Two-Phased Intra-Cluster Medium in the Centaurus Cluster of Galaxies

Abstract

ASCA and ROSAT data of the Centaurus cluster were analyzed. A central excess in the radial brightness profile is found in the hard energy band up to 10keV. This requires a deeper central potential than a King-type one. A double-beta brightness distribution gives a good account of the data. A deprojected energy spectrum within a spherical region of radius 30 kpc at the cluster center indicates that the ICM cannot be isothermal there. Simultaneous fitting of the three (PSPC, GIS, and SIS) energy spectra extracted from the central 3' region showed that a two-temperature model that has temperatures of 1.4keV and 4.4keV and a common metallicity of 1.0 solar with the Galactic absorption gives the best description to the spectra. A cooling-flow spectral model did not give satisfactory fit. A 3-dimensional cluster model incorporating the two-phase picture, the double-beta brightness distribution, and the central metallicity increase reproduced the overall ASCA and ROSAT data successfully. The derived spatial distribution of the dark matter deviates from a King-type profile exhibiting a central excess, which is consistent with the Navvaro-Frenk-White model. The iron is revealed to be more widely spread than stars, which may have been caused by energetic supernovae and the motion of the cD galaxy. Since the derived characteristics of the cool phase including the temperature, angular extent, gas mass, and metallicity, are on a smooth extension of those of inter-stellar medium (ISM) of elliptical galaxies, the cool phase can be regarded as the ISM associated with the cD galaxy. The cool-phase X-ray emission is presumably sustained by energies dissipated by infalling mass to the cD galaxy in the course of cluster evolution.