Related papers: Physics of the intra-cluster medium at high redshi…
During structure formation, energetic events and random motions of the hot gas residing inside galaxy clusters (the intracluster medium, ICM) generate turbulent motions. Radio diffuse emission probes the presence of magnetic fields and…
In spite of the promise of new techniques for constraining the mass distribution in galaxy clusters, much remains to be learned from galaxy orbital velocities. This article reviews the theory of potential estimation in hot dynamical systems…
Clusters of galaxies, being dark matter dominated, have long been and still are the ideal cosmological targets to study the nature of dark matter. Constraints on the nature of dark matter comes in particular from the observational…
The distribution of metals and temperature in the intracluster medium (ICM) provides key insights into galaxy cluster evolution, revealing information about chemical enrichment and heating and cooling processes, respectively. To access this…
Acceleration of cosmic-ray electrons (CRe) in the intra-cluster-medium (ICM) is probed by radio observations that detect diffuse, Mpc-scale, synchrotron sources in a fraction of galaxy clusters. Giant radio halos are the most spectacular…
We present a new model for the X-ray properties of the intracluster medium that explicitly includes heating of the gas by the energy released during the evolution of cluster galaxies. We calculate the evolution of clusters by combining the…
Clusters of galaxies are massive enough to be considered representative samples of the Universe, and to retain all of the heavy elements synthesized in their constituent stars. Since most of these metals reside in hot plasma, X-ray…
An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within…
The analysis of the presence of substructures in 16 well-sampled clusters of galaxies suggests a stimulating hypothesis: Clusters could be classified as unimodal or bimodal, on the basis of to the sub-clump distribution in the {\em 3-D}…
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…
Their ubiquity and extreme densities make star clusters probes of prime importance of galaxy evolution. Old globular clusters keep imprints of the physical conditions of their assembly in the early Universe, and younger stellar objects,…
The evolution of galaxies is driven strongly by dynamical processes including internal instabilities, tidal interactions and mergers. The cluster environment is a useful laboratory for studying these effects. I present recent results on…
Clusters of galaxies generally form by the gravitational merger of smaller clusters and groups. Major cluster mergers are the most energetic events in the Universe since the Big Bang. The basic properties of cluster mergers and their…
Galaxy clusters are the most massive gravitationally bound structures in the Universe, comprising thousands of galaxies and pervaded by a diffuse, hot ``intracluster medium'' (ICM) that dominates the baryonic content of these systems. The…
Clusters of galaxies are the largest self-gravitating structures in the universe. Each cluster is filled with a large-scale plasma atmosphere, in which primordial matter is mixed with matter that has been processed inside stars. This is a…
These lectures cover various aspects of the statistical description of cosmological density fields. Observationally, this consists of the point process defined by galaxies, and the challenge is to relate this to the continuous density field…
Within the standard framework of structure formation, where clusters and groups of galaxies are built up from the merging of smaller systems, the physical properties of the intracluster medium, such as the gas temperature and the total…
The hot gas permeating galaxy clusters-the intracluster medium (ICM)-is a key tracer of their assembly history and internal dynamics. Understanding the motion of this gas provides critical insight into processes such as mergers, turbulence,…
Results of ASCA X-ray study of central regions of medium-richness clusters of galaxies are summarized, emphasizing differences between cD and non-cD clusters. The intra-cluster medium (ICM) is likely to consist of two (hot and cool) phases…
It appears that the dynamical status of clusters and groups of galaxies is related to the large-scale structure of the Universe. A few interesting trends have been established: (1) The Cluster Substructure - Alignment Connection, by which…