A very deep Chandra observation of the Perseus cluster: shocks, ripples and conduction

By A. C. Fabian, Jeremy S. Sanders, G. Taylor, G. Taylor, Steven W. Allen, C. Crawford, R. Johnstone, K. Iwasawa. 2005

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We present the first results from a very deep Chandra X-ray observation of the core of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. A pressure map reveals a clear thick band of high pressure around the inner radio bubbles. The gas in the band must be expanding outward and the sharp front to it is identified as a shock front, yet we see no temperature jump across it; indeed there is more soft emission behind the shock than in front of it. We conclude that in this inner region either thermal conduction operates efficiently or the co-existing relativistic plasma seen as the radio mini-halo is mediating the shock. If common, isothermal shocks in cluster cores mean that we cannot diagnose the expansion speed of radio bubbles from temperature measurements alone. They can at times expand more rapidly than currently assumed without producing significant regions of hot gas. Bubbles may also be significantly more energetic. The pressure ripples found in earlier images are identified as isothermal sound waves. A simple estimate based on their amplitude confirms that they can be an effective distributed heat source able to balance radiative cooling.We see multiphase gas with about 10{sup 9}M{sub {circle_dot}} at a temperature of about 0.5 keV. Much, but not all, of this cooler gas is spatially associated with the optical filamentary nebula around the central galaxy, NGC1275. A residual cooling flow of about 50M{sub {circle_dot}} yr{sup -1} may be taking place. A channel is found in the pressure map along the path of the bubbles, with indications found of outer bubbles. The channel connects in the S with a curious cold front.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/322c8b73940de13ba76441d3222589d599724e9c

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Citations in the corpus

Self-regulated growth of supermassive black holes by a dual jet-heating active galactic nucleus feedback mechanism: methods, tests and implications for cosmological simulations (2011, background): “…X-ray cavities in the vicinity of elliptical galaxies (Boehringer et al. 1993; Owen, Eilek & Kassim 2000; Bı̂rzan et al. 2004; McNamara et al. 2005; Fabian et al. 2006; Taylor et al. 2006; Dong, Rasmussen & Mulchaey 2010; Dunn et al. 2010) or indirect detection of broad line absorption regions…”
WHAT TURNS GALAXIES OFF? THE DIFFERENT MORPHOLOGIES OF STAR-FORMING AND QUIESCENT GALAXIES SINCE z ∼ 2 FROM CANDELS (2011, background): “…galaxies and quasars (Tremonti et al. 2007; Prochaska & Hennawi 2009), and the energy measured in AGN-inflated outflow cavities in the hot gas atmosphere of groups and clusters of galaxies is approximately consistent with the energy required to offset cooling (Best et al. 2006; Fabian et al. 2006).”
A deeper X‐ray study of the core of the Perseus galaxy cluster: the power of sound waves and the distribution of metals and cosmic rays (2007, methodology): “Around the central galaxy in the Perseus cluster, NGC 1275, lies a giant line-emitting nebula (Lynds 1970; Conselice, Gallagher & Wyse 2001), associated with cool∼0.7 keV X-ray emitting filaments (Fabian et al. 2003b) of ∼109 M mass (Fabian et al. 2006).”
The dark matter haloes of massive, relaxed galaxy clusters observed with Chandra (2006, background): “…Markevitch 2006; Allen et al. 1992) and/or interactions between central radio sources and the surrounding intracluster gas (e.g., Böhringer et al. 1993; Fabian et al. 2000, 2003, 2006; Birzan et al. 2004; Dunn & Fabian 2004; Forman et al. 2005; Dunn et al. 2005; Rafferty et al. 2006; Allen et al.…”
Investigating AGN heating in a sample of nearby clusters (2006, methodology): “Investigations into the weak shock around the northern Perseus bubbles have shown it to be isothermal (Fabian et al. 2006), which requires an effective γ 2 ∼ 1 for the ICM.”
Astrophysical Limits on Very Light Axion-like Particles from Chandra Grating Spectroscopy of NGC 1275 (2019, methodology): “We use the Perseus pressure profile of Fabian et al. (2006) to derive a magnetic field strength of B25 ≈ 7.5µG at r = 25 kpc. Approximating the cluster as isothermal, the magnetic field decreases with radius as ∼ √ ne(r), where we again use (2) for the electron density.”
ASTROPHYSICAL GYROKINETICS: KINETIC AND FLUID TURBULENT CASCADES IN MAGNETIZED WEAKLY COLLISIONAL PLASMAS (2007, background): “Both isothermal (Fabian et al. 2006; Sanders & Fabian 2006) and non-isothermal (Markevitch & Vikhlinin 2007) coherent structures that appear to be shocks are observed.”
STRUCTURE AND FORMATION OF ELLIPTICAL AND SPHEROIDAL GALAXIES (2008, background): “Examples include the Perseus cluster (Böhringer et al. 1993; Fabian et al. 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008; Sanders & Fabian 2007); Hydra A (McNamara et al. 2000); Abell 2052 (Blanton, Sarazin, & McNamara 2003); M 87 (Forman et al. 2005); and MS0735.”
Filaments, Bubbles, and Weak Shocks in the Gaseous Atmosphere of M87 (2006, background): “In soft X-rays, M87 is the second brightest extragalactic source (after the Perseus Cluster), and the emission is dominated by thermal radiation from its 2 keV gaseous atmosphere (e.g., Gorenstein et al. 1977; Fabricant & Gorenstein 1983; Böhringer et al. 2001; Matsushita et al. 2002; Belsole et al”
X-ray spectroscopy of galaxy clusters: studying astrophysical processes in the largest celestial laboratories (2009, background): “This is due to the fact that the intracluster medium (ICM) has been heated to temperatures of tens of Millions of degrees (several keV per particle) which causes the hot plasma to emit the bulk of the thermal energy inthe regime of soft X-rays.”
On the fundamental dichotomy in the local radio-AGN population (2012, background): “This is most directly observed in the bubbles and cavities that radio-AGN are observed to evacuate in the hot hydrostatic gas haloes of their host galaxies or surrounding groups and clusters (e.g. Böhringer et al. 1993; Carilli et al. 1994; McNamara et al. 2000; Fabian et al. 2006).”
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE EXTENDED Hα FILAMENTS IN COOLING FLOW CLUSTERS (2010, background): “A great deal of literature has been devoted to the study of these filaments, which are seen in molecular gas (Salomé et al. 2008), warm ionized hydrogen (Conselice et al. 2001), and X-ray (Fabian et al. 2006).”
Heating Hot Atmospheres with Active Galactic Nuclei (2007, background): “Cavity systems are often surrounded by belts (Smith et al. 2002), arms (Young et al. 2002; Forman et al. 2005, 2007), filaments, sheets (Fabian et al. 2006), and fragile tendrils of gas maintained against thermal evaporation, perhaps, by magnetic fields threaded along their lengths (Nipoti & Binney…”