The Effect of Environment on the Formation of Halpha Filaments and Cool Cores in Galaxy Groups and Clusters

TL;DR

This study investigates how the environment influences the formation of Halpha filaments and cool cores in galaxy groups and clusters, revealing their strong link to ICM cooling properties and system mass.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive comparison of Halpha filaments in galaxy groups and clusters, highlighting their correlation with ICM cooling and entropy, and the mass dependence of cooling efficiency.

Findings

Halpha filaments are similarly present in groups and clusters.

Filament presence correlates strongly with ICM entropy and cooling rate.

Cooling efficiency increases in lower-mass systems, like groups.

Abstract

We present the results of a combined X-ray and Halpha study of 10 galaxy groups and 17 galaxy clusters using the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Maryland Magellan Tunable Filter. We find no difference in the morphology or detection frequency of Halpha filaments in groups versus clusters, over the mass range 10^13 < M_500 < 10^15 Msun. The detection frequency of Halpha emission is shown to be only weakly dependent on the total mass of the system, at the 52% confidence level. In contrast, we find that the presence of Halpha filaments is strongly correlated with both the global (89% confidence level) and core (84%) ICM entropy, as well as the X-ray cooling rate (72%). The Halpha filaments are therefore an excellent proxy for the cooling ICM. The Halpha filaments are more strongly correlated with the cooling properties of the ICM than with the radio properties of the BCG; this further supports the scenario where these filaments are directly associated with a thermally-unstable, rapidly cooling ICM, rather than radio bubbles. The ICM cooling efficiency, defined as the X-ray cooling rate per unit gas mass, is shown to correlate with the total system mass, indicating that groups are more efficient at cooling than clusters. This result implies that, in systems with cool cores, AGN feedback scales with the total mass of the system, in agreement with earlier suggestions.