595 research outputs found
Some effects of small-scale metallicity variations in cooling flows
In an attempt to reconcile recent spectral data with predictions of the
standard cooling flow model, it has been suggested that the metals in the
intracluster medium (ICM) might be distributed inhomogeneously on small scales.
We investigate the possible consequences of such a situation within the
framework of the cooling flow scenario. Using the standard isobaric cooling
flow model, we study the ability of such metallicity variations to
preferentially suppress low-temperature line emission in cooling flow spectra.
We then use simple numerical simulations to investigate the temporal and
spatial evolution of the ICM when the metals are distributed in such a fashion.
Simulated observations are used to study the constraints real data can place on
conditions in the ICM. The difficulty of ruling out abundance variations on
small spatial scales with current observational limits is emphasized. We find
that a bimodal distribution of metals may give rise to interesting effects in
the observed abundance profile, in that apparent abundance gradients with
central abundance drops and off-centre peaks, similar to those seen recently in
some clusters, are produced. Different elements behave in different fashion as
governed by the temperature dependence of their equivalent widths. Our overall
conclusion is that, whilst this process alone seems unlikely to be able to
account for the sharp reduction in low temperature emission lines seen in
current spectral data, a contribution at some level is possible and difficult
to rule out. The possibility of small-scale metallicity variations should be
considered when analysing high resolution cluster X-ray spectra.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
The Metallicity of the Intracluster Medium Over Cosmic Time: Further Evidence for Early Enrichment
We use Chandra X-ray data to measure the metallicity of the intracluster
medium (ICM) in 245 massive galaxy clusters selected from X-ray and
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect surveys, spanning redshifts .
Metallicities were measured in three different radial ranges, spanning cluster
cores through their outskirts. We explore trends in these measurements as a
function of cluster redshift, temperature, and surface brightness "peakiness"
(a proxy for gas cooling efficiency in cluster centers). The data at large
radii (0.5--1 ) are consistent with a constant metallicity, while at
intermediate radii (0.1-0.5 ) we see a late-time increase in
enrichment, consistent with the expected production and mixing of metals in
cluster cores. In cluster centers, there are strong trends of metallicity with
temperature and peakiness, reflecting enhanced metal production in the
lowest-entropy gas. Within the cool-core/sharply peaked cluster population,
there is a large intrinsic scatter in central metallicity and no overall
evolution, indicating significant astrophysical variations in the efficiency of
enrichment. The central metallicity in clusters with flat surface brightness
profiles is lower, with a smaller intrinsic scatter, but increases towards
lower redshifts. Our results are consistent with other recent measurements of
ICM metallicity as a function of redshift. They reinforce the picture implied
by observations of uniform metal distributions in the outskirts of nearby
clusters, in which most of the enrichment of the ICM takes place before cluster
formation, with significant later enrichment taking place only in cluster
centers, as the stellar populations of the central galaxies evolve.Comment: 13 pages. Accepted version, to appear in MNRA
Cosmology and Astrophysics from Relaxed Galaxy Clusters I: Sample Selection
This is the first in a series of papers studying the astrophysics and
cosmology of massive, dynamically relaxed galaxy clusters. Here we present a
new, automated method for identifying relaxed clusters based on their
morphologies in X-ray imaging data. While broadly similar to others in the
literature, the morphological quantities that we measure are specifically
designed to provide a fair basis for comparison across a range of data quality
and cluster redshifts, to be robust against missing data due to point-source
masks and gaps between detectors, and to avoid strong assumptions about the
cosmological background and cluster masses. Based on three morphological
indicators - Symmetry, Peakiness and Alignment - we develop the SPA criterion
for relaxation. This analysis was applied to a large sample of cluster
observations from the Chandra and ROSAT archives. Of the 361 clusters which
received the SPA treatment, 57 (16 per cent) were subsequently found to be
relaxed according to our criterion. We compare our measurements to similar
estimators in the literature, as well as projected ellipticity and other image
measures, and comment on trends in the relaxed cluster fraction with redshift,
temperature, and survey selection method. Code implementing our morphological
analysis will be made available on the web.Comment: MNRAS, in press. 43 pages in total, of which 17 are tables (please
think twice before printing). 18 figures, 4 tables. Machine-readable tables
will be available from the journal and at the url below; code will be posted
at http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~amantz/work/morph14
Cosmology and Astrophysics from Relaxed Galaxy Clusters II: Cosmological Constraints
We present cosmological constraints from measurements of the gas mass
fraction, , for massive, dynamically relaxed galaxy clusters. Our data
set consists of Chandra observations of 40 such clusters, identified in a
comprehensive search of the Chandra archive, as well as high-quality weak
gravitational lensing data for a subset of these clusters. Incorporating a
robust gravitational lensing calibration of the X-ray mass estimates, and
restricting our measurements to the most self-similar and accurately measured
regions of clusters, significantly reduces systematic uncertainties compared to
previous work. Our data for the first time constrain the intrinsic scatter in
, % in a spherical shell at radii 0.8-1.2 ,
consistent with the expected variation in gas depletion and non-thermal
pressure for relaxed clusters. From the lowest-redshift data in our sample we
obtain a constraint on a combination of the Hubble parameter and cosmic baryon
fraction, , that is insensitive to the
nature of dark energy. Combined with standard priors on and ,
this provides a tight constraint on the cosmic matter density,
, which is similarly insensitive to dark energy. Using
the entire cluster sample, extending to , we obtain consistent results for
and interesting constraints on dark energy:
for non-flat CDM models, and
for flat constant- models. Our results are both competitive
and consistent with those from recent CMB, SNIa and BAO data. We present
constraints on models of evolving dark energy from the combination of
data with these external data sets, and comment on the possibilities for
improved constraints using current and next-generation X-ray
observatories and lensing data. (Abridged)Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures, 8 tables. Accepted by MNRAS. Code and data can
be downloaded from http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~amantz/work/fgas14/ . v2:
minor fix to table 1, updated bibliograph
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