Discrepant mass estimates in the cluster of galaxies abell 1689

Abstract

We present a new mass estimate of a well studied gravitational lensing cluster, Abell 1689, from deep Chandra observations with a total exposure of 200 ks. Within r = 200 h -1 kpc, the X-ray mass estimate is systematically lower than that of lensing by 30%-50%. At r>200 h -1 kpc, the mass density profiles from X-ray and weak lensing methods give consistent results. The most recent weak lensing work suggests a steeper profile than what is found from the X-ray analysis, while still in agreement with the mass at large radii. Fitting the total mass profile to a Navarro-Frenk-White model, we find M 200 = (1.16+0.45-0.27) × 1015 h -1 M ȯ with a concentration, c 200 = 5.3+1.3-1.2, using nonparametric mass modeling. With parametric profile modeling, we find M 200 = (0.94+0.11-0.06) × 1015 h -1 M ȯ and c 200 = 6.6+0.4-0.4. This is much lower compared to masses deduced from the combined strong and weak lensing analysis. Previous studies have suggested that cooler small-scale structures can bias X-ray temperature measurements or that the northern part of the cluster is disturbed. We find these scenarios unlikely to resolve the central mass discrepancy since the former requires 70%-90% of the space to be occupied by these cool structures, and excluding the northern substructure does not significantly affect the total mass profiles. A more plausible explanation is a projection effect. Assuming that the gas temperature and density profiles have a prolate symmetry, we can bring the X-ray mass estimate into a closer agreement with that of lensing. We also find that the previously reported high hard-band to broadband temperature ratio in A1689, and many other clusters observed with Chandra, may be resulting from the instrumental absorption that decreases 10%-15% of the effective area at 1.75keV. Caution must be taken when analyzing multiple spectral components under this calibration uncertainty. © 2009 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.