Gas sloshing in Abell 2204: Constraining the properties of the magnetized intracluster medium

Abstract

The rich galaxy cluster Abell 2204 exhibits edges in its X-ray surface brightness at $\sim 65$ and $35\mathrm{kpc}$ west and east of its center, respectively. The presence of these edges, which were interpreted as sloshing cold fronts, implies that the intracluster medium was recently disturbed. We analyze the properties of the intracluster medium using multiple Chandra observations of Abell 2204. We find a density ratio $n_{\mathrm{in}}/n_{\mathrm{out}}=2.05\pm 0.05$ and a temperature ratio $T_{\mathrm{out}}/T_{\mathrm{in}}=1.91\pm 0.27$ (projected, or $1.87\pm 0.56$ deprojected) across the western edge, and correspondingly $n_{\mathrm{in}}/n_{\mathrm{out}}=1.96\pm 0.05$ and $T_{\mathrm{out}}/T_{\mathrm{in}}=1.45\pm 0.15$ (projected, or $1.25\pm 0.26$ deprojected) across the eastern edge. These values are typical of cold fronts in galaxy clusters. This, together with the spiral pattern observed in the cluster core, supports the sloshing scenario for Abell 2204. No Kelvin-Helmholtz eddies are observed along the cold front surfaces, indicating that they are effectively suppressed by some physical mechanism. We argue that the suppression is likely facilitated by the magnetic fields amplified in the sloshing motion, and deduce from the measured gas properties that the magnetic field strength should be greater than $24\pm 6$ $\mu$G and $32\pm 8$ $\mu$G along the west and east cold fronts, respectively.

References in corpus (8)

• Shocks and cold fronts in galaxy clusters
• Chandra temperature profiles for a sample of nearby relaxed galaxy clusters
• The origin of cold fronts in the cores of relaxed galaxy clusters
• A deeper X-ray study of the core of the Perseus galaxy cluster: the power of sound waves and the distribution of metals and cosmic rays
• Direct X-ray Spectral Deprojection of Galaxy Clusters
• The Effect of Anisotropic Viscosity on Cold Fronts in Galaxy Clusters
• Giant cavities, cooling and metallicity substructure in Abell 2204
• Integral field spectroscopy of H-alpha emission in cooling flow cluster cores: disturbing the molecular gas reservoir

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Jets from MRC 0600-399 bent by magnetic fields in the cluster Abell 3376
• A Chandra study of Abell 795 -- a sloshing cluster with a FR0 radio galaxy at its center
• The peculiar WAT NGC 2329 with Seyfert/FR I-like radio lobes
• Chandra observations of the Abell S0295 cluster