An H$\alpha$/X-ray orphan cloud as a signpost of the intracluster medium clumping

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of an isolated Hα/X-ray cloud in Abell 1367, providing direct evidence linking stripped interstellar medium to intracluster medium clumping and suggesting new ways to probe ICM properties.

Contribution

It presents the first known Hα/X-ray orphan cloud, demonstrating the connection between stripped ISM and ICM clumping, and proposing Hα surveys as a tool for studying ICM inhomogeneities.

Findings

The cloud has a radius of 30 kpc and a temperature of 1.6 keV.

The cloud shows a velocity gradient with low turbulence (~80 km/s).

The cloud exhibits little star formation and a LI(N)ER-like spectrum.

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted the potential significance of intracluster medium (ICM) clumping and its important implications for cluster cosmology and baryon physics. Many of the ICM clumps can originate from infalling galaxies, as stripped interstellar medium (ISM) mixing into the hot ICM. However, a direct connection between ICM clumping and stripped ISM has not been unambiguously established before. Here we present the discovery of the first and still the only known isolated cloud (or orphan cloud, OC) detected in both X-rays and H$\alpha$ in the nearby cluster Abell 1367. With an effective radius of 30 kpc, this cloud has an average X-ray temperature of 1.6 keV, a bolometric X-ray luminosity of $\sim 3.1\times 10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and a hot gas mass of $\sim 10^{10}\ {\rm M}_\odot$. From the MUSE data, the OC shows an interesting velocity gradient nearly along the east-west direction with a low level of velocity dispersion of $\sim 80$ km/s, which may suggest a low level of the ICM turbulence. The emission line diagnostics suggest little star formation in the main H$\alpha$ cloud and a LI(N)ER-like spectrum, but the excitation mechanism remain unclear. This example shows that the stripped ISM, even long time after the initial removal from the galaxy, can still induce the ICM inhomogeneities. We suggest that magnetic field can stabilize the OC by suppressing hydrodynamic instabilities and thermal conduction. This example also suggests that at least some ICM clumps are multi-phase in nature and implies that the ICM clumps can also be traced in H$\alpha$. Thus, future deep and wide-field H$\alpha$ survey can be used to probe the ICM clumping and turbulence.