paper

Clusters of Galaxies: magnetic fields and nonthermal emission

arXiv:astro-ph/9812458 · doi:10.1016/S0927-6505(99)00029-8

Abstract

The nonthermal particle content of galaxy clusters should in part have a cosmological component generated during the early starburst phase of the member galaxies. This is reviewed in the framework of a simple cluster formation model suggested previously. It implies a nonthermal energy fraction of about 10 percent for the Intracluster gas. We also propose a mechanism for the early generation of Intracluster magnetic fields in terms of Galactic Winds. It results in typical field strengths of about 0.1 microGauss. Such comparatively weak fields are consistent with an inverse Compton origin of the excess EUV and hard X-ray emission of the Coma cluster, given the radio synchrotron emission. The required relativistic electrons must have been accelerated rather recently, less than a few billion years ago, presumably in cluster accretion shocks. This is in contrast to the hadronic nonthermal component which accumulates on cosmological time scales, and whose pion-decay TeV gamma-ray emission is expected to be larger, or of the same order as the inverse Compton TeV emission. This gamma-radiation characterizes the energetic history of cluster formation and should be observable with future arrays of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes.

16 pages, 8 figures; invited talk presented at the VERITAS Workshop on TeV Astrophysics of Extragalactic Sources, submitted to Astroparticle Physics

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