On the evolution of the entropy and pressure profiles in X-ray luminous galaxy clusters at z > 0.4

Galaxy clusters are the most recent products of hierarchical accretion over cosmological scales. The gas accreted from the cosmic field is thermalized inside the cluster halo. Gas entropy and pressure are expected to have a self-similar behaviour with their radial distribution following a power law and a generalized Navarro-Frenk-White profile, respectively. This has been shown also in many different hydrodynamical simulations. We derive the spatially-resolved thermodynamical properties of 47 X-ray galaxy clusters observed with Chandra in the redshift range 0.4 < z < 1.2, the largest sample investigated so far in this redshift range with X-rays spectroscopy, with a particular care in reconstructing the gas entropy and pressure radial profiles. We search for deviation from the self-similar behaviour and look for possible evolution with redshift. The entropy and pressure profiles lie very close to the baseline prediction from gravitational structure formation. We show that these profiles deviate from the baseline prediction as function of redshift, in particular at z > 0.75, where, in the central regions, we observe higher values of the entropy (by a factor of 2.2) and systematically lower estimates (by a factor of 2.5) of the pressure. The effective polytropic index, which retains informations about the thermal distribution of the gas, shows a slight linear positive evolution with the redshift and the concentration of the dark matter distribution. A prevalence of non-cool-core, disturbed systems, as we observe at higher redshifts, can explain such behaviours.Comment: 14 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication by A&

Helium abundance (and H0H_0) in X-COP galaxy clusters

We present the constraints on the helium abundance in 12 X-ray luminous galaxy clusters that have been mapped in their X-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) signals out to $R_{200}$ for the XMM-Newton Cluster Outskirts Project (X-COP). The unprecedented precision available for the estimate of $H_0$ allows us to investigate how much the reconstructed X-ray and SZ signals are consistent with the expected ratio $x$ between helium and proton densities of 0.08-0.1. We find that a $H_0$ around 70 km/s/Mpc is preferred from our measurements, with lower values of $H_0$ as requested from the Planck collaboration (67 km/s/Mpc) requiring a 34% higher value of $x$. On the other hand, higher values of $H_0$, as obtained by measurements in the local universe, impose $x$, from the primordial nucleosynthesis calculations and current solar abundances, reduced by 37--44\%.Comment: 7 pages. To appear as proceedings article for the XMM-Newton Workshop "Astrophysics of Hot Plasma in Extended X-ray Sources" held at European Space Astronomy Centre, Madrid, Spain, on 12-14 June 201

Polytropic state of the intracluster medium in the X-COP cluster sample

Aims: In this work, we have investigated the relation between the radially resolved thermodynamic quantities of the intracluster medium in the X-COP cluster sample, aiming to assess the stratification properties of the ICM. Methods: We modeled the relations between radius, gas temperature, density, and pressure using a combination of power-laws, also evaluating the intrinsic scatter in these relations. Results: We show that the gas pressure is remarkably well correlated to the density, with very small scatter. Also the temperature correlates with gas density with similar scatter. The slopes of these relations have values that show a clear transition from the inner cluster regions to the outskirts. This transition occurs at the radius rt = 0.19(±0.04) R500 and electron density nt = (1.91 ± 0.21) × 10-3 cm-3 E2(z). We find that above 0.2 R500 the radial thermodynamic profiles are accurately reproduced by a well defined and physically motivated framework, where the dark matter follows the NFW potential and the gas is represented by a polytropic equation of state. By modeling the gas temperature dependence upon both the gas density and radius, we propose a new method to reconstruct the hydrostatic mass profile based only on the relatively inexpensive measurement of the gas density profile

The XMM Cluster Outskirts Project (X-COP): thermodynamic properties of the intracluster medium out to R 200 in Abell 2319

Aims. We present the joint analysis of the X-ray and Sunyaev Zel’dovich(SZ) signals in Abell 2319, the galaxy cluster with the highest signal-to-noise ratio in SZ Planck maps and that has been surveyed within our XMM-Newton Cluster Outskirts Project (X-COP), a very large program which aims to grasp the physical condition in 12 local (z &lt; 0.1) and massive (M200 &gt; 3 × 1014 M⊙) galaxy clusters out to R200 and beyond. Methods. We recover the profiles of the thermodynamic properties by the geometrical deprojection of the X-ray surface brightness, of the SZ Comptonization parameter, and accurate and robust spectroscopic measurements of the gas temperature out to 3.2 Mpc (1.6 R200 ), 4 Mpc (2 R200 ), and 1.6 Mpc (0.8 R200 ), respectively. We resolve the clumpiness of the gas density to be below 20% over the entire observed volume. We also demonstrate that most of this clumpiness originates from the ongoing merger and can be associated with large-scale inhomogeneities (the “residual” clumpiness). We estimate the total mass through the hydrostatic equilibrium equation. This analysis is done both in azimuthally averaged radial bins and in eight independent angular sectors, enabling us to study in detail the azimuthal variance of the recovered properties. Results. Given the exquisite quality of the X-ray and SZ datasets, their radial extension, and their complementarity, we constrain at R200 the total hydrostatic mass, modelled with a Navarro–Frenk–White profile at very high precision (M200 = 10.7 ± 0.5stat. ± 0.9syst. × 1014 M⊙). We identify the ongoing merger and how it is affecting differently the gas properties in the resolved azimuthal sectors. We have several indications that the merger has injected a high level of non-thermal pressure in this system: the clumping free density profile is above the average profile obtained by stacking Rosat/PSPC observations; the gas mass fraction recovered using our hydrostatic mass profile exceeds the expected cosmic gas fraction beyond R500; the pressure profile is flatter than the fit obtained by the Planck Collaboration; the entropy profile is flatter than the mean profile predicted from non-radiative simulations; the analysis in azimuthal sectors has revealed that these deviations occur in a preferred region of the cluster. All these tensions are resolved by requiring a relative support of about 40% from non-thermal to the total pressure at R200

Effects of Multiphase Gas and Projection on X-ray Observables in Simulated Galaxy Clusters as Seen by eROSITA

The number density of galaxy clusters as a function of mass and redshift is a sensitive function of the cosmological parameters. To use clusters for cosmological parameter studies, it is necessary to determine their masses as accurately as possible, which is typically done via mass-observable scaling relations. X-ray observables can be biased by multiphase gas and projection effects, especially in the case where cluster temperatures and luminosities are estimated from single-model fits to all of the emission with a given radius. Using simulated galaxy clusters from a realistic cosmological simulation, we seek to determine the importance of these biases in the context of Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma/eROSITA observations of clusters. We extract clusters from the Magneticum suite, and simulate eROSITA observations of these clusters using PHOX and SIXTE. We compare the fitted observables from these observations to those derived from the simulations. We fitted an intrinsically scattered $L_{\rm X}-T$ scaling relation to these measurements following a Bayesian approach with which we fully took into account the selection effects and the mass function. The largest biases on the cluster observables come from the inadequacy of single-temperature model fits to represent emission from multiphase gas, as well as a bias arising from cluster emission within the projected $r_{500c}$ along the line of sight but outside of the spherical $r_{500c}$. We find that the biases on temperature and luminosity due to the projection of emission from other clusters within $r_{500c}$ is small. We find that our simulated clusters follow a $L_{\rm X}-T$ scaling relation that has a broadly consistent but slightly shallower slope compared to the literature, and that the intrinsic scatter of $L_{\rm X}$ at given T is lower compared to the recent observational results where the selection effects are fully considered.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, accepted by A&

Iron in x-cop: Tracing enrichment in cluster outskirts with high accuracy abundance profiles

We present the first metal abundance profiles for a representative sample of massive clusters. Our measurements extend to R500 and are corrected for a systematic error plaguing previous outskirt estimates. Our profiles flatten out at large radii, admittedly not a new result, however the radial range and representative nature of our sample extends its import well beyond previous findings. We find no evidence of segregation between cool-core and non-cool-core systems beyond 3c0.3\ue2 R500, implying that, as was found for thermodynamic properties, the physical state of the core does not affect global cluster properties. Our mean abundance within R500 shows a very modest scatter, < 15%, suggesting the enrichment process must be quite similar in all these massive systems. This is a new finding and has significant implications for feedback processes. Together with results from the thermodynamic properties presented in a previous X-COP paper, it affords a coherent picture in which feedback effects do not vary significantly from one system to another. By combining intra-cluster medium with stellar measurements we have found the amount of Fe diffused in the intra-cluster medium to be about ten times higher than that locked in stars. Although our estimates suggest, with some strength, that the measured iron mass in clusters is well in excess of the predicted one, systematic errors prevent us from making a definitive statement. Further advancements will only be possible when systematic uncertainties, principally those associated with stellar masses, both within and beyond R500, can be reduced

The distribution of dark matter and gas spanning six megaparsecs around the post-merger galaxy cluster MS0451-03

Using the largest mosaic of Hubble Space Telescope images around a galaxy cluster, we map the distribution of dark matter throughout an ∼6 × 6 Mpc2 area centred on the cluster MS 0451−03 (z = 0.54, M200=1.65×1015M⊙⁠). Our joint strong- and weak-lensing analysis shows three possible filaments extending from the cluster, encompassing six group-scale substructures. The dark matter distribution in the cluster core is elongated, consists of two distinct components, and is characterized by a concentration parameter of c200 = 3.79 ± 0.36. By contrast, XMM–Newton observations show the gas distribution to be more spherical, with excess entropy near the core, and a lower concentration of c200=2.35+0.89−0.70 (assuming hydrostatic equilibrium). Such a configuration is predicted in simulations of major mergers 2–7 Gyr after the first core passage, when the two dark matter haloes approach second turnaround, and before their gas has relaxed. This post-merger scenario finds further support in optical spectroscopy of the cluster’s member galaxies, which shows that star formation was abruptly quenched 5 Gyr ago. MS 0451−03 will be an ideal target for future studies of the growth of structure along filaments, star formation processes after a major merger, and the late-stage evolution of cluster collisions

X-ray analysis of JWST's first galaxy cluster lens SMACS J0723.3-7327

SMACS~J0723.3-7327 is the first galaxy cluster lens observed by JWST. Based on the ERO data from JWST, several groups have reported the results on strong lensing analysis and mass distribution of this cluster. However, limited by the angular coverage of the JWST data, the strong lensing models only cover the central region. X-ray analysis on the hot ICM is necessary to obtain a more complete constraint on the mass distribution in this very massive cluster. In this work, we aim to perform a comprehensive X-ray analysis of J0723 to obtain accurate ICM hydrostatic mass measurements, using the X-ray data from SRG/eROSITA and Chandra X-ray observatories. By comparing the hydrostatic mass profile with the strong lensing model, we aim to provide the most reliable constraint on the distribution of mass up to R500. Thanks to the eROSITA all-sky survey and Chandra data, which provide high S/N and high angular resolution respectively, we are able to constrain the ICM gas density profile and temperature profile with good accuracy both in the core and to the outskirts. With the density and temperature profiles, we compute the hydrostatic mass profile, which is then projected along the line of sight to compare with the mass distribution obtained from the recent strong lensing analysis based on JWST data. We also deproject the strong lensing mass distribution using the hydrostatic mass profile we obtained in this work. The X-ray results obtained from eROSITA and Chandra agree very well with each other. The hydrostatic mass profiles we measured in this work, both projected and deprojected, are in good agreement with recent strong lensing results based on JWST data, at all radii. We also find that the radial acceleration relation in J0723 is inconsistent with the RAR for spiral galaxies, implying that the latter is not a universal property of gravity across all mass scales.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

EROSITA Spectro-Imaging Analysis of the Abell 3408 Galaxy Cluster

The X-ray telescope eROSITA onboard the newly launched SRG mission serendipitously observed the galaxy cluster A3408 ($z=0.0420$) during the PV observation of the AGN 1H0707-495. Despite its brightness and large extent, it has not been observed by any modern X-ray observatory. A neighbouring cluster in NW direction, A3407 ($z=0.0428$), appears to be close at least in projection ($\sim 1.7$ Mpc). This cluster pair could be in a pre- or post-merger state. We perform a detailed X-ray analysis of A3408. We construct particle background subtracted and exposure corrected images and surface brightness profiles in different sectors. The spectral analysis is performed out to $1.4r_{500}$. Additionally, a temperature map is presented depicting the distribution of the ICM temperature. Furthermore, we make use of data from the RASS to estimate some bulk properties of A3408 and A3407, using the growth curve analysis method and scaling relations. The imaging analysis shows a complex morphology of A3408 with a strong elongation in SE-NW direction. This is quantified by comparing the surface brightness profiles of the NW, SW, SE and NE directions, where the NW and SE directions show a significantly higher surface brightness compared to the other directions. We determine a gas temperature ${\rm k_B}T_{500}=(2.23\pm0.09)$ keV. The T-profile reveals a hot core within $2'$ of the emission peak, ${\rm k_B}T=3.04^{+0.29}_{-0.25}$ keV. Employing a M-T relation, we obtain $M_{500}=(9.27\pm0.75)\times 10^{13}M_{\odot}$ iteratively. The $r_{200}$ of A3407 and A3408 are found to overlap in projection which makes ongoing interactions plausible. The 2d T-map reveals higher temperatures in W than in E direction. A3407 and A3408 are likely in a pre-merger state, affecting the ICM properties, i.e., increased temperatures in the direction of A3407 indicate adiabatic compression or shocks due to the interaction.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures (main text), 2 figures (appendix). Submitted to A&A for the Special Issue: The Early Data Release of eROSITA and Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC on the SRG Missio