Observations of metals in the intra-cluster medium

TL;DR

This paper reviews how X-ray observations of galaxy clusters' hot plasma reveal the chemical composition and enrichment history of the Universe, providing insights into nucleosynthesis, supernova models, and star formation.

Contribution

It summarizes the progress and limitations of measuring intra-cluster medium abundances and discusses their implications for cosmological models.

Findings

X-ray measurements reveal metal abundances in galaxy clusters.

Cluster abundances constrain supernova nucleosynthesis models.

Observations provide insights into the Universe's star-formation history.

Abstract

Because of their deep gravitational potential wells, clusters of galaxies retain all the metals produced by the stellar populations of the member galaxies. Most of these metals reside in the hot plasma which dominates the baryon content of clusters. This makes them excellent laboratories for the study of the nucleosynthesis and chemical enrichment history of the Universe. Here we review the history, current possibilities and limitations of the abundance studies, and the present observational status of X-ray measurements of the chemical composition of the intra-cluster medium. We summarise the latest progress in using the abundance patterns in clusters to put constraints on theoretical models of supernovae and we show how cluster abundances provide new insights into the star-formation history of the Universe.