Reconstruction of Gas Temperature and Density Profiles of the Galaxy Cluster RX J1347.5-1145

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to reconstruct galaxy cluster gas temperature and density profiles using Sunyaev-Zel'dovich and X-ray data, avoiding assumptions like hydrostatic equilibrium, and applies it to RX J1347.5-1145.

Contribution

It introduces a direct observational reconstruction method for galaxy cluster gas profiles that does not rely on additional assumptions such as hydrostatic equilibrium.

Findings

Effective reconstruction of gas profiles demonstrated on RX J1347.5-1145.

Statistical errors estimated based on observational uncertainties.

Method shows promise for analyzing other galaxy clusters.

Abstract

We use observations of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and X-ray surface brightness to reconstruct the radial profiles of gas temperature and density under the assumption of a spherically symmetric distribution of the gas. The method of reconstruction, first raised by Silk & White, depends directly on the observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and the X-ray surface brightness, without involving additional assumptions such as the equation of state of the gas or the conditions of hydrostatic equilibrium. We applied this method to the cluster RX J1347.5-1145, which has both the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and X-ray observations with relative high precision. It is shown that it will be an effective method to obtain the gas distribution in galaxy clusters. Statistical errors of the derived temperature and density profiles of gas were estimated according to the observational uncertainties.