paper

Non-thermal X-ray Emission: An Alternative to Cluster Cooling Flows?

arXiv:astro-ph/0111282 · doi:10.1086/338680

Abstract

We report the results of experiments aimed at reducing the major problem with cooling flow models of rich cluster X-ray sources: the fact that most of the cooled gas or its products have not been found. Here we show that much of the X-ray emission usually attributed to cooling flows can, in fact, be modeled by a power-law component which is indicative of a source(s) other than thermal bremsstrahlung from the intracluster medium. We find that adequate simultaneous fits to ROSAT PSPCB and ASCA GIS/SIS spectra of the central regions of ten clusters are obtained for two-component models that include a thermal plasma component that is attributable to hot intracluster gas and a power-law component that is likely generated by compact sources and/or extended non-thermal emission. For five of the clusters that purportedly have massive cooling flows, the best-fit models have power-law components that contribute 30 % of the total flux (0.14 - 10.0 keV) within the central 3 arcminutes. Because cooling flow mass deposition rates are inferred from X-ray fluxes, our finding opens the possibility of significantly reducing cooling rates.

11 pages, 3 figures, emulateapj style. Accepted for publication in ApJ

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