Preliminary Evidence for a Virial Shock around the Coma Galaxy Cluster

Abstract

Galaxy clusters, the largest gravitationally bound objects in the universe, are thought to grow by accreting mass from their surroundings through large-scale virial shocks. Due to electron acceleration in such a shock, it should appear as a γ -ray, hard X-ray, and radio ring, elongated toward the large-scale filaments feeding the cluster, coincident with a cutoff in the thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) signal. However, no such signature was found until now, and the very existence of cluster virial shocks has remained a theory. We find preliminary evidence for a large γ -ray ring of minor axis around the Coma cluster, elongated toward the large-scale filament connecting Coma and Abell 1367, detected at the nominal confidence level ( using control signal simulations). The γ -ray ring correlates both with a synchrotron signal and with the SZ cutoff, but not with Galactic tracers. The γ -ray and radio signatures agree with analytic and numerical predictions if the shock deposits of the thermal energy in relativistic electrons over a Hubble time and in magnetic fields. The implied inverse Compton and synchrotron cumulative emission from similar shocks can contribute significantly to the diffuse extragalactic γ -ray and low-frequency radio backgrounds. Our results, if confirmed, reveal the prolate structure of the hot gas in Coma, the feeding pattern of the cluster, and properties of the surrounding large-scale voids and filaments. The anticipated detection of such shocks around other clusters would provide a powerful new cosmological probe.