A Chandra study of the large-scale shock and cool filaments in Hydra A: Evidence for substantial gas dredge-up by the central outburst

TL;DR

This study uses Chandra X-ray observations to analyze the Hydra A galaxy cluster, revealing a weak shock, cool gas uplift, and substantial gas dredge-up caused by the central AGN outburst, impacting cluster thermodynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed measurement of gas uplift and shock properties in Hydra A, highlighting the role of AGN feedback in redistributing cluster gas.

Findings

Detected a weak shock with Mach number ~1.2-1.3.

Identified ~10^11 solar masses of low-entropy gas uplifted by AGN.

Estimated the energy for gas uplift as >2.2 x 10^60 erg.

Abstract

We present the results of a Chandra study of the Hydra A galaxy cluster, where a powerful AGN outburst created a large-scale cocoon shock. We investigated possible azimuthal variations in shock strength and shape, finding indications for a weak shock with a Mach number in the range ~1.2-1.3. We measured the temperature change across the shock front. However, the detection of a temperature rise in the regions immediately inside of the front is complicated by the underlying temperature profile of the cluster atmosphere. We measured the global temperature profile of the cluster up to 700 kpc, which represents the farthest measurement obtained with Chandra for this cluster. A "plateau" in the temperature profile in the range ~70-150 kpc indicates the presence of cool gas, which is likely the result of uplift of material by the AGN outburst. After masking the cool filaments visible in the hardness ratio map, the plateau disappears and the temperature profile recovers a typical shape with a peak around 190 kpc, just inside the shock front. However, it is unlikely that such a temperature feature is produced by the shock as it is consistent with the general shape of the temperature profiles observed for relaxed galaxy clusters. We studied the spectral properties of the cool filaments finding evidence that ~10^11 M_sun of low-entropy material has been dredged up by the rising lobes from the central 30 kpc to the observed current position of 75-150 kpc. The energy required to lift the cool gas is >~2.2 x 10^60 erg, which is comparable to the work required to inflate the cavities and is ~25% of the total energy of the large-scale shock. Our results show that the AGN feedback in Hydra A is acting not only by directly heating the gas, but also by removing a substantial amount of potential fuel for the SMBH.