Chandra Observation of RXJ1720.1+2638: Study of a Cluster Core Moving in its Own Environment

Details Chandra Observation of RXJ1720.1+2638: Study of a Cluster Core Moving in its Own Environment Chandra Observation of RXJ1720.1+2638: Study of a Cluster Core Moving in its Own Environment

Dec 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000head....5.4404m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, HEAD Meeting #5, #44.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.1651

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Scientific paper

We have analyzed the Chandra observation of the distant (z=0.164) galaxy cluster RXJ1720.1+2638 in which we find a sharp edge and plateau in the X-ray surface brightness at about 250 h50-1 kpc and 130 h50-1 kpc from the X-ray peak respectively. These features are consistent with a density discontinuity and a density break, on angular scales <= 10''. The temperature profiles suggest that the edge and the break are the boundaries of a central, group-size (d≈ 380h50-1 kpc), dense, cold thermally isolated (T≈ 4 keV) gas cloud, embedded in a more diffuse hot (T≈ 10 keV) ambient intracluster. The density jump and the temperature change across the discontinuity are similar to the edge discovered by Chandra in A2142 and A3667, and suggest a subsonic motion of this central gas cloud with respect to the cluster itself. As for A2142 and A3667, the most natural explanation for this cluster is that we are observing a merger cluster. However the cluster appears to be relaxed just outside the two density features, thus we suggest that the merger is in the very last stage before the cluster become fully relaxed. We show that the gas inside the central cloud is not in hydrostatic equilibrium and, thus, the X-ray cluster mass determination on scales smaller than gas cloud size may be substantially influenced. The dimension of the moving cloud is comparable to the cluster core and to the Einstein ring. If, as we suspect, RXJ1720.1+2638 is not a ``special'' cluster and the core-size gas cloud motion phenomenon is present in many other clusters, then it may partially explain the discrepancy between X-ray and the strong lensing mass determination found in some systems. P.M. is supported by ESA fellowship.

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