The outer regions of galaxy clusters: Chandra constraints on the X-ray surface brightness
Abstract
(Abridged version) We study the properties of the X-ray surface brightness profiles in a sample of galaxy clusters that are observed with Chandra and have emission detectable with a signal-to-noise ratio larger than 2 at a radius beyond R500 ~ 0.7 R200. Our study aims at measuring the slopes of the X-ray surface brightness and of the gas density profiles in the outskirts of massive clusters. These constraints are then compared to similar results obtained from observations and numerical simulations of the temperature and dark matter density profiles with the intention to present a consistent picture of the outer regions of galaxy clusters. We extract the surface brightness profiles S_b(r) from X-ray exposures obtained with Chandra of 52 X-ray luminous galaxy clusters at z>0.3. We estimate R200 both using a beta-model to reproduce the surface brightness profile and scaling relations from the literature, showing that the two methods converge to comparable values. We evaluate then the radius, R_S2N, at which the signal-to-noise ratio is larger than 2 and select the objects in the sample that satisfy the criterion R_S2N/R200 > 0.7. For the eleven selected objects, we model with a power-law the behaviour of S_b(r). We measure a consistent steepening of the S_b(r) profile moving outward from 0.4 R200, where an average slope of -3.6 (sigma=0.8) is estimated. At R200, we evaluate a slope of -4.3 (sigma=0.9) that implies a slope in the gas density profile of -2.6 and a predicted mean value of the surface brightness in the 0.5-2 band of 2e-12 erg/s/cm2/deg2. Combined with the recent estimates of the outer slope of the gas temperature profile and the expectations on the dark matter distribution, these measurements allow us to properly describe how X-ray lumnous clusters behave out to the virial radius.Keywords
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