We report the results of XMM-Newton observations of the regions around the
core of the Centaurus cluster where evidence for merging activity between the
subgroup Cen 45 and the main Centaurus cluster has previously been observed
using ASCA and ROSAT data. We confirm the ASCA findings of a temperature excess
surrounding Cen 45. We find that this temperature excess can be explained using
simple shock heating given the large line of sight velocity difference between
Cen 45 and the surrounding main Centaurus cluster. We find that there is a
statistically significant excess in metallicity around Cen 45, showing that Cen
45 has managed to retain its gas as it has interacted with the main Centaurus
cluster. There is a pressure excess to the east in the direction of the merger,
and there is also an entropy excess around the central galaxy of Cen 45. The
metallicity between 50-100 kpc to the north of NGC 4696 is higher than to the
south, which may be the result of the asymmetric distribution of metals due to
previous sloshing of the core, or which may be associated with the filamentary
structure we detect between NGC 4696 and NGC 4696B.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
