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L. David, J. Kempner (SAO)
We are in the process of analyzing Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of a flux limited sample of 15 cool clusters with X-ray temperatures between 2 and 4 keV. Cool clusters represent a very diverse population of objects. While the gas temperatures of these objects only differ by a factor of two, their X-ray luminosities vary by more than an order of magnitude. Our analysis so far has shown that these clusters are fairly self-similar beyond 10-20 radius. Within this radius, these clusters exhibit a broad range of density and temperature profiles. The clusters vary from dense, highly concentrated systems like Hydra A to much less dense systems like A262. An obvious candidate for the diversity of core characteristics within this sample is recent heating by a central black hole. Nuclear activity will heat the central gas, cause it to expand, and lower its X-ray luminosity. Using Hydra A as a fiducial point for a fully developed cooling flow, we calculate the energy required to reproduce the the enthalpy profile and gravitational potential energy of the remaining systems. We will discuss the required energetics, whether the diverse characteristics of cool clusters cores is due to recent nuclear activity, and the implications regarding cluster cooling flows.
This work is being funded by a Chandra AO5 archive grant ARX-5016X.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.