Studying the leptonic structure of galaxy cluster atmospheres from the spectral properties of the SZ effect

Abstract

We study the energetics of galaxy cluster atmospheres by analyzing the SZ effect spectra around the crossover frequency. We calculated analytically the expressions of both the crossover frequency and the spectral slope of the SZE around the crossover frequency in various cases: a thermal electron population; a power-law, non-thermal electron population; and a population of electrons experiencing a stochastic acceleration. We find that the value of the crossover frequency X_0 of the SZE depends significantly on the cluster peculiar velocity V_r (which determines the amplitude of the kinematic SZE), while the value of the slope of the SZE does not depend on the kinematic SZE spectrum in the optimal frequency range around the crossover frequency of the thermal SZE, i.e. in the (a-dimensional) frequency range x = 3.5 - 4.5. Thus, while the amplitude of the kinematic SZE produces a systematic bias in the position of the crossover frequency, it does not affect significantly the spectral slope of the SZE. We therefore propose to use measurements of the spectral slope of the SZE to obtain unbiased information about the specific properties of various electron distributions in galaxy clusters as well as in other cosmic structures in which a SZE can be produced.

11 pages, 8 figures, published in A&A

References in corpus (4)

• SZ effect from Dark Matter annihilation
• In-situ acceleration of subrelativistic electrons in the Coma halo and the halo's influence on the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect
• The SZ effect from cluster cavities
• Beyond the Standard Lore of the SZ effect

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• An analysis of the temperature structure of galaxy clusters by means of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
• Study on the Solutions of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect for Clusters of Galaxies
• Can electron distribution functions be derived through the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect?
• Probing photon decay with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
• On the influence of high energy electron populations on metal abundance estimates in galaxy groups and clusters
• Empirical test for relativistic kinetic theories based on the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect