Iron abundance in the ICM at high redshift

Abstract

We present the analysis of the X-ray spectra of 18 distant clusters of galaxies with redshift 0.3 < z < 1.3. Most of them were observed with the Chandra satellite in long exposures ranging from 36 ks to 180 ks. For two of the z>1 clusters we also use deep XMM-Newton observations. Overall, these clusters probe the temperature range 3 =0.8 is Z =0.25 +0.04 -0.06 Zo, consistent with the local canonical metallicity value, Z ~0.3 Zo, within 1sigma confidence level. Medium and low temperature clusters (kT <5 keV) tend to have larger iron abundances than hot clusters. At redshift ~1.2 (4 clusters at z>1) we obtain a statistically significant detection of the Fe-K line only in one cluster (Z>0.10 Zo at the 90% c.l.). Combining all the current data set from Chandra and XMM at z>1, the average metallicity is measured to be = 0.21 +0.10 -0.05 Zo (1sigma error), thus suggesting no evolution of the mean iron abundance out to z~1.2.