Related papers: Cold Fronts: Probes of Plasma Astrophysics in Gala…
Recently, high-resolution Chandra observations revealed the existence of very sharp features in the X-ray surface brightness and temperature maps of several clusters (Vikhlinin et. al., 2001). These features, called ``cold fronts'', are…
The Intra-Cluster Medium (ICM) is a rarefied, hot, highly ionized, metal rich, weakly magnetized plasma. In these proceeding, after having reviewed some basic ICM properties, I discuss recent results obtained with the BeppoSAX, XMM-Newton…
Galaxy clusters are the largest and most massive bound objects resulting from cosmic hierarchical structure formation. Baryons account for somewhat more than 10% of that mass, with roughly 90% of the baryonic matter distributed throughout…
The intracluster medium (ICM), composed of hot plasma, dominates the baryonic content of galaxy clusters and is primarily observable in X-rays. Its thermodynamic properties, pressure, temperature, entropy, and electron density, offer…
Cold Fronts and shocks are hallmarks of the complex intra-cluster medium (ICM) in galaxy clusters. They are thought to occur due to gas motions within the ICM and are often attributed to galaxy mergers within the cluster. Using…
Table of contents (abridged): COLD FRONTS Origin and evolution of merger cold fronts Cold fronts in cluster cool cores . . . Simulations of gas sloshing. Origin of density discontinuity. . . . Effect of sloshing on cluster mass estimates…
We present a simulated cluster of galaxies, modeled with a pre-heated intracluster medium, that exhibits X-ray features similar to the `cold fronts' seen in Chandra observations. Mock observations at a particular epoch show factor two…
Galaxy clusters, the largest clearly defined objects in our Universe, are ideal laboratories to study in detail the cosmic evolution of the intergalactic intracluster medium (ICM) and the cluster galaxy population. For the ICM, which is…
Current high resolution observations of galaxy clusters reveal a dynamical intracluster medium (ICM). The wealth of structures includes signatures of interactions between active galactic nuclei (AGN) and the ICM, such as cavities and…
Emission lines in X-ray spectra of clusters of galaxies reveal the presence of heavy elements in the diffuse hot plasma (the Intra Cluster Medium, or ICM) in virial equilibrium in the dark matter potential well. The relatively simple…
This Chapter provides a brief tutorial on some aspects of plasma physics that are fundamental to understanding the dynamics and energetics of the intracluster medium (ICM). The tutorial is split into two parts: one that focuses on the…
Clusters of galaxies, as the largest virialized systems in the Universe, are ideal laboratories to study the formation and evolution of cosmic structures...(abridged)... Most of the detailed knowledge of galaxy clusters has been obtained in…
In the last eight years, the Chandra and XMM-Newton satellites changed significantly our view of X-ray clusters of galaxies. In particular, several complex phenomena have been directly observed: interactions between cluster galaxies and the…
Studies of the diffuse X-ray emitting gas in galaxy clusters have provided powerful constraints on cosmological parameters and insights into plasma astrophysics. However, measurements of the faint cluster outskirts have become possible only…
We examine the incidence of cold fronts in a large sample of galaxy clusters extracted from a (512h^-1 Mpc) hydrodynamic/N-body cosmological simulation with adiabatic gas physics computed with the Enzo adaptive mesh refinement code. This…
Cold fronts (CFs) - density and temperature plasma discontinuities - are ubiquitous in cool cores of galaxy clusters, where they appear as X-ray brightness edges in the intracluster medium, nearly concentric with the cluster center. We…
The main component of the intracluster medium (ICM) in clusters of galaxies is represented by the X-ray emitting thermal plasma. In addition, the presence of relativistic electrons and large-scale magnetic fields in a fraction of galaxy…
Recent high resolution observations by the {\it Chandra} X-ray satellite revealed various substructures in hot X-ray emitting plasmas in cluster of galaxies. For example, {\it Chandra} revealed the existence of sharp discontinuities in the…
A number of merging galaxy clusters shows the presence of shocks and cold fronts, i.e. sharp discontinuities in surface brightness and temperature. The observation of these features requires an X-ray telescope with high spatial resolution…
The detailed velocity structure of the diffuse X-ray emitting intra-cluster medium (ICM) remains one of the last missing key ingredients in understanding the microphysical properties of these hot baryons and constraining our models of the…