English

XRISM Observations of The Prototypical Cold Front in Abell 3667

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2025-12-09 v3

Abstract

We present high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 3667 with \textit{XRISM}/Resolve. Two observations, targeting the cluster X-ray core and the prototypical cold front, were performed with exposures of 105 ks and 276 ks, respectively. We find that the gas in the core is blueshifted by vz200v_z\sim-200 km s1^{-1} relative to the brightest cluster galaxy, while the low-entropy gas inside the cold front is redshifted by vz200v_z\sim 200 km s1^{-1}. As one moves further off-center across the front, the line-of-sight (LoS) velocity changes significantly, by Δvz=535154+167\Delta v_z=535^{+167}_{-154} km s1^{-1}, back to the value similar to that in the core. There are no significant LoS velocity gradients perpendicular to the cluster symmetry axis. These features suggest that the gas forming the cold front is flowing in the plane oriented along the LoS, supporting an offset merger scenario in which the main cluster has passed in front of the subcluster and induced rotation of the core gas in the plane perpendicular to the sky. The region just inside the front exhibits the largest LoS velocity dispersion seen across two pointings, σz420\sigma_z\sim420 km s1^{-1}, which can be interpreted as a developing turbulence or a projection of the LoS velocity shear within the front. The large LoS velocity jump across the cold front, combined with the lack of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on the surface of the front, suggests some mechanism to suppress it. For example, a magnetic field with B>5μB>5\,\muG is required if the cold front is stabilized by magnetic draping.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.26405,
  title  = {XRISM Observations of The Prototypical Cold Front in Abell 3667},
  author = {Yuki Omiya and Yuto Ichinohe and Kazuhiro Nakazawa and Hisamitsu Awaki and Dominique Eckert and Yutaka Fujita and Isamu Hatsukade and Maxim Markevitch and François Mernier and Ikuyuki Mitsuishi and Naomi Ota and Aurora Simionescu and Yuusuke Uchida and Shutaro Ueda and Irina Zhuravleva and John Zuhone},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.26405},
  year   = {2025}
}