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Title: The evolution of the intracluster medium metallicity in Sunyaev Zel'dovich-selected galaxy clusters at 0 < z < 1.5

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [11];  [12];  [7];  [13];  [8];  [14]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  4. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  5. Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City, MO (United States)
  6. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  7. Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ., Munich (Germany); Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching (Germany)
  8. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  9. Univ. de Montreal, Montreal, QC (Canada)
  10. Huntingdon Institute for X-ray Astronomy, LLC, Huntingdon, PA (United States)
  11. Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ., Munich (Germany); Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching (Germany); Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching (Germany)
  12. Univ. of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC (Australia)
  13. Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States)
  14. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here, we present the results of an X-ray spectral analysis of 153 galaxy clusters observed with the Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Suzaku space telescopes. These clusters, which span 0 < z < 1.5, were drawn from a larger, mass-selected sample of galaxy clusters discovered in the 2500 square degree South Pole Telescope Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SPT-SZ) survey. With a total combined exposure time of 9.1 Ms, these data yield the strongest constraints to date on the evolution of the metal content of the intracluster medium (ICM). We find no evidence for strong evolution in the global (r < R500) ICM metallicity (dZ/dz = -0.06 ± 0.04 Z⊙), with a mean value at z = 0.6 of < Z > = 0.23 ± 0.01 Z⊙ and a scatter of σZ = 0.08 ± 0.01 Z⊙. These results imply that the emission-weighted metallicity has not changed by more than 40% since z = 1 (at 95% confidence), consistent with the picture of an early (z > 1) enrichment. We find, in agreement with previous works, a significantly higher mean value for the metallicity in the centers of cool core clusters versus non-cool core clusters. We find weak evidence for evolution in the central metallicity of cool core clusters (dZ/dz = -0.21 ± 0.11 Z⊙), which is sufficient to account for this enhanced central metallicity over the past similar to 10 Gyr. We find no evidence for metallicity evolution outside of the core (dZ/dz = -0.03 ± 0.06 Z⊙), and no significant difference in the core-excised metallicity between cool core and non-cool core clusters. This suggests that strong radio-mode active galactic nucleus feedback does not significantly alter the distribution of metals at r > 0.15R500. Lastly, given the limitations of current-generation X-ray telescopes in constraining the ICM metallicity at z > 1, significant improvements on this work will likely require next-generation X-ray missions.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); Australian Research Council
Contributing Organization:
SPT
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1253589
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1345833
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-16-086-A-AE-PPD; arXiv:1603.03035; 1426988; TRN: US1601718
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 826, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 48 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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The Leiden/Argentine/Bonn (LAB) Survey of Galactic HI: Final data release of the combined LDS and IAR surveys with improved stray-radiation corrections text January 2005

Cited By (23)

Enrichment of the Hot Intracluster Medium: Numerical Simulations journal November 2018
Enrichment of the Hot Intracluster Medium: Observations journal November 2018
Distant clusters of galaxies in the 2XMM/SDSS footprint: follow-up observations with the LBT journal November 2017
The XXL Survey: XXIV. The final detection pipeline journal November 2018
A uniform metallicity in the outskirts of massive, nearby galaxy clusters journal June 2017
The metallicity of the intracluster medium over cosmic time: further evidence for early enrichment journal August 2017
The history of chemical enrichment in the intracluster medium from cosmological simulations journal February 2017
A census of cool-core galaxy clusters in IllustrisTNG journal August 2018
Spatial distribution of metals in the ICM: evolution of the iron excess in relaxed galaxy clusters journal August 2018
The non-uniformity of galaxy cluster metallicity profiles journal November 2018
Magnetic fields and extraordinarily bright radio emission in the X-ray faint galaxy group MRC 0116 + 111 journal May 2019
Mass–metallicity relation from cosmological hydrodynamical simulations and X-ray observations of galaxy groups and clusters journal January 2019
Unifying the Micro and Macro Properties of AGN Feeding and Feedback journal March 2017
What Do the Hitomi Observations Tell Us About the Turbulent Velocities in the Perseus Cluster? Probing the Velocity Field with Mock Observations journal February 2018
A Galaxy-scale Fountain of Cold Molecular Gas Pumped by a Black Hole journal September 2018
X-Ray Properties of SPT-selected Galaxy Clusters at 0.2 < z < 1.5 Observed with XMM-Newton journal January 2019
A Detailed Study of the Most Relaxed SPT-selected Galaxy Clusters: Properties of the Cool Core and Central Galaxy journal January 2019
The XXL Survey: XVII. X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel’dovich properties of the redshift 2.0 galaxy cluster XLSSC 122★★★ journal November 2018
The history of chemical enrichment in the intracluster medium from cosmological simulations text January 2017
What Do the Hitomi Observations Tell Us About the Turbulent Velocities in the Perseus Cluster? Probing the Velocity Field with Mock Observations text January 2017
Distant clusters of galaxies in the 2XMM/SDSS footprint: follow-up observations with the LBT text January 2017
The Non-Uniformity of Galaxy Cluster Metallicity Profiles text January 2018
Magnetic fields and extraordinarily bright radio emission in the X-ray faint galaxy group MRC 0116+111 text January 2019

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
galaxies: clusters: general
galaxies: clusters: intracluster medium
X-rays: galaxies: clusters