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Title: A Detailed Study of the Most Relaxed SPT-selected Galaxy Clusters: Properties of the Cool Core and Central Galaxy

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6];  [7];  [8]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [9];  [10]; ORCiD logo [11];  [12]; ORCiD logo [10];  [13]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Astrophysics and Space Research
  2. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Dept. of Physics; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Montreal, Quebec (Canada). Dépt. de Physique
  4. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Kavli Inst. for Cosmological Physics, Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics
  5. Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City, MO (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  6. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  7. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Dept. of Physics
  8. Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan). Inst. of Astronomy and Astrophysics; Ludwig-Maximilians Univ., Munich (Germany); Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching (Germany)
  9. Huntingdon Inst. for X-ray Astronomy, LLC, Huntingdon, PA (United States)
  10. Univ. of Melbourne (Australia). School of Physics
  11. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics
  12. Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ. Munich (Germany); Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching (Germany); Max Planck Inst. for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching (Germany)
  13. Argelander-Inst. für Astronomie, Bonn (Germany)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We present a multi-wavelength analysis of the four most relaxed clusters in the South Pole Telescope 2500 deg2 survey, which lie at 0.55 < z < 0.75. This study, which utilizes new, deep data from Chandra and Hubble, along with ground-based spectroscopy from Gemini and Magellan, improves significantly on previous studies in both depth and angular resolution, allowing us to directly compare to clusters at z~0. We find that the temperature, density, and entropy profiles of the intracluster medium (ICM) are very similar among the four clusters, and share similar shapes to clusters at z~0. Specifically, we find no evidence for deviations from self similarity in the temperature profile over the radial range 10kpc < r < 1Mpc, implying that the processes responsible for preventing runaway cooling over the past >6 Gyr are, at least roughly, preserving self similarity. We find typical metallicities of ~0.3 Zsun in the bulk of the ICM, rising to ~0.5 Zsun in the inner ~100 kpc, and reaching ~1 Zsun at r < 10kpc. This central excess is similar in magnitude to what is observed in the most relaxed clusters at z~0, suggesting that both the global metallicity and the central excess that we see in cool core clusters at z~0 were in place very early in the cluster lifetime and, specifically, that the central excess is not due to late-time enrichment by the central galaxy. Consistent with observations at z~0, we measure a diversity of stellar populations in the central brightest cluster galaxies of these four clusters, with star formation rates spanning a factor of ~500, despite the similarity in cooling time, cooling rate, and central entropy. These data suggest that, while the details vary dramatically from system to system, runaway cooling has been broadly regulated in relaxed clusters over the past 6 Gyr.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); Australian Research Council (ARC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Contributing Organization:
SPT
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; AC02-07CH11359; GBMF 947; NAS-08060
OSTI ID:
1493322
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1487409
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1809.09104; FERMILAB-PUB-18-555-AE
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 870, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (4)

Cooling flow solutions for the circumgalactic medium journal July 2019
Probing the Origin of Diffuse Radio Emission in the Cool Core of the Phoenix Galaxy Cluster journal January 2020
Cooling flow solutions for the circumgalactic medium text January 2019
Probing the origin of diffuse radio emission in the cool-core of the Phoenix galaxy cluster text January 2019

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Related Subjects

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