Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2009-10-08
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, v2 includes some text improvements
Scientific paper
We investigated the non-thermal hard X-ray emission in the Ophiuchus cluster of galaxies. Our aim was to characterise the physical properties of the non-thermal component and its interaction with the cosmic microwave background. We performed spatially resolved spectroscopy and imaging using XMM-Newton data to model the thermal emission. Combining this with INTEGRAL ISGRI data, we modeled the 0.6-140 keV band total emission in the central 7 arcmin region. The models that best describe both PN and ISGRI data contain a power-law component with a photon index in a range 2.2-2.5. This component produces ~10% of the total flux in the 1-10 keV band. The pressure of the non-thermal electrons is ~1% of that of the thermal electrons. Our results support the scenario whereby a relativistic electron population, which produces the recently detected radio mini-halo in Ophiuchus, also produces the hard X-rays via inverse compton scattering of the CMB photons. The best-fit models imply a differential momentum spectrum of the relativistic electrons with a slope of 3.4-4.0 and a magnetic field strength B=0.05-0.15 microG. The lack of evidence for a recent major merger in the Ophiuchus center allows the possibility that the relativistic electrons are produced by turbulence or hadronic collisions.
Bonamente Massimiliano
Eckert Dominique
Kaastra Jelle
Kettula K.
Nevalainen Jukka
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