A shock at the radio relic position in Abell 115 Botteon, A; Gastaldello, F; Brunetti, G ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Letters,
07/2016, Volume:
460, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We analysed a deep Chandra observation (334 ks) of the galaxy cluster Abell 115 and detected a shock cospatial with the radio relic. The X-ray surface brightness profile across the shock region ...presents a discontinuity, corresponding to a density compression factor
$\mathcal {C}=2.0\pm 0.1$
, leading to a Mach number
$\mathcal {M}=1.7\pm 0.1$
(
$\mathcal {M}=1.4{\rm -}2$
including systematics). Temperatures measured in the upstream and downstream regions are consistent with what expected for such a shock:
$T_{\rm u}=4.3^{+1.0}_{-0.6}\:\rm {keV}$
and
$T_{\rm d}=7.9^{+1.4}_{-1.1}\:\rm {keV}$
, respectively, implying a Mach number
$\mathcal {M}=1.8^{+0.5}_{-0.4}$
. So far, only few other shocks discovered in galaxy clusters are consistently detected from both density and temperature jumps. The spatial coincidence between this discontinuity and the radio relic edge strongly supports the view that shocks play a crucial role in powering these synchrotron sources. We suggest that the relic is originated by shock re-acceleration of relativistic electrons rather than acceleration from the thermal pool. The position and curvature of the shock and the associated relic are consistent with an off-axis merger with unequal mass ratio where the shock is expected to bend around the core of the less massive cluster.
Galaxy clusters are the endpoints of structure formation and are continuously growing through the merging and accretion of smaller structures. Numerical simulations predict that a fraction of their ...energy content is not yet thermalized, mainly in the form of kinetic motions (turbulence, bulk motions). Measuring the level of non-thermal pressure support is necessary to understand the processes leading to the virialization of the gas within the potential well of the main halo and to calibrate the biases in hydrostatic mass estimates. We present high-quality measurements of hydrostatic masses and intracluster gas fraction out to the virial radius for a sample of 13 nearby clusters with available XMM-Newton and Planck data. We compare our hydrostatic gas fractions with the expected universal gas fraction to constrain the level of non-thermal pressure support. We find that hydrostatic masses require little correction and infer a median non-thermal pressure fraction of ∼6% and ∼10% at R500 and R200, respectively. Our values are lower than the expectations of hydrodynamical simulations, possibly implying a faster thermalization of the gas. If instead we use the mass calibration adopted by the Planck team, we find that the gas fraction of massive local systems implies a mass bias 1 − b = 0.85 ± 0.05 for Sunyaev–Zeldovich-derived masses, with some evidence for a mass-dependent bias. Conversely, the high bias required to match Planck cosmic microwave background and cluster count cosmology is excluded by the data at high significance, unless the most massive halos are missing a substantial fraction of their baryons.
Aims. We present the reconstruction of hydrostatic mass profiles in 13 X-ray luminous galaxy clusters that have been mapped in their X-ray and Sunyaev–Zeldovich (SZ) signals out to R200 for the ...XMM-Newton Cluster Outskirts Project (X-COP). Methods. Using profiles of the gas temperature, density, and pressure that have been spatially resolved out to median values of 0.9R500, 1.8R500, and 2.3R500, respectively, we are able to recover the hydrostatic gravitating mass profile with several methods and using different mass models. Results. The hydrostatic masses are recovered with a relative (statistical) median error of 3% at R500 and 6% at R200. By using several different methods to solve the equation of the hydrostatic equilibrium, we evaluate some of the systematic uncertainties to be of the order of 5% at both R500 and R200. A Navarro-Frenk-White profile provides the best-fit in 9 cases out of 13; the remaining 4 cases do not show a statistically significant tension with it. The distribution of the mass concentration follows the correlations with the total mass predicted from numerical simulations with a scatter of 0.18 dex, with an intrinsic scatter on the hydrostatic masses of 0.15 dex. We compare them with the estimates of the total gravitational mass obtained through X-ray scaling relations applied to YX, gas fraction, and YSZ, and from weak lensing and galaxy dynamics techniques, and measure a substantial agreement with the results from scaling laws, from WL at both R500 and R200 (with differences below 15%), from cluster velocity dispersions. Instead, we find a significant tension with the caustic masses that tend to underestimate the hydrostatic masses by 40% at R200. We also compare these measurements with predictions from alternative models to the cold dark matter, like the emergent gravity and MOND scenarios, confirming that the latter underestimates hydrostatic masses by 40% at R1000, with a decreasing tension as the radius increases, and reaches ∼15% at R200, whereas the former reproduces M500 within 10%, but overestimates M200 by about 20%. Conclusions. The unprecedented accuracy of these hydrostatic mass profiles out to R200 allows us to assess the level of systematic errors in the hydrostatic mass reconstruction method, to evaluate the intrinsic scatter in the NFW c − M relation, and to robustly quantify differences among different mass models, different mass proxies, and different gravity scenarios.
Abstract
We characterized the population of galaxy clusters detected with the Sunyaev–Zeldovich (SZ) effect with Planck by measuring the cool-core state of the objects in a well-defined subsample of ...the Planck SZ catalogue. We used as an indicator the concentration parameter. The fraction of cool-core clusters is 29 ± 4 per cent and does not show significant indications of evolution in the redshift range covered by our sample. We compare the distribution of the concentration parameter in the Planck sample with the one of the X-ray selected sample MACS: the distributions are significantly different and the cool-core fraction in MACS is much higher (59 ± 5 per cent) than that in Planck. Since X-ray-selected samples are known to be biased towards cool cores due to the presence of their prominent surface brightness peak, we simulated the impact of the ‘cool-core bias’. We found that this bias plays a large role in the difference between the fractions of cool cores in the two samples. We examined other selection effects that could in principle bias SZ surveys against cool cores, but we found that their impact is not sufficient to explain the difference between Planck and MACS. The population of X-ray underluminous objects, which are found in SZ surveys but missing in X-ray samples, could possibly contribute to the difference, as we found most of them to be non-cool cores, but this hypothesis deserves further investigation.
Giant radio halos are megaparsec-scale diffuse radio sources associated with the central regions of galaxy clusters. The most promising scenario to explain the origin of these sources is that of ...turbulent re-acceleration, in which MeV electrons injected throughout the formation history of galaxy clusters are accelerated to higher energies by turbulent motions mostly induced by cluster mergers. In this Letter, we use the amplitude of density fluctuations in the intracluster medium as a proxy for the turbulent velocity and apply this technique to a sample of 51 clusters with available radio data. Our results indicate a segregation in the turbulent velocity of radio halo and radio quiet clusters, with the turbulent velocity of the former being on average higher by about a factor of two. The velocity dispersion recovered with this technique correlates with the measured radio power through the relation , which implies that the radio power is nearly proportional to the turbulent energy rate. In case turbulence cascades without being dissipated down to the particle acceleration scales, our results provide an observational confirmation of a key prediction of the turbulent re-acceleration model and possibly shed light on the origin of radio halos.
Context. Galaxy clusters are continuously growing through the accretion of matter in their outskirts. This process induces inhomogeneities in the gas density distribution (clumping) that need to be ...taken into account to recover the physical properties of the intracluster medium (ICM) at large radii. Aims. We studied the thermodynamic properties in the outskirts (R > R500) of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2142 by combining the Sunyaev Zel’dovich (SZ) effect with the X-ray signal. Methods. We combined the SZ pressure profile measured by Planck with the XMM-Newton gas density profile to recover radial profiles of temperature, entropy, and hydrostatic mass out to 2 × R500. We used a method that is insensitive to clumping to recover the gas density, and we compared the results with traditional X-ray measurement techniques. Results. When taking clumping into account, our joint X-SZ entropy profile is consistent with the predictions from pure gravitational collapse, whereas a significant entropy flattening is found when the effect of clumping is neglected. The hydrostatic mass profile recovered using joint X-SZ data agrees with that obtained from spectroscopic X-ray measurements and with mass reconstructions obtained through weak lensing and galaxy kinematics. Conclusions. We found that clumping can explain the entropy flattening observed by Suzaku in the outskirts of several clusters. When using a method that is insensitive to clumping for the reconstruction of the gas density, the thermodynamic properties of Abell 2142 are compatible with the assumption that the thermal gas pressure sustains gravity and that the entropy is injected at accretion shocks, with no need to evoke more exotic physics. Our results highlight the need for X-ray observations with sufficient spatial resolution, and large collecting area, to understand the processes at work in cluster outer regions.
Aims. We present our analysis of a local (z = 0.04−0.2) sample of 31 galaxy clusters with the aim of measuring the density of the X-ray emitting gas in cluster outskirts. We compare our results with ...numerical simulations to set constraints on the azimuthal symmetry and gas clumping in the outer regions of galaxy clusters. Methods. We have exploited the large field-of-view and low instrumental background of ROSAT/PSPC to trace the density of the intracluster gas out to the virial radius. We stacked the density profiles to detect a signal beyond r200 and measured the typical density and scatter in cluster outskirts. We also computed the azimuthal scatter of the profiles with respect to the mean value to look for deviations from spherical symmetry. Finally, we compared our average density and scatter profiles with the results of numerical simulations. Results. As opposed to some recent Suzaku results, and confirming previous evidence from ROSAT and Chandra, we observe a steepening of the density profiles beyond ~r500. Comparing our density profiles with simulations, we find that bibradiative runs predict density profiles that are too steep, whereas runs including additional physics and/or treating gas clumping agree better with the observed gas distribution. We report high-confidence detection of a systematic difference between cool-core and non cool-core clusters beyond ~0.3r200, which we explain by a different distribution of the gas in the two classes. Beyond ~r500, galaxy clusters deviate significantly from spherical symmetry, with only small differences between relaxed and disturbed systems. We find good agreement between the observed and predicted scatter profiles, but only when the 1% densest clumps are filtered out in the ENZO simulations. Conclusions. Comparing our results with numerical simulations, we find that bibradiative simulations fail to reproduce the gas distribution, even well outside cluster cores. Although their general behavior agrees more closely with the observations, simulations including cooling and star formation convert a large amount of gas into stars, which results in a low gas fraction with respect to the observations. Consequently, a detailed treatment of gas cooling, star formation, AGN feedback, and consideration of gas clumping is required to construct realistic models of the outer regions of clusters.
Abstract We present the analysis of new, deep Chandra observations (130 ks) of the galaxy cluster A2495. This object is known for the presence of a triple offset between the peaks of the intracluster ...medium (ICM), the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), and the warm gas glowing in H α line. The new Chandra data confirm that the X-ray emission peak is located at a distance of ∼6.2 kpc from the BCG, and at ∼3.9 kpc from the H α emission peak. Moreover, we identify two generations of X-ray cavities in the ICM, likely inflated by the central radio galaxy activity. Through a detailed morphological and spectral analysis, we determine that the power of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) outbursts ( P cav = 4.7 ± 1.3 × 10 43 erg s −1 ) is enough to counterbalance the radiative losses from ICM cooling ( L cool = 5.7 ± 0.1 × 10 43 erg s −1 ). This indicates that, despite a fragmented cooling core, A2495 still harbors an effective feedback cycle. We argue that the offsets are most likely caused by sloshing of the ICM, supported by the presence of spiral structures and a probable cold front in the gas at ∼58 kpc east of the center. Ultimately, we find that the outburst interval between the two generations of X-ray cavities is of the order of the dynamical sloshing timescale, as already hinted from the previous Chandra snapshot. We thus speculate that sloshing may be able to regulate the timescales of AGN feedback in A2495, by periodically fueling the central AGN.
We want to characterize the dynamical state of galaxy clusters detected with the Sunyaev–Zeldovich (SZ) effect by Planck and compare them with the dynamical state of clusters selected in X-rays ...survey. We analysed a representative subsample of the Planck SZ catalogue, containing the 132 clusters with the highest signal to noise ratio and characterize their dynamical state using as an indicator the projected offset between the peak of the X-ray emission and the position of the Brightest cluster galaxy. We compare the distribution of this indicator for the Planck SZ-selected sample and three X-ray-selected samples (HIFLUGCS, MACS and REXCESS). The distributions are significantly different and the fraction of relaxed objects is smaller in the Planck sample (52 ± 4 per cent) than in X-ray samples (≃74 per cent) We interpret this result as an indication of different selection effects affecting X-rays (e.g. ‘cool core bias’) and SZ surveys of galaxy clusters.
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