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

By Jeremy S. Sanders, A. C. Fabian. 2007

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We make a further study of the very deep Chandra observation of the X-ray brightest galaxy cluster, A 426 in Perseus. We examine the radial distribution of energy flux inferred by the quasi-concentric ripples in surface brightness, assuming they are due to sound waves, and show that it is a significant fraction of the energy lost by radiative cooling within the inner 75‐ 100 kpc, where the cooling time is 4‐5 Gyr, respectively. The wave flux decreases outward with radius, consistent with energy being dissipated. Some newly discovered large ripples beyond 100 kpc, and a possible intact bubble at 170 kpc radius, may indicate a larger level of activity by the nucleus a few 100 Myr ago. The distribution of metals in the intracluster gas peaks at a radius of about 40 kpc and is significantly clumpy on scales of 5 kpc. The temperature distribution of the soft X-ray filaments and the hard X-ray emission component found within the inner 50 kpc are analysed in detail. The pressure due to the non-thermal electrons, responsible for a spectral component interpreted as inverse Compton emission, is high within 40 kpc of the centre and boosts the power in sound waves there; it drops steeply beyond 40 kpc. We find no thermal emission from the radio bubbles; in order for any thermal gas to have a filling factor within the bubbles exceeding 50 per cent, the temperature of that gas has to exceed 50 keV.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d68edf65848548aba5c218b8327a7ee570826d78

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. L. Hernquist
2. P. Hopkins
3. Volker Springel
4. Thomas J. Cox
5. D. Keres̆
6. R. Dav'e
7. R. Somerville
8. E. Quataert

In Instrumentation

1. L. Hernquist
2. P. Hopkins
3. Thomas J. Cox
4. Volker Springel
5. D. Keres̆
6. J. Kormendy
7. R. Somerville
8. R. Dav'e

Citations in the corpus

• X-ray spectroscopy of galaxy clusters: studying astrophysical processes in the largest celestial laboratories (2009, background): “6.1 Multiphase plasma High signal-to-noise X-ray spectra reveal that multiple spatially unresolved gas phases are present in the cooling cores of clusters (Kaastra et al. 2004; Sanders & Fabian 2007; Simionescu et al. 2008b).”
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. II. Formation of Red Ellipticals (2007, background): “…the inflation of radio bubbles in clusters at relatively low accretion rates (e.g., Fabian et al. 2006; Dunn & Fabian 2006; Allen et al. 2006b; Sanders & Fabian 2007 and references therein) but also the driving of weak winds from radiatively inefficient accretion flows (e.g., Narayan & Yi…”
• 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.”
• Simulating the effect of active galactic nuclei feedback on the metal enrichment of galaxy clusters (2009, background): “…of the conversion of mechanical energy associated to AGN jets into thermal energy (and possibly in a non–thermal content of relativistic particles) through shocks (e.g., Mazzottaet l. 2004; Fabian et al. 2005; McNamara et al. 2006; Sanders & Fabian 2007; see McNamara & Nulsen 2007 for a review).”
• Collisional heating as the origin of filament emission in galaxy clusters (2008, background): “Sanders & Fabian (2007) find an electron energy density that is roughly 103 times the Galactic background in inner regions of the Perseus cluster.”
• Radiative efficiency, variability and Bondi accretion on to massive black holes: the transition from radio AGN to quasars in brightest cluster galaxies (2012, methodology): “The projected cluster spectra, extracted from a series of annuli as described in section 2.3, were deprojected using the model-independent spectral deprojection routineDSDEPROJ (Sanders & Fabian 2007; Russell, Sanders & Fabian 2008).”
• FERMI DISCOVERY OF GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM NGC 1275 (2009, methodology): “Based on a deepChandra observation, the non-thermal X-ray component has been mapped over the core of the cluster and shows a morphology similar to the radio mini-halo (Sanders, Fabian & Dunn 2005; Sanders & Fabian 2007).”
• Feedback heating by cosmic rays in clusters of galaxies (2007, background): “…in many massive clusters (e.g. Brunetti et al. 2001; Petrosian 2001; Pfrommer & Enßlin 2004; Feretti 2005); recent Chandra and XMM observations also show evidence for a significant nonthermal particle population within the ICM (Sanders et al. 2005; Werner et al. 2007; Sanders & Fabian 2007).”
• ON THE ORIGIN OF THE EXTENDED Hα FILAMENTS IN COOLING FLOW CLUSTERS (2010, result): “The low ICM abundance coincident with the Hα filaments appears to match well with the abundance beyond the cooling radius, but it may also match the core abundance, which previous works (e.g., Sanders & Fabian 2002, 2007) have found to be metal-poor in several nearby clusters.”
• Cosmological Parameters from Observations of Galaxy Clusters (2011, result): “Also plotted, for comparison, are the results from earlier, deep Chandra observations of the cluster core (Sanders & Fabian 2007).”