Starbursting brightest cluster galaxy: A Herschel view of the massive cluster MACS J1931.8-2634

Abstract

We investigate the dust-obscured star formation (SF) properties of the massive, X-ray-selected galaxy cluster MACS J1931.8-2634 at z = 0.352. Using far-infrared (FIR) imaging in the range 100-500 μm obtained with the Herschel telescope, we extract 31 sources (2σ) within r ~ 1 Mpc from the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). Among these sources, we identify six clustermembers for whichwe perform an analysis of their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). We measure total infrared luminosity (LIR), star formation rate (SFR) and dust temperature. The BCG, with LIR = 1.4 × 1012 Lo˙ is an ultraluminous infrared galaxy and hosts a type-II active galactic nuclei (AGN).We decompose its FIR SED into AGN and starburst components and find equal contributions from AGN and starburst. We also recompute the SFR of the BCG finding SFR = 150 ± 15 Mo˙ yr-1. We search for an isobaric cooling flow in the cool core using Chandra X-ray data, and find no evidence for gas colder than 1.8 keV in the inner 30 kpc, for an upper limit to the instantaneous mass-deposition rate of 58 Mo˙ yr-1 at 95 per cent c.l. This value is 3× lower than the SFR in the BCG, suggesting that the on-going SF episode lasts longer than the intracluster medium cooling events.