Constraints on Cool Gas in Rich Clusters of Galaxies

Abstract

Cool gas should be present in galaxy clusters due to stripping of galactic gas, infall onto the cluster, and from cooling flows. We searched for this gas through resonance absorption line observations from low-ionization metal line gas toward six background quasars. Both cooling flow and non-cooling flow clusters were observed, with lines of sight from the inner to outer parts of the cluster (0.2