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J.S. Arabadjis, M.W. Bautz (MIT)
Deciphering the structure of galaxy cluster cores is essential for an understanding of large scale structure in the universe, and may hold important clues as to the identity and nature of dark matter particles. Unfortunately, cluster cores often contain poorly understood ``cooling flows'' which complicate efforts to map their dark matter distribution. For example, if the X-ray emitting gas is multiphase, the derived core density profile is steeper than it would be if it were uniphase. Here we present a deprojection analysis of Chandra X-ray imaging spectroscopy for a dozen galaxy clusters. For each cluster we determine the significance of a second cospatial temperature component using Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling, and derive a baryon density and temperature profile. Under the assumption of spherical hydrostatic equilibrium we use constrained optimization to construct the dark matter profile. We fit each profile with the standard dark matter halo models and report the relevant structural parameters, and discuss the implications for CDM cosmology.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.