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[11.06] The Effect of Preheating on the Physical Structure of the ICM

J.J. Bialek, A.E. Evrard (University of Michigan), J.J. Mohr (University of Illinois)

We present an ensemble of 68 simulated galaxy clusters, evolved under a "preheating" assumption, which reproduces the observed X-ray luminosity, ICM mass and isophotal size-temperature relations. We study how preheating affects ICM structure by separating the virial ICM mass fraction from the radial profile of the ICM density. We find that the temperature dependence of the ICM mass fraction is the factor principally responsible for driving the simulations into agreement with the observed scaling relations; density profiles are relatively independent of temperature. The models display nearly constant values of \beta_fit within a temperature range of 2-10 keV, a feature that appears to be inconsistent with observation. Simply "preheating" the ICM is not sufficient to fully explain ICM structure at low redshift. As part of an effort to facilitate comparison between cluster simulations and observation, this cluster ensemble will soon be available as part of the Virtual Cluster Exploratory (VCE). VCE is a project designed to provide the scientific community with access to cluster simulations and analysis tools, including software for mock X-ray (Chandra/XMM) observations.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.