arXiv subjects

C. L. Sarazin

Publications and source records attributed to C. L. Sarazin.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Evidence for Non-Hydrostatic Gas Motions in the Hot ISM of Centaurus A

We present preliminary results from a deep (600 ks) {\em Chandra} observation of the hot interstellar medium of the nearby early-type galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A). We find a surface brightness discontinuity in the gas $\sim$3.5 kpc from the nucleus spanning a 120$^\circ$ arc. The temperature of the gas is 0.60$\pm$0.05 and 0.68$\pm$0.10 keV, interior and exterior to the discontinuity, respectively. The elemental abundance is poorly constrained by the spectral fits, but if the abundance is constant across the discontinuity, there is a factor of 2.3$\pm$0.4 pressure jump across the discontinuity. This would imply that the gas is moving at 470$\pm$100 km s$^{-1}$, or Mach 1.0$\pm$0.2 (1.2$\pm$0.2) relative to the sound speed of the gas external (internal) to the discontinuity. Alternatively, pressure balance could be maintained if there is a large (factor of $\sim$7) discontinuity in the elemental abundance. We suggest that the observed discontinuity is the result of non-hydrostatic motion of the gas core (i.e. sloshing) due to the recent merger. In this situation, both gas motions and abundance gradients are important in the visibility of the discontinuity. Cen A is in the late stages of merging with a small late-type galaxy, and a large discontinuity in density and abundance across a short distance demonstrates that the gas of the two galaxies remains poorly mixed even several hundred million years after the merger. The pressure discontinuity may have had a profound influence on the temporal evolution of the kpc-scale jet. The jet could have decollimated crossing the discontinuity and thereby forming the northeast radio lobe.

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arXiv2007

Where Centaurus A gets its X-ray knottiness

We report an X-ray spectral study of the transverse structure of the Centaurus A jet using new data from the Chandra Cen A Very Large Project. We find that the spectrum steepens with increasing distance from the jet axis, and that this steepening can be attributed to a change in the average spectrum of the knotty emission. Such a trend is unexpected if the knots are predominantly a surface feature residing in a shear layer between faster and slower flows. We suggest that the spectral steepening of the knot emission as a function of distance from the jet axis is due to knot migration, implying a component of transverse motion of knots within the flow.

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arXiv2007

New results on particle acceleration in the Centaurus A jet and counterjet from a deep Chandra observation

We present new deep Chandra observations of the Centaurus A jet, with a combined on-source exposure time of 719 ks. These data allow detailed X-ray spectral measurements to be made along the jet out to its disappearance at 4.5 kpc from the nucleus. We distinguish several regimes of high-energy particle acceleration: while the inner part of the jet is dominated by knots and has properties consistent with local particle acceleration at shocks, the particle acceleration in the outer 3.4 kpc of the jet is likely to be dominated by an unknown distributed acceleration mechanism. In addition to several compact counterjet features we detect probable extended emission from a counterjet out to 2.0 kpc from the nucleus, and argue that this implies that the diffuse acceleration process operates in the counterjet as well. A preliminary search for X-ray variability finds no jet knots with dramatic flux density variations, unlike the situation seen in M87.

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arXiv2006

Swift detects a remarkable gamma-ray burst, GRB 060614, that introduces a new classification scheme

Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are known to come in two duration classes, separated at ~2 s. Long bursts originate from star forming regions in galaxies, have accompanying supernovae (SNe) when near enough to observe and are likely caused by massive-star collapsars. Recent observations show that short bursts originate in regions within their host galaxies with lower star formation rates consistent with binary neutron star (NS) or NS - black hole (BH) mergers. Moreover, although their hosts are predominantly nearby galaxies, no SNe have been so far associated with short GRBs. We report here on the bright, nearby GRB 060614 that does not fit in either class. Its ~102 s duration groups it with long GRBs, while its temporal lag and peak luminosity fall entirely within the short GRB subclass. Moreover, very deep optical observations exclude an accompanying supernova, similar to short GRBs. This combination of a long duration event without accompanying SN poses a challenge to both a collapsar and merging NS interpretation and opens the door on a new GRB classification scheme that straddles both long and short bursts.

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arXiv2005

An origin for short g-ray bursts unassociated with current star formation

Two short (<2 s) g-ray bursts (GRBs) have recently been localized and fading afterglow counterparts detected. The combination of these two results left unclear the nature of the host galaxies of the bursts, because one was a star-forming dwarf, while the other was probably an elliptical galaxy. Here we report the X-ray localization of a short burst (GRB 050724) with unusual g-ray and X-ray properties. The X-ray afterglow lies off the centre of an elliptical galaxy at a redshift of z=0.258, coincident with the position determined by ground-based optical and radio observations. The low level of star formation typical for elliptical galaxies makes it unlikely that the burst originated n a supernova explosion. A supernova origin was also ruled out for GRB 050709, even though that burst took place in a galaxy with current star formation. The isotropic energy for the short bursts is 2-3 orders of magnitude lower han that for the long bursts. Our results therefore suggest that an alternative source of bursts -- the of binary systems of neutron stars or a neutron star-black hole pair -- are the progenitors of short bursts.

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arXiv2005

Low Frequency Radio Observations of X-ray Ghost Bubbles in Abell 2597: A History of Radio Activity in the Core

A previous analysis of the Chandra X-ray image of the center of the cooling core cluster Abell 2597 showed two ``ghost holes'' in the X-ray emission to the west and northeast of the central radio galaxy PKS 2322-123. Previous radio observations did not detect any radio emission coming from the interior of the X-ray holes. We present new low frequency radio observations of Abell 2597. At 330 MHz, radio emission extends into the interior of the western ghost bubble, but not the northeast one. Our re-analysis of the archival Chandra data shows evidence for an X-ray tunnel (elongated region of reduced X-ray emission) extending from near the center of the cD out to the west ghost bubble. We also detect a smaller X-ray hole to the northeast of the center of the cD and closer than the outer ghost bubbles. Radio observations at 1.3 GHz show extensions to the west along the X-ray tunnel toward the west ghost bubble, to the northeast into the new X-ray hole, and to the northwest. All of these structures are much larger than the two inner radio lobes seen previously at 8 GHz. The X-ray tunnel suggests that the west ghost bubble is part of a continuous flow of radio plasma out from the active galactic nucleus, rather than a detached buoyant old radio lobe, and thus it may be an intermediate case between an active radio galaxy and a buoyant lobe.

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arXiv2004

Heating a Distant Galaxy Cluster by Giant X-ray Cavities and Large-Scale Shock Fronts

We report the discovery of a pair of giant cavities, each nearly 200 kpc in diameter, embedded in the gaseous halo of the redshift z=0.216 galaxy cluster MS0735.6+7421. The cavities appear as surface brightness depressions in an image of the cluster taken with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The X-ray cavities are filled with radio emission and are bounded by an elliptical shock structure resembling a ``radio cocoon.'' The shock's energy and age, ~6E61 erg and ~100 Myr, respectively, give a time averaged power of ~1.7E46 erg/s, making it the most powerful radio outburst known. The outburst is apparently heating the cluster by 1/3 keV per particle, which is sufficient to quench a large cooling flow for several Gyr and to supply a substantial fraction of the energy required to "preheat" the cluster. If the outburst was powered by accretion onto a supermassive black hole, more than 3E8 solar masses of material would be required to do so. This implies that the putative supermassive black hole lying at the center of the cD galaxy has accreted a substantial fraction of its own mass in less than 100 Myr.

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arXiv2004

A Chandra X-ray Observation of Abell 1991: The Late Stages of Infall?

We present results from a 38 ks Chandra X-ray observation of the z=0.059 galaxy cluster A1991. The cluster has a bright X-ray core and a central temperature gradient that declines inward from 2.7 keV at 130 kpc to approximately 1.6 keV at the cluster center. The radiative cooling time of the gas in the inner 10 kpc is about 0.5 Gyr, and rises to 1 Gyr at a radius of 20 kpc. The cooling rate of the gas within the latter radius is less than about 25 solar mass/yr. The Chandra ACIS-S3 image shows that the intracluster medium has an asymmetric surface brightness distribution with respect to the central galaxy. Bright knots of soft X-ray emission embedded in a cometary structure are located approximately 10 arcsec north of the optical center of the cD galaxy. Unlike the structures seen in other cooling flow clusters, the knots have no obvious association with the radio source. The structure's temperature of 0.83 keV makes it nearly 1 keV cooler than its surroundings, and its mass is 3.4E+09 solar masses. Based on its bow-shaped appearance and modest overpressure with respect to its surroundings, we interpret the structure as a cool mass concentration that is breaking apart as it travels northward through the center of the cluster.

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arXiv2003

X-ray Absorption Toward Abell 2029 due to a Foreground Spiral

We have detected an X-ray absorption feature against the core of the galaxy cluster Abell 2029 (z=0.0767) which we identify with the foreground galaxy UZC J151054.6+054313 (z=0.0221). Optical observations (B, V, R, and I) indicate that it is an Scd galaxy seen nearly edge-on at an inclination of 87 \pm 3 degrees. HI observations give a rotation velocity of 108 kms and an atomic hydrogen mass of M_{HI} = 3.1 X 10^9 d_{90}^2 \msun, where d_{90} is the distance to the galaxy in units of 90 Mpc. X-ray spectral fits to the Chandra absorption feature yield a hydrogen column density of (2.0 \pm 0.4) X 10^{21} cm^{-2} assuming solar abundances. If the absorber is uniformly distributed over the disk of the galaxy, the implied hydrogen mass is M_H = (6.2 \pm 1.2) X 10^8 d_{90}^2 \msun. Since the absorbing gas in the galaxy is probably concentrated to the center of the galaxy and the middle of the disk, this is a lower limit to the total hydrogen mass. On the other hand, the absorption measurements imply that the dark matter in UZC J151054.6+054313 is not distributed in a relatively uniform diffuse gas.

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arXiv2003

Chandra Observation of Diffuse Gas and LMXBs in the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4649 (M60)

We present a Chandra X-ray observation of the X-ray bright E2 elliptical galaxy NGC4649. In addition to bright diffuse emission, we resolve 165 discrete sources, most of which are presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). As found in previous studies, the luminosity function of the resolved sources is well-fit by a broken power-law. In NGC4697 and NGC1553, the break luminosity was comparable to the Eddington luminosity of a $1.4 M_{\odot}$ neutron star. One possible interpretation of this result is that those sources with luminosities above the break are accreting black holes and those below are mainly accreting neutron stars. The total X-ray spectrum of the resolved sources is well-fit by a hard power-law, while the diffuse spectrum requires a hard and a soft component, presumably due to the relatively soft diffuse gas and the harder unresolved sources. We also find evidence for structure in the diffuse emission near the center of NGC4649. Specifically, there appear to be bright "fingers" of emission extending from the center of the galaxy and a 5 arcsec long bar at the center of the galaxy. The fingers are morphologically similar to radial features seen in two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of cooling flows in elliptical galaxies, and although their other properties do not match the predictions of the particular simulations used we conclude that the radial fingers might be due to convective motions of hot outflowing gas and cooler inflowing gas. The bar is coincident with the central extended radio source; we conclude that the bar may be caused by weak shocks in the diffuse gas from an undetected low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN).

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arXiv2003

Chandra Observation of the Merging Cluster Abell 2034

We present an analysis of a Chandra observation of Abell 2034. The cluster has multiple signatures of an ongoing merger, including a cold front and probable significant heating of the intracluster medium above its equilibrium temperature. We find no evidence for the large cooling rate previously determined for the cluster, and in fact find it to be roughly isothermal, though with numerous small-scale inhomogeneities, out to a radius of ~700 kpc. The cold front appears to be in the process of being disrupted by gas dynamic instability and perhaps by shock heating. We find weak evidence for Inverse Compton hard X-ray emission from the radio relic suspected to be associated with the cold front. Finally, we study the emission to the south of the cluster, which was previously thought to be a merging subcluster. We find no evidence that this "subcluster" is interacting with the main Abell 2034 cluster. On the other hand, the properties of this region are inconsistent with an equilibrium cluster at the redshift of Abell 2034 or less. We explore the possibility that it is a disrupted merging subcluster, but find its luminosity to be significantly lower than expected for such a scenario. We suggest that the emission to the south of the cluster may actually be a moderate to high redshift (0.3 < z < 1.25) background cluster seen in projection against Abell 2034.

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arXiv2001

Discovery of Ghost Cavities in Abell 2597's X-ray Atmosphere

A Chandra image of the central 100 kpc of the Abell 2597 cluster of galaxies shows bright, irregular, X-ray emission within the central dominant cluster galaxy (CDG), and two low surface brightness cavities located 30 kpc from the CDG's nucleus. Unlike the cavities commonly seen in other clusters, Abell 2597's ``ghost'' cavities are not coincident with the bright central radio source. Instead, they appear to be associated with faint, extended radio emission seen in a deep VLA radio map. We interpret the ghost cavities as buoyantly-rising relics of a radio outburst that occurred between 50--100 Myr ago. The demography of cavities in the few clusters studied thus far shows that galactic radio sources experience recurrent outbursts on a $\sim 100$ Myr timescale. Over the lifetime of a cluster, ghost cavities emerging from CDGs deposit $\gae 10^{59-61}$ erg of energy into the intracluster medium. If a significant fraction of this energy is deposited as magnetic field, it would account for the high field strengths in the cooling flow regions of clusters. The similarity between the central cooling time of the keV gas and the radio cycling timescale suggests that feedback between cooling gas and the radio source may be retarding or quenching the cooling flow.

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arXiv2001

Diffuse Gas and LMXBs in the Chandra Observation of the S0 Galaxy NGC 1553

We have spatially and spectrally resolved the sources of X-ray emission from the X-ray faint S0 galaxy NGC 1553 using an observation from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The majority (70%) of the emission in the 0.3 - 10.0 keV band is diffuse, and the remaining 30% is resolved into 49 discrete sources. Most of the discrete sources associated with the galaxy appear to be low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). The luminosity function of the LMXB sources is well-fit by a broken power-law with a break luminosity comparable to the Eddington luminosity for a 1.4 solar mass neutron star. It is likely that those sources with luminosities above the break are accreting black holes and those below are mostly neutron stars in binary systems. Spectra were extracted for the total emission, diffuse emission, and sum of the resolved sources; the spectral fits for all require a model including both a soft and hard component. The diffuse emission is predominately soft while the emission from the sources is mostly hard. Approximately 24% of the diffuse emission arises from unresolved LMXBs, with the remainder resulting from thermal emission from hot gas. There is a very bright source at the projected position of the nucleus of the galaxy. The spectrum and luminosity derived from this central source are consistent with it being an AGN; the galaxy also is a weak radio source. Finally, the diffuse emission exhibits significant substructure with an intriguing spiral feature passing through the center of the galaxy. The X-ray spectrum and surface brightness of the spiral feature are consistent with adiabatic or shock compression of ambient gas, but not with cooling. This feature may be due to compression of the hot interstellar gas by radio lobes or jets associated with the AGN.

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arXiv2000

New Perspectives on Cooling Flows and Cluster Radio Sources

We discuss new results from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton on cluster cooling flows, emphasizing early results from our Chandra programs. We find cooling rates reduced by factors of 5-10 compared to those from earlier missions. Nevertheless, substantial amounts of keV gas appear to be cooling and fueling star formation in central dominant cluster galaxies (CDGs). The structure of the keV thermal gas is remarkably complex, particularly in regions surrounding the the radio source and sites of star formation in CDGs. The radio sources are displacing the thermal gas leaving cavities filled with radio emission. The cavities are apparently supported against the local gas pressure by magnetic fields and cosmic rays. In addition, radio-faint, ``ghost'' cavities are seen in some clusters. They may be relics of earlier radio outbursts rising buoyantly in the intracluster medium. The radio sources may reduce the mass deposition rates by mechanical heating, and by inducing convective currents that move cool material outward.

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arXiv2000

Chandra X-ray Observations of the Hydra A Cluster: An Interaction Between the Radio Source and the X-Ray-Emitting Gas

We present Chandra X-ray Observations of the Hydra A cluster of galaxies, and we report the discovery of structure in the central 80 kpc of the cluster's X-ray-emitting gas. The most remarkable structures are depressions in the X-ray surface brightness, $\sim 25-35$ kpc diameter, that are coincident with Hydra A's radio lobes. The depressions are nearly devoid of X-ray-emitting gas, and there is no evidence for shock-heated gas surrounding the radio lobes. We suggest the gas within the surface brightness depressions was displaced as the radio lobes expanded subsonically, leaving cavities in the hot atmosphere. The gas temperature declines from 4 keV at 70 kpc to 3 keV in the inner 20 kpc of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), and the cooling time of the gas is $\sim 600$ Myr in the inner 10 kpc. These properties are consistent with the presence of a $\sim 34 \msunyr$ cooling flow within a 70 kpc radius. Bright X-ray emission is present in the BCG surrounding a recently-accreted disk of nebular emission and young stars. The star formation rate is commensurate with the cooling rate of the hot gas within the volume of the disk, although the sink for the material cooling at larger radii remains elusive.

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arXiv1999

X-ray Properties of the Abell 644 Cluster of Galaxies

We use new ASCA observations and archival ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) data to determine the X-ray spectral properties of the intracluster gas in Abell 644. From the overall spectrum, we determine the average gas temperature to be 8.64 (+0.67,-0.56) keV, and an abundance of 0.32 (+/-0.04) $Z_{\odot}$. The global ASCA and ROSAT spectra imply a cooling rate of 214 (+100,-91) $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. The PSPC X-ray surface brightness profile and the ASCA data suggest a somewhat higher cooling rate. We determine the gravitational mass and gas mass as a function of radius. The total gravitating mass within 1.2 Mpc is $6.2\times10^{14}$ $M_{\odot}$, of which 20% is in the form of hot gas. There is a region of elevated temperature 1.5-5 arcmin to the west of the cluster center. The south-southwest region of the cluster also shows excess emission in the ROSAT PSPC X-ray image, aligned with the major axis of the optical cD galaxy in the center of the cluster. We argue that the cluster is undergoing or has recently undergone a minor merger. The combination of a fairly strong cooling flow and evidence for a merger make this cluster an interesting case to test the disruption of cooling flow in mergers.

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arXiv1999

The Extended Blue Continuum and Line Emission around the Central Radio Galaxy in Abell 2597

We present results from detailed imaging of the centrally dominant radio elliptical galaxy in the cooling flow cluster Abell 2597, using data obtained with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This object is one of the archetypal "blue-lobed" cooling flow radio elliptical galaxies, also displaying a luminous emission-line nebula, a compact radio source, and a significant dust lane and evidence of molecular gas in its center. We show that the radio source is surrounded by a complex network of emission-line filaments, some of which display a close spatial association with the outer boundary of the radio lobes. We present a detailed analysis of the physical properties of ionized and neutral gas associated with the radio lobes, and show that their properties are strongly suggestive of direct interactions between the radio plasma and ambient gas. We resolve the blue continuum emission into a series of knots and clumps, and present evidence that these are most likely due to regions of recent star formation. We investigate several possible triggering mechanisms for the star formation, including direct interactions with the radio source, filaments condensing from the cooling flow, or the result of an interaction with a gas-rich galaxy, which may also have been responsible for fueling the active nucleus. We propose that the properties of the source are plausibly explained in terms of accretion of gas by the cD during an interaction with a gas-rich galaxy, which combined with the fact that this object is located at the center of a dense, high-pressure ICM can account for the high rates of star formation and the strong confinement of the radio source.

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arXiv1999

Physics of the Merging Clusters Cygnus A, A3667, and A2065

We present ASCA gas temperature maps of the nearby merging galaxy clusters Cygnus A, A3667, and A2065. Cygnus A appears to have a particularly simple merger geometry that allows an estimate of the subcluster collision velocity from the observed temperature variations. We estimate it to be ~2000 km/s. Interestingly, this is similar to the free-fall velocity that the two Cygnus A subclusters should have achieved at the observed separation, suggesting that merger has been effective in dissipating the kinetic energy of gas halos into thermal energy, without channeling its major fraction elsewhere (e.g., into turbulence). In A3667, we may be observing a spatial lag between the shock front seen in the X-ray image and the corresponding rise of the electron temperature. A lag of the order of hundreds of kiloparsecs is possible due to the combination of thermal conduction and a finite electron-ion equilibration time. Forthcoming better spatial resolution data will allow a direct measurement of these phenomena using such lags. A2065 has gas density peaks coincident with two central galaxies. A merger with the collision velocity estimated from the temperature map should have swept away such peaks if the subcluster total mass distributions had flat cores in the centers. The fact that the peaks have survived (or quickly reemerged) suggests that the gravitational potential also is strongly peaked. Finally, the observed specific entropy variations in A3667 and Cygnus A indicate that energy injection from a single major merger may be of the order of the full thermal energy of the gas. We hope that these order of magnitude estimates will encourage further work on hydrodynamic simulations, as well as more quantitative representation of the simulation results.

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