A BeppoSax view of the Centaurus Cluster

Abstract

We present results from the analysis of a BeppoSAX observation of the Centaurus Cluster. The radial metal abundance profile shows evidence of a large enhancement in the core, where Ab $>$ 1 (sol. units). The temperature map indicates that the cluster is characterized by a gradient oriented in the NW/SE direction, with cooler gas in the NW and hotter gas in the SE (ΔkT \sim 1 keV). In hard X-rays, where the PDS detects emission with a flux of $2.2\times 10^{-11}$ erg/cm^2/s in the 20-200 keV band, the spectrum lies above the extrapolation of the cluster thermal emission. We discuss several possible interpretations for the hard excess finding that none is completely satisfactory.

To appear in A&A

References in corpus (5)

• Metallicity Gradients in X-ray Clusters of Galaxies
• Is the gas in cooling-flows multi-phase?
• Spatially-resolved X-ray spectroscopy of the core of the Centaurus cluster
• X-Ray Probing of the Central Regions of Clusters of Galaxies
• ASCA Temperature Maps of Three Clusters of Galaxies Abell 1060, AWM7, and the Centaurus Cluster

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• Possible non-thermal origin of the hard X-ray emission in the merging galaxy cluster SPT-CL J2031-4037