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Title: Uniform Contribution of Supernova Explosions to the Chemical Enrichment of Abell 3112 out to R{sub 200}

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
;  [1]; ; ; ;  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Department of Physics, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul (Turkey)
  2. Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
  3. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
  4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)

The spatial distribution of the metals residing in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters records all the information on a cluster’s nucleosynthesis and chemical enrichment history. We present measurements from a total of 1.2 Ms Suzaku XIS and 72 ks Chandra observations of the cool-core galaxy cluster Abell 3112 out to its virial radius (∼1470 kpc). We find that the ratio of the observed supernova type Ia explosions to the total supernova explosions has a uniform distribution at a level of 12%–16% out to the cluster’s virial radius. The observed fraction of type Ia supernova explosions is in agreement with the corresponding fraction found in our Galaxy and the chemical enrichment of our Galaxy. The non-varying supernova enrichment suggests that the ICM in cluster outskirts was enriched by metals at an early stage before the cluster itself was formed during a period of intense star formation activity. Additionally, we find that the 2D delayed detonation model CDDT produce significantly worse fits to the X-ray spectra compared to simple 1D W7 models. This is due to the relative overestimate of Si, and the underestimate of Mg in these models with respect to the measured abundances.

OSTI ID:
22663816
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 836, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English