The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect On Elliptical Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper proposes observing the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect on elliptical galaxies to better understand their hot gas content, mass, and dynamics, combining microwave and X-ray data for comprehensive insights.

Contribution

It introduces a method to observe the SZ effect on elliptical galaxies, enabling new measurements of galactic gas properties and motions.

Findings

Observation of SZ effect on elliptic galaxies is feasible.

Combining SZ and X-ray data can reveal galaxy gas properties.

Kinematic SZ effect can provide information on galaxy rotation and gas flows.

Abstract

The history of discovering of hot gas in galaxies is traced briefly, its main properties are described and the desirability to make them more precise, in particular to obtain additional data on the mass of such gas is pointed out. For this purpose observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect on hot gas of coronas of elliptic galaxies are proposed. The absolute and relative disturbances of the cosmic microwave radiation spectrum due to scattering of relic photons by Maxwellian electrons are calculated according the formula of the article. With the example of three elliptic galaxies it is shown that observation of the SZ effect on such galaxies is quite possible. Kinematic SZ effect arising due to peculiar movement and rotation of galaxies is available for observation as well. Such observations combined with X-ray data would make it possible to get more about properties of galactic gas, to obtain additional information on rotation of galaxies, on possible accreting gas flows and on hot galactic wind.