The Herschel View of Brightest Cluster Galaxies

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

In central regions of rich galaxy clusters, the intracluster medium can be sufficiently dense that cooling to stellar temperatures occurs on timescales shorter than the cluster lifetime. Clusters can thus be crudely categorized by the presence of this "cool-core", often identified by X-ray-derived mass deposition rates or central H-alpha emission. However, observed cooling is slower than expected, indicating an additional injection of energy. We present infrared analysis of BCGs in a sample of 60 intermediate-redshift clusters, concentrating on Herschel Space Observatory far-infrared (100-500um) photometry from the Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS) and Local Cluster Substructure Survey (LoCuSS). The sample includes known cool-core clusters, but crucially also non-cool-core clusters, allowing a homogeneous investigation of both populations. At these redshifts, Herschel data straddles the peak of the dust emission component, enabling a direct measure of the far-infrared luminosity and hence constraints on star formation rate. We find that 10 BCGs have star formation detected by Herschel, showing that cooling is not entirely suppressed, and total infrared luminosity appears correlated with cool-core indicators. Indeed, all far-infrared luminous BCGs reside within cool-core clusters, strongly suggesting that the detectable dust is associated with the cold gas component rather than the underlying stellar population.

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