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Title: Improved measurements of turbulence in the hot gaseous atmospheres of nearby giant elliptical galaxies

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [5];  [6]
  1. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  2. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  3. Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge (United Kingdom)
  4. MTA-Eotvos Univ. Lendulet Hot Universe Research Group, Budapest (Hungary); Masaryk Univ., Brno (Czech Republic)
  5. SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht (The Netherlands); Leiden Univ., Leiden (The Netherlands)
  6. SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht (The Netherlands)

Here, we present significantly improved measurements of turbulent velocities in the hot gaseous haloes of nearby giant elliptical galaxies. Using deep XMM–NewtonReflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) observations and a combination of resonance scattering and direct line broadening methods, we obtain well bounded constraints for 13 galaxies. Assuming that the turbulence is isotropic, we obtain a best-fitting mean 1D turbulent velocity of 110 km s-1. This implies a typical 3D Mach number ~0.45 and a typical non-thermal pressure contribution of ~6 per cent in the cores of nearby massive galaxies. The intrinsic scatter around these values is modest – consistent with zero, albeit with large statistical uncertainty – hinting at a common and quasi-continuous mechanism sourcing the velocity structure in these objects. Using conservative estimates of the spatial scales associated with the observed turbulent motions, we find that turbulent heating can be sufficient to offset radiative cooling in the inner regions of these galaxies (<10 kpc, typically 2–3 kpc). The full potential of our analysis methods will be enabled by future X-ray micro-calorimeter observations.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; 340442
OSTI ID:
1410450
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 472, Issue 2; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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The peculiar motions of early-type galaxies in two distant regions -- III. The photometric data text January 1997
A unified model for AGN feedback in cosmological simulations of structure formation text January 2007
Do sound waves transport the AGN energy in the Perseus cluster? text January 2017
Insights into the location and dynamics of the coolest X-ray emitting gas in clusters of galaxies text January 2016
Constraints on turbulent pressure in the X-ray halos of giant elliptical galaxies from resonant scattering journal November 2009
A New Approach To Analyzing Solar Coronal Spectra And Updated Collisional Ionization Equilibrium Calculations. II. Updated Ionization Rate Coefficients text January 2009
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Measuring the non-thermal pressure in early type galaxy atmospheres: A comparison of X-ray and optical potential profiles in M87 and NGC1399 text January 2007
The black hole mass -- stellar velocity dispersion correlation: bulges versus pseudobulges text January 2008
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Residual Gas Motions in the Intracluster Medium and Bias in Hydrostatic Measurements of Mass Profiles of Clusters text January 2009
Stirring Up the Pot: Can Cooling Flows In Galaxy Clusters Be Quenched By Gas Sloshing? text January 2009
Resonant scattering of X-ray emission lines in the hot intergalactic medium text January 2010
Viscous Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in highly ionised plasmas text January 2013
The origin of cold gas in giant elliptical galaxies and its role in fueling radio-mode AGN feedback text January 2013
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A volume-limited sample of X-ray galaxy groups and clusters: III. Central abundance drops text January 2014
Chemical Enrichment RGS cluster sample (CHEERS): Constraints on turbulence text January 2015
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Cooling in the X-ray halo of the rotating, massive early-type galaxy NGC 7049 journal January 2019
Limits on turbulent propagation of energy in cool-core clusters of galaxies journal April 2018
Physical Origins of Gas Motions in Galaxy Cluster Cores: Interpreting Hitomi Observations of the Perseus Cluster journal October 2017
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Acoustic Disturbances in Galaxy Clusters journal April 2018
Resonant Scattering Effect on the Soft X-Ray Line Emission from the Hot Interstellar Medium. I. Galactic Bulges journal July 2018
Gas Perturbations in the Cool Cores of Galaxy Clusters: Effective Equation of State, Velocity Power Spectra, and Turbulent Heating journal September 2018
A Multifiltering Study of Turbulence in a Large Sample of Simulated Galaxy Clusters journal March 2019
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Physical Origins of Gas Motions in Galaxy Cluster Cores: Interpreting Hitomi Observations of the Perseus Cluster text January 2017
Measuring turbulence and gas motions in galaxy clusters via synthetic Athena X-IFU observations text January 2018
Resonant scattering effect on the soft X-ray line emission from the hot interstellar medium: I. galactic bulges text January 2018
An XMM-Newton look at the strongly variable radio-weak BL Lac Fermi J1544-0639 text January 2019
Constraining Gas Motions in the Intra-Cluster Medium text January 2019
The Extremely High Dark Matter Halo Concentration of the Relic Compact Elliptical Galaxy Mrk 1216 text January 2019
A multifiltering study of turbulence in a large sample of simulated galaxy clusters text January 2019
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Measuring bulk flows of the intracluster medium in the Perseus and Coma galaxy clusters using XMM-Newton text January 2019
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Hot atmospheres of galaxies, groups, and clusters of galaxies text January 2020
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