Detecting Sound-Wave-Like Surface Brightness Ripples in Cluster Cores

Abstract

We investigate the observational requirements for the detection of sound-wave-like features in galaxy cluster cores. We calculate the effect of projection on the observed wave amplitude, and find that the projection factor depends only weakly on the underlying cluster properties but strongly on the wavelength of the sound waves, with the observed amplitude being reduced by a factor ~5 for 5 kpc waves but only by a factor ~ 2 for 25 kpc waves. We go on to estimate the time needed to detect ripples similar to those previously detected in the Perseus cluster in other clusters. We find that the detection time scales most strongly with the flux of the cluster and the amplitude of the ripples. By connecting the ripple amplitude to the heating power in the system, we estimate detection times for a selection of local clusters and find that several may have ripples detected with ~1Ms Chandra time.

9 Pages, 13 figures MNRAS Accepted

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Observational Evidence of AGN Feedback
• Do sound waves transport the AGN energy in the Perseus Cluster?
• Feedback under the microscope: thermodynamic structure and AGN driven shocks in M87
• The nature and energetics of AGN-driven perturbations in the hot gas in the Perseus Cluster
• Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations of AWM 7 - I: Investigating X-ray surface brightness fluctuations
• Applications for edge detection techniques using Chandra and XMM-Newton data: galaxy clusters and beyond
• Multiple shock fronts in RBS 797: the Chandra window on shock heating in galaxy clusters
• Environmental effects on the growth of super massive black holes and AGN feedback
• Hyenas: X-ray Bubbles and Cavities in the Intra-Group Medium