Chandra Observation of the Cooling Flow Cluster Abell 2052

By E. Blanton, C. Sarazin, B. McNamara. 2002

163 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present an analysis of the Chandra X-ray observation of A2052, including large-scale properties of the cluster as well as the central region, which includes the bright radio source 3C 317. We present temperature and abundance profiles using both projected and deprojected spectral analyses. The cluster shows the cooling flow signatures of excess surface brightness above a β-model at the cluster center and a temperature decline into the center of the cluster. For A2052, the temperature drops by a factor of 3 from approximately 3 to 1 keV. The heavy-element abundances initially increase into the center, but decline within 30''. Temperature and abundance maps show that the X-ray-bright shells surrounding the radio source are the coolest and least abundant regions in the cluster. The mass deposition rate in the cooling flow is 26 M☉ yr-1 < < 42 M☉ yr-1. This rate is approximately a factor of 3 lower than the rates found with previous X-ray observatories. Based on a stellar population analysis using imaging and spectra at wavelengths spanning the far-ultraviolet to the near-infrared, we find a star formation rate of 0.6 M☉ yr-1 within a 3'' radius of the nucleus of the central cluster galaxy. Total and gas mass profiles for the cluster are also determined. We investigate additional sources of pressure in the X-ray holes formed by the radio source and limit the temperature of any hot, diffuse, thermal component that provides the bulk of the pressure in the holes to kT ≳ 20 keV. We calculate the magnetic field in the bright-shell region and find B ≈ 11 μG. The magnetic pressure in the cluster center is significantly lower than the gas pressure. The current luminosity of the central AGN is LX = 7.9 × 1041 ergs s-1, and its spectrum is well fitted by a power-law model with no excess absorption above the Galactic value. The energy output from several radio outbursts, occurring episodically over the lifetime of the cluster, may be sufficient to offset the cooling flow near the center.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0fd04ba96fc4719750249079de5c7ee0e81e631e

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. J. Kormendy
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7. D. Fisher
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Citations in the corpus

• Mechanical feedback from active galactic nuclei in galaxies, groups and clusters (2012, background): “Were the radio lobes filled with a dilute thermal plasma in local pressure equilibrium, its temperature must exceed roughly 20 keV in order to avoid detection by its thermal x-ray emission (Blanton et al 2003, Gitti et al 2007).”
• Heating Hot Atmospheres with Active Galactic Nuclei (2007, background): “This technically challenging measurement has yielded constraints for a few systems of kT & 15 – 20 keV (Nulsen et al. 2002; Blanton et al. 2003).”
• STRUCTURE AND FORMATION OF ELLIPTICAL AND SPHEROIDAL GALAXIES (2008, background): “…produced the bright end of the “red sequence” part of the color bimodality of galaxies observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (Strateva et al. 2001; Hogg et al. 2002, 2004; Kauffmann et al. 2003a, b; Blanton et al. 2003, 2005; Baldry et al. 2004) and by the COMBO-17 survey (Bell et al. 2004).”
• On the Nature of Feedback Heating in Cooling Flow Clusters (2004, result): “First, contrary to their claim, we do not think that in the outer CF region their profile fits that of A2052 (taken from Blanton et al. 2003).”
• ON THE ORIGIN OF THE EXTENDED Hα FILAMENTS IN COOLING FLOW CLUSTERS (2010, background): “These bubbles to the north and south of the cluster core are filled with radio emission, which likely originated from the AGN within the BCG (Blanton et al. 2003).”
• Measuring the kinetic power of active galactic nuclei in the radio mode (2007, unknown): “…(17) Taylor et al. (2006); (18) Giovannini et al. (1998); (19) Di Matteo et al. (2001); (20) Johnstone et al. (2005); (21) Zhao et al. (1993); (22) Blanton et al. (2003); (23) Zirbel & Baum (1995); (24); Simpson et al.(1996); (25) Evans et al. (2006) one measurement of the kinetic power was…”