The Hot and Energetic Universe: The evolution of galaxy groups and clusters
Abstract
Major astrophysical questions related to the formation and evolution of structures, and more specifically of galaxy groups and clusters, will still be open in the coming decade and beyond: what is the interplay of galaxy, supermassive black hole, and intergalactic gas evolution in the most massive objects in the Universe - galaxy groups and clusters? What are the processes driving the evolution of chemical enrichment of the hot diffuse gas in large-scale structures? How and when did the first galaxy groups in the Universe, massive enough to bind more than 10^7 K gas, form? Focussing on the period when groups and clusters assembled (0.5<z<2.5), we show that, due to the continuum and line emission of this hot intergalactic gas at X-ray wavelengths, Athena+, combining high sensitivity with excellent spectral and spatial resolution, will deliver breakthrough observations in view of the aforementioned issues. Indeed, the physical and chemical properties of the hot intra-cluster gas, and their evolution across time, are a key to understand the co-evolution of galaxy and supermassive black hole within their environments.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1306.2319,
title = {The Hot and Energetic Universe: The evolution of galaxy groups and clusters},
author = {E. Pointecouteau and T. H. Reiprich and C. Adami and M. Arnaud and V. Biffi and S. Borgani and K. Borm and H. Bourdin and M. Brueggen and E. Bulbul and N. Clerc and J. H. Croston and K. Dolag and S. Ettori and A. Finoguenov and J. Kaastra and L. Lovisari and B. Maughan and P. Mazzotta and F. Pacaud and J. de Plaa and G. W. Pratt and M. Ramos-Ceja and E. Rasia and J. Sanders and Y. -Y. Zhang and S. Allen and H. Boehringer and G. Brunetti and D. Elbaz and R. Fassbender and H. Hoekstra and H. Hildebrandt and G. Lamer and D. Marrone and J. Mohr and S. Molendi and J. Nevalainen and T. Ohashi and N. Ota and M. Pierre and K. Romer and S. Schindler and T. Schrabback and A. Schwope and R. Smith and V. Springel and A. von der Linden},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.2319},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
Supporting paper for the science theme The Hot and Energetic Universe to be implemented by the Athena+ X-ray observatory (http://www.the-athena-x-ray-observatory.eu). 10 pages, 4 figures