The importance of interloper removal in galaxy clusters: saving more objects for the Jeans analysis

We study the effect of contamination by interlopers in kinematic samples of galaxy clusters. We demonstrate that without the proper removal of interlopers the inferred parameters of the mass distribution in the cluster are strongly biased towards higher mass and lower concentration. The interlopers are removed using two procedures previously shown to work most efficiently on simulated data. One is based on using the virial mass estimator and calculating the maximum velocity available to cluster members and the other relies on the ratio of the virial and projected mass estimators. We illustrate the performance of the methods in detail using the example of A576, a cluster with a strong uniform background contamination, and compare the case of A576 to 15 other clusters with different degree of contamination. We model the velocity dispersion and kurtosis profiles obtained for the cleaned data samples of these clusters solving the Jeans equations to estimate the mass, concentration and anisotropy parameter. We present the mass–concentration relation for the total sample of 22 clusters.     

AGN feedback through sound wave dissipation

We investigate the possibility of explaining the observed ripples in the X-ray gas in the Perseus and Virgo clusters through natural oscillations of a perturbed radio cocoon. Such a perturbation would result from an expanding overpressured cocoon of radio plasma overshooting its pressure equilibrium point with the cluster gas. The oscillations are heavily acoustically damped, and energy injection rates required to sustain them are consistent with observed AGN powers. Viscous dissipation of sound waves generated by these oscillations heats the cluster gas. By comparing our model with observations in Perseus and Virgo, we reproduce the observed ripple separations and amplitudes. Spitzer viscosity is largely sufficient in explaining the gas density profile, suggesting that thermal conductivity is likely to be heavily suppressed. In the central regions, viscous heating can suppress cooling flows on timescales exceeding the radio source lifetime.     

Close encounters in young stellar clusters: implications for planetary systems in the solar neighbourhood

The stars that populate the solar neighbourhood were formed in stellar clusters. Through N -body simulations of these clusters, we measure the rate of close encounters between stars. By monitoring the interaction histories of each star, we investigate the singleton fraction in the solar neighbourhood. A singleton is a star which formed as a single star, has never experienced any close encounters with other stars or binaries, or undergone an exchange encounter with a binary. We find that, of the stars which formed as single stars, a significant fraction is not singletons once the clusters have dispersed. If some of these stars had planetary systems, with properties similar to those of the Solar System, the planets' orbits may have been perturbed by the effects of close encounters with other stars or the effects of a companion star within a binary. Such perturbations can lead to strong planet–planet interactions which eject several planets, leaving the remaining planets on eccentric orbits. Some of the single stars exchange into binaries. Most of these binaries are broken up via subsequent interactions within the cluster, but some remain intact beyond the lifetime of the cluster. The properties of these binaries are similar to those of the observed binary systems containing extrasolar planets. Thus, dynamical processes in young stellar clusters will alter significantly any population of Solar System-like planetary systems. In addition, beginning with a population of planetary systems exactly resembling the Solar System around single stars, dynamical encounters in young stellar clusters may produce at least some of the extrasolar planetary systems observed in the solar neighbourhood.     

Bayesian modelling of the cool core galaxy group NGC 4325

We present an X-ray analysis of the radio-quiet cool-core galaxy group NGC 4325  ( z = 0.026)  based on Chandra and ROSAT observations. The Chandra data were analysed using xspec deprojection, 2D spectral mapping and forward-fitting with parametric models. Additionally, a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method was used to perform a joint Bayesian analysis of the Chandra and ROSAT data. The results of the various analysis methods are compared, particularly those obtained by forward-fitting and deprojection. The spectral mapping reveals the presence of cool gas displaced up to 10 kpc from the group centre. The Chandra X-ray surface brightness shows the group core to be highly disturbed, and indicates the presence of two small X-ray cavities within 15 kpc of the group core. The xspec deprojection analysis shows that the group has a particularly steep entropy profile, suggesting that an active galactic nucleus (AGN) outburst may be about to occur. With the evidence of prior AGN activity, but with no radio emission currently observed, we suggest that the group in a pre-outburst state, with the cavities and displaced gas providing evidence of a previous, weak AGN outburst.