X-ray Emission from Clusters of Galaxies-A Cosmological Laboratory

Physics – Plasma Physics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

In the last 5 years our knowledge of the x-ray emission from clusters has exploded with high quality Rosat image and ASCA spectra. We are now able to obtain detailed measurements of the mass and mass distribution of clusters out to radii of ~1 Mpc for relaxed systems over a mass range from 10^13-10^15 solar masses. These data confirm that the baryonic mass fraction of clusters is more than that implied by big bang nucleosynthesis and omega=1, the so-called baryon catastrophe. However we now have direct evidence that the baryon fraction can vary from cluster to cluster. In addition the abundances of O, Si, S, and Fe can be reliably obtained over the same mass range. For massive clusters the elemental ratios strongly indicate that type II supernova were responsible for most of the metals. However less massive systems may have a substantial contribution from type Is. The total mass of alpha burning elements strongly indicates that most galaxies went through an extremely luminous early phase which resulted in the ejection of ~1/2 of their total mass. The total energy involved was on the order of 1/4-1/2 of the present day binding mass of the cluster, showing the importance of non-gravitational energy sources for structure formation. The Fe abundance in clusters shows little if any change out to redshifts of 0.5 confirming the early enrichment of the intergalactic medium in clusters.

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