58 research outputs found
Observations of metals in the intra-cluster medium
Because of their deep gravitational potential wells, clusters of galaxies
retain all the metals produced by the stellar populations of the member
galaxies. Most of these metals reside in the hot plasma which dominates the
baryon content of clusters. This makes them excellent laboratories for the
study of the nucleosynthesis and chemical enrichment history of the Universe.
Here we review the history, current possibilities and limitations of the
abundance studies, and the present observational status of X-ray measurements
of the chemical composition of the intra-cluster medium. We summarise the
latest progress in using the abundance patterns in clusters to put constraints
on theoretical models of supernovae and we show how cluster abundances provide
new insights into the star-formation history of the Universe.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Space Science
Reviews, special issue "Clusters of galaxies: beyond the thermal view",
Editor J.S. Kaastra, Chapter 16; work done by an international team at the
International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern, organised by J.S.
Kaastra, A.M. Bykov, S. Schindler & J.A.M. Bleeke
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