Particle Acceleration in Cosmic Shocks: XMM-Newton and Suzaku Observations of the Merger Shock and NW Radio Relic in Abell 3667

Details Particle Acceleration in Cosmic Shocks: XMM-Newton and Suzaku Observations of the Merger Shock and NW Radio Relic in Abell 3667 Particle Acceleration in Cosmic Shocks: XMM-Newton and Suzaku Observations of the Merger Shock and NW Radio Relic in Abell 3667

Feb 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010head...11.3424s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #11, #34.24; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.714

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Abell 3667 is the archetype of a merging cluster with radio relics. The NW radio relic is the brightest cluster relic or halo known, and is believed to be due to a strong merger shock. Recently, we observed the NW relic region for 40 ksec of net XMM time. This observation has been analyzed along with our previous series of 3 Suzaku pointings of the cluster, including the NW relic, and the existing mosaic of XMM observations of the cluster center. We find a sharp X-ray surface brightness discontinuity at the outer edge of the radio relic, and a significant drop in the hardness of the X-ray emission at the same location. This discontinuity is consistent with a Mach number 2 shock moving at 1200 km/s associated with the merger. Kinetic energy is being dissipated in this shock at a rate of 2e45 erg/s. If this shock has accelerated the relativistic electrons in the radio relic, then the efficiency of electron acceleration is 0.2%. Shock acceleration at the outer edge of the relic and radiative losses as the electrons are advected away from the shock can explain the rapid steepening of the radio spectral index with distance from this edge of the relic. Alternatively, the surface brightness discontinuity and hardening of the X-ray spectrum might be due to Inverse Compton (IC) emission from the relic. In this case, the magnetic field in the relic is about 3 muG. Since the observed X-ray excess from the relic is an upper limit to IC emission, this yields a lower limit on the relic magnetic field of >= 3 muG. This is a remarkably strong magnetic field at this large projected distance (2.2 Mpc) from the cluster center, but is consistent with Faraday rotation through the relic observed towards two background radio galaxies.

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