A Simple Physical Model for the Gas Distribution in Galaxy Clusters

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new, physically motivated model for galaxy cluster gas distribution that uses fewer parameters than traditional models but better fits observed data across wide radial ranges.

Contribution

It proposes a simple, physically-based family of gas density profiles that outperform the beta-model in describing galaxy cluster gas distributions.

Findings

The new model fits observed gas profiles more accurately.

It reduces the number of parameters needed for modeling.

The model is grounded in cosmological and physical principles.

Abstract

The dominant baryonic component of galaxy clusters is hot gas whose distribution is commonly probed through X-ray emission arising from thermal bremsstrahlung. The density profile thus obtained has been traditionally modeled with a beta-profile, a simple function with only three parameters. However, this model is known to be insufficient for characterizing the range of cluster gas distributions, and attempts to rectify this shortcoming typically introduce additional parameters to increase the fitting flexibility. We use cosmological and physical considerations to obtain a family of profiles for the gas with fewer parameters than the beta-model but which better accounts for observed gas profiles over wide radial intervals.