Lensed Arcs and Inner Structure of Abell 697
Abstract
We present new optical observations of the z=0.282 cluster Abell 697 from the Keck II telescope. Images show an unusual disturbed structure in the cD halo and a previously unknown faint gravitational lens arc. A spectrum of the arc did not yield a redshift, but its spectrum and colors suggest it lies at z>1.3. We construct models to reproduce the arc that show the potential is likely to be highly elliptical. We suggest that this cluster may have undergone a recent merger and is in the process of forming its cD galaxy. Analysis of X-ray data from ROSAT and ASCA suggests that the merging process is sufficiently advanced that the gas in the cluster has relaxed, and A697 lies near the L_x-T_x relation for normal clusters.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9909166,
title = {Lensed Arcs and Inner Structure of Abell 697},
author = {Mark R. Metzger and Chung-Pei Ma},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9909166},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
LaTeX; 12 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ Letters