2,918 research outputs found
Pressure profiles of distant galaxy clusters in the Planck catalog
Successive releases of Planck data have demonstrated the strength of the
Sunyaev--Zeldovich (SZ) effect in detecting hot baryons out to the galaxy
cluster peripheries. To infer the hot gas pressure structure from nearby galaxy
clusters to more distant objects, we developed a parametric method that models
the spectral energy distribution and spatial anisotropies of both the Galactic
thermal dust and the Cosmic Microwave Background, that are mixed-up with the
cluster SZ and dust signals. Taking advantage of the best angular resolution of
the High Frequency Instrument channels (5 arcmin) and using X-ray priors in the
innermost cluster regions that are not resolved with Planck, this modelling
allowed us to analyze a sample of 61 nearby members of the Planck catalog of SZ
sources (, ) using the full mission data, as
well as to examine a distant sample of 23 clusters (, ) that have been recently followed-up with XMM-Newton and Chandra
observations. We find that (i) the average shape of the mass-scaled pressure
profiles agrees with results obtained by the Planck collaboration in the nearby
cluster sample, and that (ii) no sign of evolution is discernible between
averaged pressure profiles of the low- and high-redshift cluster samples. In
line with theoretical predictions for these halo masses and redshift ranges,
the dispersion of individual profiles relative to a self-similar shape stays
well below 10 % inside but increases in the cluster outskirts.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
Chandra Observation of a 300 kpc Hydrodynamic Instability in the Intergalactic Medium of the Merging Cluster of Galaxies A3667
We present results from the combination of two Chandra pointings of the
central region of the cluster of galaxies A3667. From the data analysis of the
first pointing Vikhlinin et al. reported the discovery of a prominent cold
front which is interpreted as the boundary of a cool gas cloud moving through
the hotter ambient gas. Vikhlinin et al. discussed the role of the magnetic
fields in maintaining the apparent dynamical stability of the cold front over a
wide sector at the forward edge of the moving cloud and suppressing transport
processes across the front. In this Letter, we identify two new features in the
X-ray image of A3667: i) a 300 kpc arc-like filamentary X-ray excess extending
from the cold gas cloud border into the hotter ambient gas; ii) a similar
arc-like filamentary X-ray depression that develops inside the gas cloud. The
temperature map suggests that the temperature of the filamentary excess is
consistent with that inside the gas cloud while the temperature of the
depression is consistent with that of the ambient gas. We suggest that the
observed features represent the first evidence for the development of a large
scale hydrodynamic instability in the cluster atmosphere resulting from a major
merger. This result confirms previous claims for the presence of a moving cold
gas cloud into the hotter ambient gas. Moreover it shows that, although the gas
mixing is suppressed at the leading edge of the subcluster due to its magnetic
structure, strong turbulent mixing occurs at larger angles to the direction of
motion. We show that this mixing process may favor the deposition of a
nonnegligible quantity of thermal energy right in the cluster center, affecting
the development of the central cooling flow.Comment: Replaced to match version accepted for publication in ApJL; some
changes on text. 4 pages, 3 color figures and 2 BW figures, emulateapj
Education Profile: Omaha and the State
The purpose of the compilation of statistical data offered here is to present an accurate enumeration of enrollment patterns as they exist as of Fall 1972
Non-hydrostatic gas in the core of the relaxed galaxy cluster A1795
Chandra data on A1795 reveal a mild edge-shaped discontinuity in the gas
density and temperature in the southern sector of the cluster at r=60/h kpc.
The gas inside the edge is 1.3-1.5 times denser and cooler than outside, while
the pressure is continuous, indicating that this is a "cold front", the surface
of contact between two moving gases. The continuity of the pressure indicates
that the current relative velocity of the gases is near zero, making the edge
appear to be in hydrostatic equilibrium. However, a total mass profile derived
from the data in this sector under the equilibrium assumption, exhibits an
unphysical jump by a factor of 2, with the mass inside the edge being lower. We
propose that the cooler gas is "sloshing" in the cluster gravitational
potential well and is now near the point of maximum displacement, where it has
zero velocity but nonzero centripetal acceleration. The distribution of this
non-hydrostatic gas should reflect the reduced gravity force in the
accelerating reference frame, resulting in the apparent mass discontinuity.
Assuming that the gas outside the edge is hydrostatic, the acceleration of the
moving gas can be estimated from the mass jump, a ~ 800 h km/s/(10^8 yr). The
gravitational potential energy of this gas that is available for dissipation is
about half of its current thermal energy. The length of the cool filament
extending from the cD galaxy (Fabian et al.) may give the amplitude of the gas
sloshing, 30-40/h kpc. Such gas bulk motion might be caused by a disturbance of
the central gravitational potential by past subcluster infall.Comment: Minor text clarifications to correspond to published version. 5
pages, 1 figure in color, uses emulateapj.sty. ApJ Letters in pres
Selecting background galaxies in weak-lensing analysis of galaxy clusters
In this paper, we present a new method to select the faint, background
galaxies used to derive the mass of galaxy clusters by weak lensing.
The method is based on the simultaneous analysis of the shear signal, that
should be consistent with zero for the foreground, unlensed galaxies, and of
the colors of the galaxies: photometric data from the COSMic evOlution Survey
are used to train the color selection. In order to validate this methodology,
we test it against a set of state-of-the-art image simulations of mock galaxy
clusters in different redshift [] and mass
[] ranges, mimicking medium-deep multicolor
imaging observations (e.g. SUBARU, LBT).
The performance of our method in terms of contamination by unlensed sources
is comparable to a selection based on photometric redshifts, which however
requires a good spectral coverage and is thus much more observationally
demanding. The application of our method to simulations gives an average ratio
between estimated and true masses of . As a further test,
we finally apply our method to real data, and compare our results with other
weak lensing mass estimates in the literature: for this purpose we choose the
cluster Abell 2219 (), for which multi-band (BVRi) data are publicly
available.Comment: MNRAS, Accepted 2016 February 2
Mapping the particle acceleration in the cool core of the galaxy cluster RX J1720.1+2638
We present new deep, high-resolution radio images of the diffuse minihalo in
the cool core of the galaxy cluster RX J1720.1+2638. The images have been
obtained with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 317, 617 and 1280 MHz and
with the Very Large Array at 1.5, 4.9 and 8.4 GHz, with angular resolutions
ranging from 1" to 10". This represents the best radio spectral and imaging
dataset for any minihalo. Most of the radio flux of the minihalo arises from a
bright central component with a maximum radius of ~80 kpc. A fainter tail of
emission extends out from the central component to form a spiral-shaped
structure with a length of ~230 kpc, seen at frequencies 1.5 GHz and below. We
find indication of a possible steepening of the total radio spectrum of the
minihalo at high frequencies. Furthermore, a spectral index image shows that
the spectrum of the diffuse emission steepens with the increasing distance
along the tail. A striking spatial correlation is observed between the minihalo
emission and two cold fronts visible in the Chandra X-ray image of this cool
core. These cold fronts confine the minihalo, as also seen in numerical
simulations of minihalo formation by sloshing-induced turbulence. All these
observations favor the hypothesis that the radio emitting electrons in cluster
cool cores are produced by turbulent reacceleration.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
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