Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Jan 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992phdt........13w&link_type=abstract
Ph.D. Thesis Virginia Univ., Charlottesville.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
3
Active Galactic Nuclei, Brightness, Cooling Flows (Astrophysics), Electron Radiation, Galactic Clusters, Hot Electrons, Optical Thickness, Photoionization, Radiative Transfer, Intergalactic Media, Line Of Sight, Luminosity, Polarized Radiation, Stellar Spectra, X Ray Sources
Scientific paper
In this thesis, we focus on several sources of opacity in cluster cooling flows and examine how they affect both what we see and what we interpret from these objects. In Chapter 2, we derive a technique for obtaining distances to cluster cooling flows using observations of electron scattered light. The majority of cluster cooling flows contain a centrally dominant galaxy at the center of the flow, and many of these galaxies contain active galactic nuclei (AGN). Typically 1 percent of the radiation from this central source will be scattered into our line of sight by hot electrons in the surrounding cooling flow. Observations of this electron scattered radiation may be used in combination with the X-ray surface brightness to determine an independent distance to the cluster. In Chapter 3, we discuss how this scattered radiation can provide information on the cluster environment and the central AGN. Specifically, we consider inhomogeneous gas distributions or situations where the central AGN varies with time, exhibits beaming, or emits polarized radiation. The remainder of this thesis addresses the effects of photoionization and resonant line opacity on the X-ray properties of cluster cooling flows. In Chapter 4, we calculate X-ray luminosities, surface brightness profiles, spectra, and line profiles, both spectral and spatial, several model cooling flows. These models serve as a useful comparison point for models including the effects of X-ray opacity. As we show in Chapter 4, the assumptions one makes concerning how the gas cools out of the intracluster medium can produce drastic differences in many of the observed X-ray properties for these objects. Finally in Chapter 5, we recalculate the X-ray properties for the models discussed in Chapter 4 including the effects of the radiative transfer through the ICM. The numerical technique employed to solve the transfer equation is discussed in some detail in Appendix D.
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