Sliding not sloshing in Abell 3744: the influence of radio galaxies NGC 7018 and 7016 on cluster gas

Abstract

We present new X-ray (Chandra) and radio (JVLA) observations of the nearby cluster Abell 3744. It hosts two prominent radio galaxies with powers in the range critical for radio-mode feedback. The radio emission from these galaxies terminates in buoyant tendrils reaching the cluster's outer edge, and the radio-emitting plasma clearly influences the cluster's X-ray-emitting atmosphere. The cluster's average gas temperature, of kT=3.5 keV, is high for its bolometric luminosity of 3.2 \times 10^{43} ergs s^{-1}, but the 100 kpc-scale cavity carved out by radio-emitting plasma shows evidence of less than 2 per cent of the excess enthalpy. We suggest instead that a high-velocity encounter with a galaxy group is responsible for dispersing and increasing the entropy of the gas in this non-cool-core cluster. We see no evidence for shocks, or established isobaric gas motions (sloshing), but there is much sub-structure associated with a dynamically active central region that encompasses the brightest radio emission. Gas heating is evident in directions perpendicular to the inferred line of encounter between the infalling group and cluster. The radio-emitting tendrils run along boundaries between gas of different temperature, apparently lubricating the gas flows and inhibiting heat transfer. The first stages of the encounter may have helped trigger the radio galaxies into their current phase of activity, where we see X-rays from the nuclei, jets, and hotspots.