Enrichment in the Centaurus cluster of galaxies

Abstract

We perform a detailed spatially-resolved, spectroscopic, analysis of the core of the Centaurus cluster of galaxies using a deep Chandra X-ray observation and XMM-Newton data. The Centaurus cluster core has particularly high metallicity, upto twice Solar values, and we measure the abundances of Fe, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, Ca and Ni. We map the distribution of these elements in many spatial regions,and create radial profiles to the east and west of the centre. The ratios of the most robustly determined elements to iron are consistent with Solar ratios, indicating that there has been enrichment by both Type Ia and Type II supernovae. For a normal initial stellar mass function it represents the products of about 4x10^10 solar masses of star formation. This star formation can have occured either continuously at a rate of 5 solar masses per year for the past 8 Gyr or more,or was part of the formation of the central galaxy at earlier times. Either conclusion requires that the inner core of the Centaurus cluster has not suffered a major disruption within the past 8 Gyr, or even longer.

15 pages, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (5)

• Chemical evolution in Sersic 159-03 observed with XMM-Newton
• Resonance scattering, absorption and off-centre abundance peaks in clusters of galaxies
• Tracing gas motions in the Centaurus Cluster
• Reconciling optical and X-ray mass estimates: the case of the elliptical galaxy NGC3379
• The Near-Infrared Surface Brightness Distribution of NGC4696

Cited by in corpus (19)

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• Optical IFU Observations of the Brightest Cluster Galaxy NGC 4696: The Case for a Minor Merger and Shock-excited Filaments
• The effect of differential galactic winds on the chemical evolution of galaxies
• Metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium over a Hubble time for merging and relaxed galaxy clusters
• Cosmic ray confinement in fossil cluster bubbles
• A volume-limited sample of X-ray galaxy groups and clusters: III. Central abundance drops
• Metal distribution in sloshing galaxy clusters: the case of A496
• Fields and Filaments in the Core of the Centaurus Cluster
• Sound waves in the intracluster medium of the Centaurus cluster
• Possible depletion of metals into dust grains in the core of the Centaurus cluster of galaxies
• Soft and hard X-ray excess emission in Abell 3112 observed with Chandra
• Implications of Coronal Line Emission in NGC 4696
• Hydrostatic gas distributions: global estimates of temperature and abundance
• Are the Effects of Structure Formation Seen in the Central Metallicity of Galaxy Clusters?
• Elemental Abundances of the Hot Atmosphere of Luminous Infrared Galaxy Arp 299
• The relationship between warm and hot gas-phase metallicity in massive elliptical galaxies and the influence of AGN feedback