We present an Integral Field Unit survey of 73 galaxy clusters and groups with the VIsible Multi Object Spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope. We exploit the data to determine the H α gas dynamics ...on kpc scales to study the feedback processes occurring within the dense cluster cores. We determine the kinematic state of the ionized gas and show that the majority of systems (∼2/3) have relatively ordered velocity fields on kpc scales that are similar to the kinematics of rotating discs and are decoupled from the stellar kinematics of the brightest cluster galaxy. The majority of the H α flux (>50 per cent) is typically associated with these ordered kinematics and most systems show relatively simple morphologies suggesting they have not been disturbed by a recent merger or interaction. Approximately 20 per cent of the sample (13/73) have disturbed morphologies which can typically be attributed to active galactic nuclei activity disrupting the gas. Only one system shows any evidence of an interaction with another cluster member. A spectral analysis of the gas suggests that the ionization of the gas within cluster cores is dominated by non-stellar processes, possibly originating from the intracluster medium itself.
We examine the radio properties of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a large sample of X-ray selected galaxy clusters comprising the Brightest Cluster Sample (BCS), the extended BCS and ...ROSAT-ESO Flux Limited X-ray cluster catalogues. We have multifrequency radio observations of the BCG using a variety of data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, Jansky Very Large Array and Very Long Baseline Array telescopes. The radio spectral energy distributions of these objects are decomposed into a component attributed to on-going accretion by the active galactic nuclei (AGN) that we refer to as ‘the core’, and a more diffuse, ageing component we refer to as the ‘non-core’. These BCGs are matched to previous studies to determine whether they exhibit emission lines (principally Hα), indicative of the presence of a strong cooling cluster core. We consider how the radio properties of the BCGs vary with cluster environmental factors. Line emitting BCGs are shown to generally host more powerful radio sources, exhibiting the presence of a strong, distinguishable core component in about 60 per cent of cases. This core component more strongly correlates with the BCG's O iii 5007 Å line emission. For BCGs in line emitting clusters, the X-ray cavity power correlates with both the extended and core radio emission, suggestive of steady fuelling of the AGN over bubble-rise time-scales in these clusters.
We present a multiwavelength morphological analysis of star-forming clouds and filaments in the central (≲50 kpc) regions of 16 low-redshift (z < 0.3) cool core brightest cluster galaxies. New Hubble ...Space Telescope imaging of far-ultraviolet continuum emission from young (≲10 Myr), massive (≳5 M⊙) stars reveals filamentary and clumpy morphologies, which we quantify by means of structural indices. The FUV data are compared with X-ray, Lyα, narrow-band Hα, broad-band optical/IR, and radio maps, providing a high spatial resolution atlas of star formation locales relative to the ambient hot (∼107–8 K) and warm ionized (∼104 K) gas phases, as well as the old stellar population and radio-bright active galactic nucleus (AGN) outflows. Nearly half of the sample possesses kpc-scale filaments that, in projection, extend towards and around radio lobes and/or X-ray cavities. These filaments may have been uplifted by the propagating jet or buoyant X-ray bubble, or may have formed in situ by cloud collapse at the interface of a radio lobe or rapid cooling in a cavity's compressed shell. The morphological diversity of nearly the entire FUV sample is reproduced by recent hydrodynamical simulations in which the AGN powers a self-regulating rain of thermally unstable star-forming clouds that precipitate from the hot atmosphere. In this model, precipitation triggers where the cooling-to-free-fall time ratio is t
cool/t
ff ∼ 10. This condition is roughly met at the maximal projected FUV radius for more than half of our sample, and clustering about this ratio is stronger for sources with higher star formation rates.
We propose a novel method to constrain turbulence and bulk motions in massive galaxies, galaxy groups, and clusters, exploring both simulations and observations. As emerged in the recent picture of ...top-down multiphase condensation, hot gaseous halos are tightly linked to all other phases in terms of cospatiality and thermodynamics. While hot halos (∼107 K) are perturbed by subsonic turbulence, warm (∼104 K) ionized and neutral filaments condense out of the turbulent eddies. The peaks condense into cold molecular clouds (<100 K) raining in the core via chaotic cold accretion (CCA). We show that all phases are tightly linked in terms of the ensemble (wide-aperture) velocity dispersion along the line of sight. The correlation arises in complementary long-term AGN feedback simulations and high-resolution CCA runs, and is corroborated by the combined Hitomi and new Integral Field Unit measurements in the Perseus cluster. The ensemble multiphase gas distributions (from the UV to the radio band) are characterized by substantial spectral line broadening ( v,los 100-200 ) with a mild line shift. On the other hand, pencil-beam detections (as H i absorption against the AGN backlight) sample the small-scale clouds displaying smaller broadening and significant line shifts of up to several 100 (for those falling toward the AGN), with increased scatter due to the turbulence intermittency. We present new ensemble v,los of the warm H +N ii gas in 72 observed cluster/group cores: the constraints are consistent with the simulations and can be used as robust proxies for the turbulent velocities, in particular for the challenging hot plasma (otherwise requiring extremely long X-ray exposures). Finally, we show that the physically motivated criterion C tcool/teddy 1 best traces the condensation extent region and the presence of multiphase gas in observed clusters and groups. The ensemble method can be applied to many available spectroscopic data sets and can substantially advance our understanding of multiphase halos in light of the next-generation multiwavelength missions.
Multi-phase filamentary structures around brightest cluster galaxies (BCG) are likely a key step of AGN-feedback. We observed molecular gas in three cool cluster cores, namely Centaurus, Abell S1101, ...and RXJ1539.5, and gathered ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) and MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) data for 12 other clusters. Those observations show clumpy, massive, and long (3−25 kpc) molecular filaments, preferentially located around the radio bubbles inflated by the AGN. Two objects show nuclear molecular disks. The optical nebula is certainly tracing the warm envelopes of cold molecular filaments. Surprisingly, the radial profile of the Hα/CO flux ratio is roughly constant for most of the objects, suggesting that (i) between 1.2 and 6 times more cold gas could be present and (ii) local processes must be responsible for the excitation. Projected velocities are between 100 and 400 km s−1, with disturbed kinematics and sometimes coherent gradients. This is likely due to the mixing in projection of several thin (and as yet) unresolved filaments. The velocity fields may be stirred by turbulence induced by bubbles, jets, or merger-induced sloshing. Velocity and dispersions are low, below the escape velocity. Cold clouds should eventually fall back and fuel the AGN. We compare the radial extent of the filaments, rfil, with the region where the X-ray gas can become thermally unstable. The filaments are always inside the low-entropy and short-cooling-time region, where tcool/tff < 20 (9 of 13 sources). The range of tcool/tff of 8−23 at rfil, is likely due to (i) a more complex gravitational potential affecting the free-fall time tff (sloshing, mergers, etc.) and (ii) the presence of inhomogeneities or uplifted gas in the ICM, affecting the cooling time tcool. For some of the sources, rfil lies where the ratio of the cooling time to the eddy-turnover time, tcool/teddy, is approximately unity.
Abstract
To advance our understanding of the fuelling and feedback processes which power the Universe’s most massive black holes, we require a significant increase in our knowledge of the molecular ...gas which exists in their immediate surroundings. However, the behaviour of this gas is poorly understood due to the difficulties associated with observing it directly. We report on a survey of 18 brightest cluster galaxies lying in cool cores, from which we detect molecular gas in the core regions of eight via carbon monoxide (CO), cyanide (CN) and silicon monoxide (SiO) absorption lines. These absorption lines are produced by cold molecular gas clouds which lie along the line of sight to the bright continuum sources at the galaxy centres. As such, they can be used to determine many properties of the molecular gas which may go on to fuel supermassive black hole accretion and AGN feedback mechanisms. The absorption regions detected have velocities ranging from −45 to 283 km s−1 relative to the systemic velocity of the galaxy, and have a bias for motion towards the host supermassive black hole. We find that the CN N = 0 − 1 absorption lines are typically 10 times stronger than those of CO J = 0 − 1. This is due to the higher electric dipole moment of the CN molecule, which enhances its absorption strength. In terms of molecular number density CO remains the more prevalent molecule with a ratio of CO/CN ∼10, similar to that of nearby galaxies. Comparison of CO, CN, and H i observations for these systems shows many different combinations of these absorption lines being detected.
ABSTRACT We have produced for the first time a detailed velocity map of the giant filamentary nebula surrounding NGC 1275, the Perseus cluster’s brightest galaxy, and revealed a previously unknown ...rich velocity structure across the entire nebula. These new observations were obtained with the optical imaging Fourier transform spectrometer SITELLE at CFHT. With its wide field of view ( ∼11 arcmin × 11 arcmin), SITELLE is the only integral field unit spectroscopy instrument able to cover the 80 kpc × 55 kpc ( 3.8 arcmin × 2.6 arcmin) large nebula in NGC 1275. Our analysis of these observations shows a smooth radial gradient of the N iiλ6583/H α line ratio, suggesting a change in the ionization mechanism and source across the nebula. The velocity map shows no visible general trend or rotation, indicating that filaments are not falling uniformly onto the galaxy, nor being uniformly pulled out from it. Comparison between the physical properties of the filaments and Hitomi measurements of the X-ray gas dynamics in Perseus is also explored.
Brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) are excellent laboratories for the study of galaxy evolution in dense Mpc-scale environments. We used the IRAM-30 m to observe, in CO(1→0), CO(2→1), CO(3→2), or ...CO(4→3), 18 BCGs at
z
∼ 0.2 − 0.9 drawn from the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with
Hubble
(CLASH) survey. Our sample includes RX1532, which is our primary target as it is among the BCGs with the highest star formation rate (SFR ≳100
M
⊙
yr
−1
) in the CLASH sample. We unambiguously detected both CO(1→0) and CO(3→2) in RX1532, yielding a large reservoir of molecular gas,
M
H
2
= (8.7 ± 1.1)×10
10
M
⊙
, and a high level of excitation,
r
31
= 0.75 ± 0.12. A morphological analysis of the
Hubble
Space Telescope I-band image of RX1532 reveals the presence of clumpy substructures both within and outside the half-light radius
r
e
= (11.6 ± 0.3) kpc, similarly to those found independently both in ultraviolet and in H
α
in previous works. We tentatively detected CO(1→0) or CO(2→1) in four other BCGs, with molecular gas reservoirs in the range of
M
H
2
= 2 × 10
10 − 11
M
⊙
. For the remaining 13 BCGs, we set robust upper limits of
M
H
2
/
M
⋆
≲ 0.1, which are among the lowest molecular-gas-to-stellar-mass ratios found for distant ellipticals and BCGs. In comparison with distant cluster galaxies observed in CO, our study shows that RX1532 (
M
H
2
/
M
⋆
= 0.40 ± 0.05) belongs to the rare population of star-forming and gas-rich BCGs in the distant universe. By using the available X-ray based estimates of the central intra-cluster medium entropy, we show that the detection of large reservoirs of molecular gas
M
H
2
≳ 10
10
M
⊙
in distant BCGs is possible when the two conditions are met: (i) high SFR and (ii) low central entropy, which favors the condensation and the inflow of gas onto the BCGs themselves, similarly to what has been previously found for some local BCGs.
We present IRAM 30 m telescope observations of the CO(1–0) and (2–1) lines in a sample of 11 group-dominant elliptical galaxies selected from the CLoGS nearby groups sample. Our observations confirm ...the presence of molecular gas in 4 of the 11 galaxies at >4σ significance, and combining these with data from the literature we find a detection rate of 43 ± 14%, comparable to the detection rate for nearby radio galaxies, suggesting that group-dominant ellipticals may be more likely to contain molecular gas than their non-central counterparts. Those group-dominant galaxies which are detected typically contain ~ 2 × 108 M⊙ of molecular gas, and although most have low star formation rates (<1 M⊙ yr-1) they have short depletion times, indicating that the gas must be replenished on timescales ~108 yr. Almost all of the galaxies contain active nuclei, and we note while the data suggest that CO may be more common in the most radio-loud galaxies, the mass of molecular gas required to power the active nuclei through accretion is small compared to the masses observed. We consider possible origin mechanisms for the gas, through cooling of stellar ejecta within the galaxies, group-scale cooling flows, and gas-rich mergers, and find probable examples of each type within our sample, confirming that a variety of processes act to drive the build up of molecular gas in group-dominant ellipticals.
NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) is one of the best example to study AGN-feedback in the local Universe. At 13.5 kpc from the galaxy, optical filaments with recent star formation are lying along the radio-jet ...direction. We used the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) to map the CO(2−1) emission all along the filaments structure. Molecular gas mass of (8.2 ± 0.5) × 107 M⊙ was found over the 4.2 kpc-structure which represents about 3% of the total gas mass of the NGC 5128 cold gas content. Two dusty mostly molecular structures are identified, following the optical filaments. The region corresponds to the crossing of the radio jet with the northern H i shell, coming from a past galaxy merger. One filament is located at the border of the H i shell, while the other is entirely molecular, and devoid of H i gas. The molecular mass is comparable to the H i mass in the shell, suggesting a scenario where the atomic gas was shocked and transformed in molecular clouds by the radio jet. Comparison with combined far-IR Herschel and UV GALEX estimation of star formation rates in the same regions leads to depletion times of more than 10 Gyr. The filaments are thus less efficient than discs in converting molecular gas into stars. Kinetic energy injection triggered by shocks all along the jet and gas interface is a possible process that appears to be consistent with MUSE line ratio diagnostics derived in a smaller region of the northern filaments. Whether the AGN is the sole origin of this energy input and what is the dominant (mechanical vs. radiative) mode for this process is however still to be investigated.
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