Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · astro-ph/0408206

The unusual morphology of the intragroup medium in NGC 5171

John P. F. Osmond·Trevor J. Ponman·Alexis Finoguenov
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We present the results of a 24 ks XMM-Newton observation of the NGC 5171 group of galaxies. NGC 5171 is unusual in that it is an X-ray bright group (L > 10^42 erg/s), with irregular contours which are not centred on a bright galaxy. The global spectrum is adequately described by a single temperature APEC model with T = 0.96 +/- 0.04 keV, and Z = 0.13 +/- 0.02 Zsol, in good agreement with previous ROSAT data. We find the X-ray contours are centred on a bright ridge of emission stretching from the BGG to a nearby galaxy. Spectral mapping reveals this ridge to be both cool (T ~ 1.1 keV) and metallic (Z ~ 0.4 Zsol) in comparison to its surrounding, suggesting it is the result of a tidal interaction between the two galaxies. Optical data reveals the member galaxies to have a high velocity dispersion (sigma = 494 +/- 99 km/s), and a significantly non-Gaussian velocity distribution, suggesting the group is in the process of merging. A region of hot gas with T = 1.58 +/- 0.36 keV is found to the West of the bright central ridge, and we interpret this as shock-heating resulting from the merging. A further region of emission to the South-East of the bright central ridge, with T = 1.14 +/- 0.13 keV, is probably associated with a background group, four times more distant.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

John P. F. Osmond, Trevor J. Ponman, Alexis Finoguenov. 2004-08-11. The unusual morphology of the intragroup medium in NGC 5171. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.08298.x

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2024

Deformation procedure for scalar fields in cosmology

This work offers an extension of the deformation procedure introduced in field theory to the case of standard cosmology in the presence of real scalar field in flat space-time. The procedure is shown to work for many models, which give rise to several different cosmic scenarios, evolving under the presence of first-order differential equations which solve the corresponding equations of motion very appropriately.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2023

Dark Energy is the Cosmological Quantum Vacuum Energy of Light Particles-The Axion and the Lightest Neutrino

We uncover the general mechanism producing the dark energy(DE). This is only based on well known quantum physics and cosmology. We show that the observed DE originates from the cosmological quantum vacuum of light particles which provides a continuous energy distribution able to reproduce the data. Bosons give positive contributions to the DE while fermions yield negative contributions. As usual in field theory, ultraviolet divergences are subtracted from the physical quantities. The subtractions respect the symmetries of the theory and we normalize the physical quantities to be zero for the Minkowski vacuum. The resulting finite contributions to the energy density and the pressure from the quantum vacuum grow as log a(t) where a(t) is the scale factor, while the particle contributions dilute as 1/a^3(t), as it must be for massive particles. The DE equation of state P = w(z)H turns to be w(z)<-1 with w(z) asymptotically reaching the value -1 from below.A scalar particle can produce the observed DE through its quantum cosmological vacuum provided:(i)its mass is of the order of 10^{-3} eV = 1 meV,(ii) it is very weakly coupled and (iii) it is stable on the time scale of the age of the universe. The axion vacuum thus appears as a natural candidate. The neutrino vacuum (especially the lightest mass eigenstate) can give negative contributions to the DE. We find that w(z=0) is slightly below -1 by an amount ranging from [-1.5 10^{-3}] to [-8 10^{-3}] and we predict the axion mass to be in the range between 4 and 5 meV. We find that the universe will expand in the future faster than the de Sitter universe, as an exponential in the square of the cosmic time. DE arises from the quantum vacua of light particles in FRW cosmological space time in an analogous way to the Casimir effect in Minkowski spacetime with non trivial boundaries.

astro-ph↗