The Continued Search for Non-thermal Hard X-ray Emission in the Coma and Abell 3667 Galaxy Clusters

Details The Continued Search for Non-thermal Hard X-ray Emission in the Coma and Abell 3667 Galaxy Clusters The Continued Search for Non-thermal Hard X-ray Emission in the Coma and Abell 3667 Galaxy Clusters

Mar 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008head...10.2503w&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #10, #25.03

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Scientific paper

The X-ray bright, nearby galaxy clusters of Coma and Abell 3667 respectively host the brightest radio halo and the brightest radio relic known. These diffuse, Mpc-scale structures are due to synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons, which also produce inverse Compton (IC) emission that becomes competitive with thermal emission from the ICM at hard X-ray energies. Previous searches for IC emission from these radio structures have led to marginal and controversial detections due to background uncertainties and possible contaminating sources. The improved sensitivity and narrower FOV of the Suzaku PIN Hard X-ray Detector makes it an ideal instrument to search for hard X-ray IC emission. We present 180 ks and 95 ks Suzaku observations of the Coma and A3667 clusters, respectively, as well as mosaic XMM-Newton observations that cover the HXD-PIN field of view. Because these clusters' ICM is hot (T𕙟-8 keV), a clear detection of non-thermal emission requires the thermal component within the same FOV to be completely assessed. XMM-Newton EPIC-PN spectra over the HXD field of view are weighted according to the spatial sensitivity of the HXD-PIN detector and combined so as to directly represent the HXD-detected thermal emission. The Suzaku PIN spectrum is simultaneously fit with this XMM spectrum for each cluster to pin down the thermal and non-thermal components of the X-ray emission. While marginal non-thermal components are detected in both clusters, they are not robust to variations of the HXD-PIN background within the systematic error. We derive conservative upper limits for the non-thermal flux and corresponding lower limits for the average cluster magnetic field strength of both Coma and A3667. The results for Coma are consistent with other recent measurements and with equipartition estimates. For A3667, the lower limit on the magnetic field is rather high given the large projected cluster radius of the relic.

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