Rotation and turbulence of the hot intracluster medium in galaxy clusters

Abstract

Cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters typically find that the weight of a cluster at a given radius is not balanced entirely by the thermal gas pressure of the hot intracluster medium (ICM), with theoretical studies emphasizing the role of random turbulent motions to provide the necessary additional pressure support. Using a set of high-resolution, hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters that include radiative cooling and star formation and are formed in a cold dark matter (CDM) universe, we find instead that in the most relaxed clusters rotational support exceeds that from random turbulent motions for radii 0.1-0.5 r 500, while at larger radii, out to 0.8 r 500, they remain comparable. We also find that the X-ray images of the ICM flatten prominently over a wide radial range, 0.1-0.4 r 500. When compared with the average ellipticity profile of the observed X-ray images computed for nine relaxed nearby clusters, we find that the observed clusters are much rounder than the relaxed CDM clusters within 0.4 r 500. Moreover, while the observed clusters display an average ellipticity profile that does not vary significantly with radius, the ellipticity of the relaxed CDM clusters declines markedly with increasing radius, suggesting that the ICM of the observed clusters rotates less rapidly than that of the relaxed CDM clusters out to 0.6 r 500. When these results are compared with those obtained from a simulation without radiative cooling, we find a cluster ellipticity profile in much better agreement with the observations, implying that overcooling has a substantial impact on the gasdynamics and morphology out to larger radii than previously recognized. It also suggests that the 10-20% systematic errors from nonthermal gas pressure support reported for simulated cluster masses, obtained from fitting simulated X-ray data over large radial ranges within r 500, may need to be revised downward. These results demonstrate the utility of X-ray ellipticity profiles as a probe of ICM rotation and overcooling which should be used to constrain future cosmological cluster simulations. © 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..