AN ANALYTIC MODEL OF THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF GALAXY CLUSTERS

Journal Article · Fri Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/720/2/1038· OSTI ID:21460063

Bulbul, G Esra; Hasler, Nicole; Bonamente, Massimiliano ^[1]; Joy, Marshall ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL 35899 (United States)
2. Space Science Office, VP62, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812 (United States)

We introduce an analytic model of the diffuse intergalactic medium in galaxy clusters based on a polytropic equation of state for the gas in hydrostatic equilibrium with the cluster gravitational potential. This model is directly applicable to the analysis of X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect observations from the cluster core to the virial radius, with five global parameters and three parameters describing the cluster core. We validate the model using Chandra X-ray observations of two polytropic clusters, MS 1137.5+6625 and CL J1226.9+3332, and two cool core clusters, 1835 and A2204. We show that the model accurately describes the spatially resolved spectroscopic and imaging data, including the cluster core region where significant cooling of the plasma is observed.

• OSTI ID: 21460063
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 720, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/720/2/1038; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
EQUATIONS OF STATE
EQUILIBRIUM
GALAXY CLUSTERS
GRAVITATION
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLASMA
POTENTIALS
X-RAY GALAXIES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
EQUATIONS
GALAXIES