698 research outputs found
Detection of X-ray Clusters of Galaxies by Matching RASS Photons and SDSS Galaxies within GAVO
A new method for a simultaneous search for clusters of galaxies in X-ray
photon maps and optical galaxy maps is described. The merging of X-ray and
optical data improves the source identification so that a large amount of
telescope time for spectroscopic follow-up can be saved. The method appears
thus ideally suited for the analysis of the recently proposed wide-angle X-ray
missions like DUO and ROSITA. As a first application, clusters are extracted
from the 3rd version of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and the Early Date Release of
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The time-consuming computations are
performed within the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (GAVO). On a test
area of 140 square degrees, 75 X-ray clusters are detected down to an X-ray
flux limit of in the
ROSAT energy band 0.1-2.4 keV. The clusters have redshifts . The
survey thus fills the gap between traditional large-area X-ray surveys and
serendipitous X-ray cluster searches based on pointed observations, and has the
potential to yield about 4,000 X-ray clusters after completion of SDSS.Comment: 19 pages, low-resolution figures, accepted for publication in
Astronomy and Astrophysic
An XMM-Newton study of the sub-structure in M87's halo
The high signal to noise and good point spread function of XMM have allowed
the first detailed study of the interaction between the thermal and radio
emitting plasma in the central regions of M87. We show that the X-ray emitting
structure, previously seen by ROSAT, is thermal in nature and that the east and
southwest extensions in M87's X-ray halo have a significantly lower temperature
(kT= 1.5 keV) than the surrounding ambient medium (kT= 2.3 keV). There is
little or no evidence for non-thermal emission with an upper limit on the
contribution of a power law component of spectral index flatter than 3 being
less than 1% of the flux in the region of the radio lobes.Comment: 6 pages, 8 color figures, to be published in A&A, number 36
Metal transport by gas sloshing in M87
We present the results of an XMM-Newton mosaic covering the central ~200 kpc
of the nearby Virgo cluster. We focus on a strong surface brightness
discontinuity in the outskirts of the brightest cluster galaxy, M87. Using both
XMM-Newton and Suzaku, we derive accurate temperature and metallicity profiles
across this feature and show that it is a cold front probably due to sloshing
of the Virgo ICM. It is also associated with a discontinuity in the chemical
composition. The gas in the inner, bright region of the front is ~40% more
abundant in Fe than the gas outside the front, suggesting the important role of
sloshing in transporting metals through the ICM. For the first time, we provide
a quantitative estimate of the mass of Fe transported by a cold front. This
amounts to ~6% of the total Fe mass within the radial range affected by
sloshing, significantly more than the amount of metals transported by the AGN
in the same cluster core. The very low Fe abundance of only ~0.2 solar
immediately outside the cold front at a radius of 90 kpc suggests we are
witnessing first-hand the transport of higher metallicity gas into a pristine
region, whose abundance is typical of the cluster outskirts. The Mg/Fe and O/Fe
abundance ratios remain approximately constant over the entire radial range
between the centre of M87 and the faint side of the cold front, which requires
the presence of a centrally peaked distribution not only for Fe but also for
core-collapse type supernova products. This peak may stem from the star
formation triggered as the BCG assembled during the protocluster phase.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA
XMM-Newton detection of two clusters of galaxies with strong SPT Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect signatures
We report on the discovery of two galaxy clusters, SPT-CL J2332-5358 and
SPT-CL J2342-5411, in X-rays. These clusters were also independently detected
through their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect by the South Pole Telescope, and
confirmed in the optical band by the Blanco Cosmology Survey. They are thus the
first clusters detected under survey conditions by all major cluster search
approaches. The X-ray detection is made within the frame of the XMM-BCS cluster
survey utilizing a novel XMM-Newton mosaic mode of observations. The present
study makes the first scientific use of this operation mode. We estimate the
X-ray spectroscopic temperature of SPT-CL J2332-5358 (at redshift z=0.32) to T
= 9.3 (+3.3/-1.9) keV, implying a high mass, M_{500} = 8.8 +/- 3.8 \times
10^{14} M_{sun}. For SPT-CL J2342-5411, at z=1.08, the available X-ray data
doesn't allow us to directly estimate the temperature with good confidence.
However, using our measured luminosity and scaling relations we estimate that T
= 4.5 +/- 1.3 keV and M_{500} = 1.9 +/- 0.8 \times 10^{14} M_{sun}. We find a
good agreement between the X-ray masses and those estimated from the
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect.Comment: Submitted to A&A, 8 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
ROSAT-SDSS Galaxy Clusters Survey. I. The Catalog and the correlation of X-ray and optical properties
For a detailed comparison of the appearance of cluster of galaxies in X-rays
and in the optical, we have compiled a comprehensive database of X-ray and
optical properties of a sample of clusters based on the largest available X-ray
and optical surveys: the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) and the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS). The X-ray galaxy clusters of this RASS-SDSS catalog cover a wide
range of masses, from groups of 10^{12.5} solar masses to massive clusters of
10^{15} solar masses in the redshift range from 0.002 to 0.45. The RASS-SDSS
sample comprises all the X-ray selected objects already observed by the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey (114 clusters). For each system we have uniformly determined
the X-ray and optical properties. The total optical luminosity can be
determined with a typical uncertainty of 20% with a result independent of the
choice of local or global background subtraction. We found that the z band
cluster luminosity determined within an aperture of 0.5 Mpc h_{70}^(-1)
provides the best correlation with the X-ray luminosity with a scatter of about
60-70%. The scatter decreases to less than 40% if the correlation is limited to
the bright X-ray clusters. The resulting correlation of L_X and L_{op} in the z
and i bands shows a logarithmic slope of 0.38, a value not consistent with the
assumption of a constant M/L. Consistency is found, however, for an increasing
M/L with luminosity as suggested by other observations. We also investigated
the correlation between L_{op} and the X-ray temperature obtaining the same
result.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 47 pages, 19 figure
The galaxy cluster Ysz-Lx and Ysz-M relations from the WMAP 5-yr data
We use multifrequency matched filters to estimate, in the WMAP 5-year data,
the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) fluxes of 893 ROSAT NORAS/REFLEX clusters spanning
the luminosity range Lx,[0.1-2.4]keV = 2 10^{41} - 3.5 10^{45} erg s^{-1}. The
filters are spatially optimised by using the universal pressure profile
recently obtained from combining XMM-Newton observations of the REXCESS sample
and numerical simulations. Although the clusters are individually only
marginally detected, we are able to firmly measure the SZ signal (>10 sigma)
when averaging the data in luminosity/mass bins. The comparison between the
bin-averaged SZ signal versus luminosity and X-ray model predictions shows
excellent agreement, implying that there is no deficit in SZ signal strength
relative to expectations from the X-ray properties of clusters. Using the
individual cluster SZ flux measurements, we directly constrain the Y500-Lx and
Y500-M500 relations, where Y500 is the Compton y-parameter integrated over a
sphere of radius r500. The Y500-M500 relation, derived for the first time in
such a wide mass range, has a normalisation Y*500=[1.60 pm 0.19] 10^{-3}
arcmin^2 at M500=3 10^{14} h^{1} Msun, in excellent agreement with the X-ray
prediction of 1.54 10^{-3} arcmin^2, and a mass exponent of alpha=1.79 pm 0.17,
consistent with the self-similar expectation of 5/3. Constraints on the
redshift exponent are weak due to the limited redshift range of the sample,
although they are compatible with self-similar evolution.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic
Calibration of the galaxy cluster M_500-Y_X relation with XMM-Newton
The quantity Y_ X, the product of the X-ray temperature T_ X and gas mass M_
g, has recently been proposed as a robust low-scatter mass indicator for galaxy
clusters. Using precise measurements from XMM-Newton data of a sample of 10
relaxed nearby clusters, spanning a Y_ X range of 10^13 -10^15 M_sun keV, we
investigate the M_500-Y_ X relation. The M_500 - Y_ X data exhibit a power law
relation with slope alpha=0.548 \pm 0.027, close to the self-similar value
(3/5) and independent of the mass range considered. However, the normalisation
is \sim 20% below the prediction from numerical simulations including cooling
and galaxy feedback. We discuss two effects that could contribute to the
normalisation offset: an underestimate of the true mass due to the HE
assumption used in X-ray mass estimates, and an underestimate of the hot gas
mass fraction in the simulations. A comparison of the functional form and
scatter of the relations between various observables and the mass suggest that
Y_ X may indeed be a better mass proxy than T_ X or M_g,500.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&
X-ray Spectroscopy of the Virgo Cluster out to the Virial Radius
We present results from the analysis of a mosaic of thirteen XMM-Newton
pointings covering the Virgo Cluster from its center northwards out to a radius
r~1.2 Mpc (~4.5 degrees), reaching the virial radius and beyond. This is the
first time that the properties of a modestly sized (M_vir~1.4e14 M_sun, kT~2.3
keV), dynamically young cluster have been studied out to the virial radius. The
density profile of the cluster can be described by a surprisingly shallow
power-law with index 1.21+/-0.12. In the radial range of 0.3r_vir<r<r_vir, the
best fit temperature drops by roughly 60 per cent. Within a radius r<450 kpc,
the entropy profile has an approximate power-law form with index 1.1, as
expected for gravitationally collapsed gas in hydrostatic equilibrium. Beyond
r~450 kpc, however, the temperature and metallicity drop abruptly, and the
entropy profile becomes flatter, staying consistently below the expected value
by a factor of 2-2.5. The most likely explanation for the unusually shallow
density profile and the flattening of entropy at large radius is clumping in
the ICM. Our data provide direct observational evidence that the ICM is
enriched by metals all the way to r_200 to at least Z=0.1 Solar.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
Cluster Evolution in the ROSAT North Ecliptic Pole Survey
The deepest region of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, at the North Ecliptic Pole,
has been studied to produce a complete and unbiased X-ray selected sample of
clusters of galaxies. This sample is used to investigate the nature of cluster
evolution and explore potential implications for large-scale structure models.
The survey is 99.6% optically identified. Spectroscopic redshifts have been
measured for all the extragalactic identifications. In this Letter, first
results on cluster evolution are presented based on a comparison between the
number of the observed clusters in the North Ecliptic Pole survey and the
number of expected clusters assuming no-evolution models. At z>0.3 there is a
deficit of clusters with respect to the local universe which is significant at
> 4.7sigma. The evolution appears to commence at L_{0.5-2.0} > 1.8x10^{44} erg
s^{-1} in our data. The negative evolution goes in the same direction as the
original EMSS result, the results from the 160 deg^{2} survey by Vikhlinin et
al. (1998) and the recent results from the RDCS (Rosati et al. 2000). At lower
redshifts there is no evidence for evolution, a result in agreement with these
and other cluster surveys.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
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