English

A Possible Shock Wave in the Intergalactic Medium of the Cluster of Galaxies A754

Astrophysics 2009-11-10 v1

Abstract

The cluster of galaxies A754 undergoes a merger of several large structural units. X-ray observations show a nonequilibrium state of the central part of the cluster, in which a cloud of cold plasma 500 kpc in size was identified amid the hotter cluster gas. The X-ray image of A754 exhibits a brightness discontinuity, which can be interpreted as a shock wave in front of a moving cloud of dense gas. The shock parameters are determined from the jump in intergalactic gas density using the ROSAT image. The estimated Mach number is M=1.71^{+0.45}_{-0.24} at a 68% confidence level.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0307090,
  title  = {A Possible Shock Wave in the Intergalactic Medium of the Cluster of Galaxies A754},
  author = {R. Krivonos and A. Vikhlinin and M. Markevitch and M. Pavlinsky},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0307090},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Shortened version of the paper published in Astronomy Letters