X-ray emission in IllustrisTNG circum-cluster environments. II -- Possible origins of the soft X-ray excess emission

TL;DR

This study uses cosmological simulations to explore the origins of soft X-ray excess in galaxy clusters, finding it is mainly produced by warm gas structures like WCGM and WHIM, and correlates with cluster dynamical state.

Contribution

It is the first to systematically analyze the soft X-ray excess origins across cluster environments using TNG300 simulations, linking it to specific gas phases and cluster dynamics.

Findings

Soft X-ray excess correlates with warm gas substructures within clusters.

Diffuse WHIM filaments outside clusters contribute significantly to the excess.

Unrelaxed clusters tend to show larger soft X-ray excess.

Abstract

An excess of soft X-ray emission (0.2-1 keV) above the contribution from the hot intra-cluster medium (ICM) has been detected in a number of galaxy clusters, including the Coma cluster. The physical origin of this emitting medium above hot ICM has not yet been determined, especially whether it be thermal or non-thermal. We aim to investigate which gas phase and gas structure more accurately reproduce the soft excess radiation from the cluster core to the outskirts, using simulations. By using the simulation TNG300, we predict the radial profile of thermodynamic properties and the Soft-X-ray surface brightness of 138 clusters within 5 $R_{200}$. Their X-ray emission is simulated for the hot ICM gas phase, the entire Warm-Hot medium, the diffuse and low-density Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM). Inside clusters, the soft excess appears to be produced by substructures of the WARM gas phase which host dense warm clumps (i.e, the Warm Circum-Galactic Medium, WCGM), and in fact the inner soft excess is strongly correlated with substructure and WCGM mass fractions. Outside of the virial radius, the fraction of WHIM gas that is mostly inside filaments connected to clusters boosts the soft X-ray excess. The more diffuse the gas is, the higher the soft X-ray excess beyond the virial region. The thermal emission of WARM gas phase, in the form of WCGM clumps and WHIM diffuse filaments, reproduces well the soft excess emission that was observed up to the virial radius in Coma and in the inner regions of other massive clusters. Moreover, our analysis suggests that soft X-ray excess is a proxy of cluster dynamical state, with larger excess being observed in the most unrelaxed clusters.