X-ray sources in clusters of galaxies
Open Access
- 1 October 1978
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Vol. 184 (4) , 783-799
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/184.4.783
Abstract
The properties of clusters of galaxies identified with X-ray sources from the 2A catalogue are investigated. Forty-one associations are found, of which 34 form a statistically complete sample (see Appendix A) which is thoroughly analysed in this paper. The luminosity function for cluster X-ray sources is presented and it is shown that all Abell-type clusters are expected to be X-ray sources with luminosities, Lx ≳ 1036 W in the 2–10 keV range. LX is found to depend strongly on richness and Bautz–Morgan class. It is shown that powerful X-ray clusters contain many fewer spiral galaxies than less luminous clusters, and that the dependence of LX on the velocity dispersion of the cluster galaxies is weak. Powerful X-ray clusters are demonstrated to contain radio sources both more frequently, and with steeper spectra, than in other types of cluster. No evidence is found for hot gas on the scale of superclusters. It is concluded that the evidence favours thermal bremsstrahlung from a hot intracluster gas to produce the observed X-ray emission.Keywords
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