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A Detailed Study of the Most Relaxed SPT-selected Galaxy Clusters: Properties of the Cool Core and Central Galaxy

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Abstract

  • We present a multi-wavelength analysis of the four most relaxed clusters in the South Pole Telescope 2500 deg2 survey, which lie at 0.55 survey, which lie at 0.55 survey, which lie at 0.55 survey, which lie at 0.55 survey, which lie at 0.55 in the bulk of the ICM, rising to ∼0.5 Z in the inner ∼100 kpc, and reaching ∼1 Z at r < 10 kpc. This central excess is similar in magnitude to what is observed in the most relaxed clusters at z ∼ 0, suggesting that both the global metallicity and the central excess that we see in cool core clusters at z ∼ 0 were in place very early in the cluster’s lifetime, and specifically that the central excess is not due to late-time enrichment by the central galaxy. Consistent with observations at z ∼ 0, we measure a diversity of stellar populations in the central brightest cluster galaxies of these four clusters, with star formation rates spanning a factor of ∼500, despite the similarities in cooling time, cooling rate, and central entropy. These data suggest that, while the details vary dramatically from system to system, runaway cooling has been broadly regulated in relaxed clusters over the past 6 Gyr.

Publication Date

  • 2019

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