Hot and cold bubbles in M87

Abstract

The X-ray data obtained with XMM-Newton is used to investigate the complex structure of the gas in the atmosphere of the Virgo cluster around M87. We construct a simple model for the temperature and density distribution. This model implies that the cumulative mass of the cluster gas is a power-law of its entropy index, $kT{n}^{-2/3}$, similar to the Hydra cluster. This supports the idea that such power-laws are a direct consequence of gas cooling in a gravitational potential. In the cluster atmosphere hot bubbles of gas injected by the AGN are rising buoyantly. We estimate the age of these structures from the synchrotron radio data and find that this `radiative age' is consistent with the estimated dynamical timescale. However, this requires a spatial separation of the relativistic particles from the magnetic field. The age estimates suggest an activity cycle of the AGN in M87 of roughly $10^8$ years. We show that the largest radio structures are consistent with being the remnants of buoyant bubbles injected by the AGN during an even earlier activity cycle. The wakes behind the currently rising hot bubbles uplift cold gas from the cluster centre. Using a simple model for the trajectory of the cold gas, we demonstrate that the observations by XMM-Newton of a mix of hot and cold gas in the cluster atmosphere in the vicinity of the radio structure can be explained in this scenario. This may also explain the ridges of enhanced X-ray emission from cold gas observed with CHANDRA.

Accepted for publication by MNRAS, 8 pages, 6 postscript figures

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• Solving the angular momentum problem in the cold feedback mechanism of cooling flows
• X-ray and Optical Filaments in M87
• Radiative cooling, heating and thermal conduction in M87
• The stability of buoyant bubbles in the atmospheres of galaxy clusters
• Ni abundance in the core of the Perseus Cluster: an answer to the significance of resonant scattering
• Search for cold gas along radio lobes in the cooling core galaxies MS0735.6+7421 and M87
• Chemical enrichment of the intracluster medium by FR II radio sources
• Suppressing hot gas accretion to supermassive black holes by stellar winds
• X-ray triple rings around the M87 jets in the central Virgo cluster
• The radio source in Abell 980: A Detached-Double-Double Radio Galaxy?