On the X-ray and mass distribution in the merging galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56: Ram pressure-stripping in substructures with an NFW density profile

Abstract

We investigated the X-ray and mass distribution in the merging galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56. We also studied head-on collisions of two virialized clusters with an NFW density profile in the ACDM universe using an N-body plus hydrodynamical code. A clear off-set of an X-ray peak from a mass peak, which is like what is reported in Clowe, Gonzalez, and Markevitch (2004), was first reproduced in N-body plus hydrodynamical simulations. We estimated the ram pressure-stripping conditions of the substructure in mergers of two NFW dark halos using a simple analytical model. We find that the ram pressure dominates the gravity of the substructure when the smaller cluster's mass is less than approximately one tenth of the larger cluster's mass. The characteristic X-ray and mass structures found in 1E 0657-56 suggest that neither the ram pressure nor the gravitational bound force overwhelms the other, and that the mass ratio between the progenitors is near the critical value mentioned above. © 2006. Astronomical Society of Japan.