Nonthermal Particle and Photon Production in Merging Clusters of Galaxies

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

Nonthermal particles are accelerated via first-order Fermi acceleration by shocks that form in the intergalactic medium (IGM) when clusters of galaxies merge. We treat the Fermi acceleration of nonthermal electrons and protons by injecting power-law distributions of particles during a merger event, subject to constraints on maximum particle energies. With input parameter sets constrained by observations of the Coma cluster, particle energies of ~ 10^8 MeV for electrons and ~ 10^10 MeV for protons can be reached. We investigate the temporal evolution of the electron and proton particle distribution functions, and calculate the the broadband nonthermal spectra emitted by accelerated electrons and protons during the subcluster merger event. We discuss the prospect for detecting nonthermal radio, X-ray and γ-ray emissions from clusters of galaxies, and the implications of our results for the diffuse γ-ray background.

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