Nitrogen abundance in the X-ray halos of clusters and groups of galaxies

Mao, Junjie and Plaa, J. de and Kaastra, J. S. and Pinto, Ciro and Gu, Liyi and Mernier, F. and Yan, Hong-Liang and Zhang, Yu-Ying and Akamatsu, H. (2019) Nitrogen abundance in the X-ray halos of clusters and groups of galaxies. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 621. A9. ISSN 0004-6361 (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201730931)

[thumbnail of Mao-etal-AA2018-Nitrogen-abundance-X-ray-halos-clusters-groups-galaxies]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Mao_etal_AA2018_Nitrogen_abundance_X_ray_halos_clusters_groups_galaxies.pdf
Accepted Author Manuscript
Download (564kB)| Preview

Abstract

Chemical abundances in the X-ray halos (also known as the intracluster medium, ICM) of clusters and groups of galaxies can be measured via prominent emission line features in their X-ray spectra. Elemental abundances are footprints of time-integrated yields of various stellar populations that have left their specific abundance patterns prior to and during the cluster and group evolution. We aim to constrain nitrogen abundances in the CHEmical Evolution RGS Sample (CHEERS), which contains 44 nearby groups and clusters of galaxies, in order to have a better understanding of their chemical enrichment. We examine the high-resolution spectra of the CHEERS sample carefully and take into account various systematic effects in the spectral modelling. We compare the observed abundance ratios with those in the Galactic stellar populations, as well as predictions from stellar yields (low- and intermediate-mass stars, massive stars and degenerate stars). The nitrogen abundance can only be well constrained ($\gtrsim3\sigma$) in one cluster of galaxies and seven groups of galaxies. The [O/Fe] -- [Fe/H] relation of the ICM is comparable to that for the Galaxy, while both [N/Fe] and [N/O] ratios of the ICM are higher than in the Galaxy. Future studies on nitrogen radial distributions are required to tell whether the obtained higher [N/Fe] and [N/O] ratios are biased due to the small extraction region ($r/r_{500}\lesssim0.05$) that we adopt here. Since abundances of odd-$Z$ elements are more sensitive to the initial metallicity of stellar populations, accurate abundance measurements of N, Na and Al are required to better constrain the chemical enrichment in the X-ray halos of clusters and groups of galaxies.

ORCID iDs

Mao, Junjie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7557-9713, Plaa, J. de, Kaastra, J. S., Pinto, Ciro, Gu, Liyi, Mernier, F., Yan, Hong-Liang, Zhang, Yu-Ying and Akamatsu, H.;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:70866
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    1 January 2019
    Published
    19 December 2018
    Published Online
    12 September 2018
    Accepted
    Subjects:Science > Astronomy
    Department:Faculty of Science > Physics
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:13 Dec 2019 09:35
    Last modified:11 Nov 2024 12:31
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/70866
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)