Chandra measurements of non-thermal-like X-ray emission from massive, merging, radio-halo clusters

Details Chandra measurements of non-thermal-like X-ray emission from massive, merging, radio-halo clusters Chandra measurements of non-thermal-like X-ray emission from massive, merging, radio-halo clusters

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009cfdd.confe.162m&link_type=abstract

Chandra's First Decade of Discovery, Proceedings of the conference held 22-25 September, 2009 in Boston, MA. Edited by Scott Wo

Computer Science

Clusters Of Galaxies

Scientific paper

We report the discovery of spatially-extended, non-thermal-like emission components in Chandra X-ray spectra for five of a sample of seven massive, merging galaxy clusters with powerful radio halos. The emission components can be fitted by power-law models with mean photon indices in the range 1.5 < Γ < 2.0. A control sample of regular, dynamically relaxed clusters, without radio halos but with comparable mean thermal temperatures and luminosities, shows no compelling evidence for similar components. Detailed X-ray spectral mapping reveals the complex thermodynamic states of the radio halo clusters. Our deepest observations, of the Bullet Cluster 1E0657-56, demonstrate a spatial correlation between the strongest power-law X-ray emission, highest thermal pressure, and brightest 1.34GHz radio halo emission in this cluster. We confirm the presence of a shock front in the 1E0657-56 and report the discovery of a clear, large-scale shock front in Abell 2219. We explore possible origins for the power-law X-ray components. One explanation of particular interest is that the power-law signatures may be due to complex temperature and/or metallicity structure in clusters particularly in the presence of metallicity gradients. In this case, an important distinguishing characteristic between the radio halo clusters and control sample of predominantly cool-core clusters is the relatively low central X-ray surface brightness of the former. Our results highlight the importance of further deep X-ray and radio mapping, coupled with new hard X-ray, γ-ray and TeV observations, for improving our understanding of the non-thermal particle populations in these systems.

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