Are Large X‐Ray Clusters in Thermal Equilibrium?

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Abstract
We simulate the formation of a large X-ray cluster using a fully three-dimensional hydrodynamical code coupled to a particle-mesh scheme that models the dark matter component. We focus on a possible decoupling between electron and ion temperatures. We then solve the energy transfer equations between electrons, ions, and neutral particles without assuming thermal equilibrium between the three gases (Te ≠ Ti ≠ Tn). We self-consistently solve the chemical equations for a hydrogen-helium primordial plasma without assuming ionization-recombination equilibrium. We find that the electron temperature differs from the true dynamical temperature by 20% at the virial radius of our simulated cluster. This could lead to a marginal underestimation of the total mass in the outer regions of large X-ray clusters.
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