesian methods, and
assuming a beta-model for the electron number density we investigate the
capability of this model and analysis to return the simulated cluster input
quantities via three rameterisations. In parameterisation I we assume that the
T is an input parameter. We find that parameterisation I can hardly constrain
the cluster parameters. We then investigate parameterisations II and III in
which fg(r200) replaces temperature as a main variable. In parameterisation II
we relate M_T(r200) and T assuming hydrostatic equilibrium. We find that
parameterisation II can constrain the cluster physical parameters but the
temperature estimate is biased low. In parameterisation III, the virial theorem
replaces the hydrostatic equilibrium assumption. We find that parameterisation
III results in unbiased estimates of the cluster properties. We generate a
second simulated cluster using a generalised NFW (GNFW) pressure profile and
analyse it with an entropy based model to take into account the temperature
gradient in our analysis and improve the cluster gas density distribution. This
model also constrains the cluster physical parameters and the results show a
radial decline in the gas temperature as expected. The mean cluster total mass
estimates are also within 1 sigma from the simulated cluster true values.
However, we find that for at least interferometric SZ analysis in practice at
the present time, there is no differences in the AMI visibilities between the
two models. This may of course change as the instruments improve.Comment: 19 pages, 13 tables, 24 figure
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich observations of galaxy clusters out to the virial radius with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager
We present observations using the Small Array of the Arcminute Microkelvin
Imager (AMI; 14-18 GHz) of four Abell and three MACS clusters spanning
0.171-0.686 in redshift. We detect Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) signals in five of
these without any attempt at source subtraction, although strong source
contamination is present. With radio-source measurements from high-resolution
observations, and under the assumptions of spherical -model,
isothermality and hydrostatic equilibrium, a Bayesian analysis of the data in
the visibility plane detects extended SZ decrements in all seven clusters over
and above receiver noise, radio sources and primary CMB imprints. Bayesian
evidence ratios range from 10^{11}:1 to 10^{43}:1 for six of the clusters and
3000:1 for one with substantially less data than the others. We present
posterior probability distributions for, e.g., total mass and gas fraction
averaged over radii internal to which the mean overdensity is 1000, 500 and
200, r_200 being the virial radius. Reaching r_200 involves some extrapolation
for the nearer clusters but not for the more-distant ones. We find that our
estimates of gas fraction are low (compared with most in the literature) and
decrease with increasing radius. These results appear to be consistent with the
notion that gas temperature in fact falls with distance (away from near the
cluster centre) out to the virial radius.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS (updated authors and fixed
Figure 1
Detailed SZ study of 19 LoCuSS galaxy clusters: masses and temperatures out to the virial radius
We present 16-GHz AMI SZ observations of 19 clusters with L_X >7x10^37 W
(h50=1) selected from the LoCuS survey (0.142<z<0.295) and of A1758b, in the
FoV of A1758a. We detect 17 clusters with 5-23sigma peak surface brightnesses.
Cluster parameters are obtained using a Bayesian cluster analysis. We fit
isothermal beta-models to our data and assume the clusters are virialized (with
all the kinetic energy in gas internal energy). Our gas temperature, T_AMI, is
derived from AMI SZ data, not from X-ray spectroscopy. Cluster parameters
internal to r500 are derived assuming HSE. We find: (i) Different gNFW
parameterizations yield significantly different parameter degeneracies. (ii)
For h70 = 1, we find the virial radius r200 to be typically 1.6+/-0.1 Mpc and
the total mass M_T(r200) typically to be 2.0-2.5xM_T(r500).(iii) Where we have
found M_T X-ray (X) and weak-lensing (WL) values in the literature, there is
good agreement between WL and AMI estimates (with M_{T,AMI}/M_{T,WL}
=1.2^{+0.2}_{-0.3} and =1.0+/-0.1 for r500 and r200, respectively). In
comparison, most Suzaku/Chandra estimates are higher than for AMI (with
M_{T,X}/M_{T,AMI}=1.7+/-0.2 within r500), particularly for the stronger
mergers.(iv) Comparison of T_AMI to T_X sheds light on high X-ray masses: even
at large r, T_X can substantially exceed T_AMI in mergers. The use of these
higher T_X values will give higher X-ray masses. We stress that large-r T_SZ
and T_X data are scarce and must be increased. (v) Despite the paucity of data,
there is an indication of a relation between merger activity and SZ
ellipticity. (vi) At small radius (but away from any cooling flow) the SZ
signal (and T_AMI) is less sensitive to ICM disturbance than the X-ray signal
(and T_X) and, even at high r, mergers affect n^2-weighted X-ray data more than
n-weighted SZ, implying significant shocking or clumping or both occur even in
the outer parts of mergers.Comment: 45 pages, 33 figures, 13 tables Accepted for publication in MNRA
Robust quantitative measures of cluster X-ray morphology, and comparisons between cluster characteristics
To investigate the relationships between dynamical status and other important
characteristics of galaxy clusters, we conducted a study of X-ray cluster
morphology using a sample of 101 clusters at redshift z=0.05-1 taken from the
Chandra archive. The X-ray morphology is quantitatively characterized by a
series of objectively measured simple statistics of the X-ray surface
brightness distribution, which are designed to be robust against variations of
image quality caused by various exposure times and various cluster redshifts.
We found: (1) The distorted and non-distorted clusters occupy well-defined loci
in the L-T plane, demonstrating the measurements of the global luminosity and
temperature for distorted clusters should be interpreted with caution, or
alternatively, a rigorous morphological characterization is necessary when we
use a sample of clusters with heterogeneous morphological characteristics to
investigate the L-T or other related scaling relations. (2) Ellipticity and
Off-center show no evolutionary effects between high and low redshift cluster
subsets, while there may be a hint of weak evolutions for the Concentration and
Asymmetry, in such a way that high-z clusters show more distorted morphology.
(3) No correlation is found between X-ray morphology and X-ray luminosity or
X-ray morphology and X-ray temperature of clusters, implying that interaction
of clusters may not enhance or decrease the luminosity or temperature of
clusters for extended period of time.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 16 pages, 18 figure
Mitigating the effects of particle background on the Athena Wide Field Imager
The Wide Field Imager (WFI) flying on Athena will usher in the next era of studying the hot and energetic Universe. Among Athenaâs ambitious science programs are observations of faint, diffuse sources limited by statistical and systematic uncertainty in the background produced by high-energy cosmic ray particles. These particles produce easily identified âcosmic-ray tracksâ along with less easily identified signals produced by secondary photons or x-rays generated by particle interactions with the instrument. Such secondaries produce identical signals to the x-rays focused by the optics and cannot be filtered without also eliminating these precious photons. As part of a larger effort to estimate the level of unrejected background and mitigate its effects, we here present results from a study of background-reduction techniques that exploit the spatial correlation between cosmic-ray particle tracks and secondary events. We use Geant4 simulations to generate a realistic particle background signal, sort this into simulated WFI frames, and process those frames in a similar way to the expected flight and ground software to produce a realistic WFI observation containing only particle background. The technique under study, self-anti-coincidence (SAC), then selectively filters regions of the detector around particle tracks, turning the WFI into its own anti-coincidence detector. We show that SAC is effective at improving the systematic uncertainty for observations of faint, diffuse sources, but at the cost of statistical uncertainty due to a reduction in signal. If sufficient pixel pulse-height information is telemetered to the ground for each frame, then this technique can be applied selectively based on the science goals, providing flexibility without affecting the data quality for other science. The results presented here are relevant for any future silicon-based pixelated x-ray imaging detector and could allow the WFI and similar instruments to probe to truly faint x-ray surface brightness
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