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Title: THE ENTIRE VIRIAL RADIUS OF THE FOSSIL CLUSTER RX J1159+5531. I. GAS PROPERTIES

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
;  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, Irvine, CA 92697 (United States)
  2. INAF-IASF-Milano, Via E. Bassini 15, I-20133 Milano (Italy)
  3. Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita di Bologna, Via Ranzani 1, I-40126 Bologna (Italy)

Previous analysis of the fossil-group/cluster RX J1159+5531 with X-ray observations from a central Chandra pointing and an offset-north Suzaku pointing indicate a radial intracluster medium (ICM) entropy profile at the virial radius (R{sub vir}) consistent with predictions from gravity-only cosmological simulations, in contrast to other cool-core clusters. To examine the generality of these results, we present three new Suzaku observations that, in conjunction with the north pointing, provide complete azimuthal coverage out to R{sub vir}. With two new Chandra ACIS-I observations overlapping the north Suzaku pointing, we have resolved ≳50% of the cosmic X-ray background there. We present radial profiles of the ICM density, temperature, entropy, and pressure obtained for each of the four directions. We measure only modest azimuthal scatter in the ICM properties at R{sub 200} between the Suzaku pointings: 7.6% in temperature and 8.6% in density, while the systematic errors can be significant. The temperature scatter, in particular, is lower than that studied at R{sub 200} for a small number of other clusters observed with Suzaku. These azimuthal measurements verify that RX J1159+5531 is a regular, highly relaxed system. The well-behaved entropy profiles we have measured for RX J1159+5531 disfavor the weakening of the accretion shock as an explanation of the entropy flattening found in other cool-core clusters but is consistent with other explanations such as gas clumping, electron-ion non-equilibrium, non-thermal pressure support, and cosmic-ray acceleration. Finally, we mention that the large-scale galaxy density distribution of RX J1159+5531 seems to have little impact on its gas properties near R{sub vir}.

OSTI ID:
22522386
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 805, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English