English

Excess cataloged X-ray and radio sources at galaxy-cluster virial shocks

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2024-12-09 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

We detect a highly significant excess of X-ray (2RXS) and radio (NVSS, GMRT, VLSSr) catalog sources when stacked around MCXC galaxy clusters and groups, narrowly confined within 100kpc\lesssim100\mathrm{\,kpc} of the 2.4R500\sim2.4 R_{500} virial shock radius (inferred from previous continuum stacking), with similar X-ray (4σ\sim4\sigma for 443443 clusters) and radio (4σ\sim4\sigma for 485485 clusters) characteristics (>5σ>5\sigma joint). The excess sources show 1010010-100 kpc scales, LX(0.12.4\mboxkeV)104243ergs1L_X(0.1-2.4\mbox{ keV})\simeq10^{42-43}\mathrm{\,erg\,s^{-1}} or νLν(ν=1.4\mboxGHz)104041ergs1\nu L_\nu(\nu=1.4\mbox{ GHz}) \simeq 10^{40-41}\mathrm{\,erg\,s^{-1}} luminosities, and a preferentially radial radio-polarization. The narrow localization and properties of the excess identify these sources not as AGN, often invoked speculatively for excess X-ray sources at cluster outskirts, but rather as infalling gaseous clumps interacting with the virial shock, probably galactic halos and possibly outflow remnants. The local excess of such discrete, radio-to-γ\gamma-ray sources around an object can probe its virial shock also at high redshifts and sub-cluster scales.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.16946,
  title  = {Excess cataloged X-ray and radio sources at galaxy-cluster virial shocks},
  author = {Gideon Ilani and Kuan-Chou Hou and Uri Keshet},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.16946},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Source tables added in Appendix H; to appear in JCAP