1 : Preliminaries | 6 : Dynamics I | 11 : Star Formation | 16 : Cosmology |
2 : Morphology | 7 : Ellipticals | 12 : Interactions | 17 : Structure Growth |
3 : Surveys | 8 : Dynamics II | 13 : Groups & Clusters | 18 : Galaxy Formation |
4 : Lum. Functions | 9 : Gas & Dust | 14 : Nuclei & BHs | 19 : Reionization & IGM |
5 : Spirals | 10 : Populations | 15 : AGNs & Quasars | 20 : Dark Matter |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Note that clusters are not necessarily the largest bound structures
in the universe
superclusters may be bound, but
haven't yet turned around and virialized.
So a measurement in clusters can be scaled up to derive matter for the universe
Ongoing heirarchical assembly : small
things merge to make bigger things, on all scales.
Clusters continue to grow
(and form), even today
BM I | single central dominant cD galaxy | (eg A 2199) |
BM II | several bright galaxies between cD and gE | (eg Coma) |
BM III | no dominant galaxy | (eg Hercules) |
| dominated by a single cD galaxy | (eg A 2029) |
| dominated by a bright binary | (eg Coma) |
| line of several bright galaxies | (eg Perseus) |
| core of > 4 bright galaxies | (eg A 2065) |
| flattened distribution | (eg A 1291) |
| irregular with no center | (eg Hercules) |
Here is a more specific table (condensed from Bahcall's entry in Allen's AQ)
Property/Class | Regular | Intermediate | Irregular |
Zwicky type | Compact | Medium-Compact | Open |
Bautz-Morgan type | I, I-II, II | (II), II-III | (II-III), III |
Rood-Sastry type | cD,B, (L,C) | (L),(F),(C) | (F), I |
Content | Elliptical-rich | Spiral-poor | Spiral-rich |
E:S0:S ratio | 3:4:2 | 1:4:2 | 1:2:3 |
Symmetry | Spherical | Intermediate | Irregular shape |
Central concentration | High | Moderate | Very little |
Central profile | Steep | Intermediate | Flat |
Mass segregation ? | Marginal | Marginal | None |
Radio detection ? | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
X-ray luminosity | High | Intermediate | Low |
Examples | A2199, Coma | A194, A539 | Virgo, A1228 |
It is very likely that this sequence reflects, at least in part,
stages in cluster evolution :
most evolved intermediate
least evolved
Stated slightly differently : given a few Gyr, Hercules will resemble Coma
of course, more clusters like Hercules will form out of yet lower density
regions.
So, for clusters that formed at z 1, galaxies
might have experienced a few orbits
(don't forget, though, many (spiral) galaxies may be falling in for the
first time)
Given the observed range in cluster properties (R, , and possibly age) :
we expect (and find) a significant range in relaxation :
quite unrelaxed well relaxed.
t2-body tcross N / 6 ln N
where N is the total number of interacting bodies in the system.
This gives 3 × 109 yr (Table
in 8.9.b) which is quite short
However : lets not forget the Dark Matter --- how does this change things ?
When we have a background medium, the 2-body and dynamical friction
processes get entwined.
The timescale for significant energy loss becomes :
trelax tcross N /
fg 6 ln N
where fg is the fraction of mass in galaxies ( 0.1) and N is the total number of galaxies
For individual galaxies we get trelax
1011-12 yr while for subgroups (3-30 galaxies) this becomes
109-11 yr
So relaxation is generally not significant for most galaxies
However, for subgroups or galaxies near the center, some relaxation is
expected
Dont forget, this kind of relaxation leads to equipartition (in energy), so
massive galaxies will settle
Although massive galaxies are often found in cluster cores,
it is unclear if this is due to relaxation or merging.
From rich sparse :
A more theoretical approach can be adopted :
Analytically :
We conclude :
Clusters continue to be assembled (via
heirarchical merging)
Relaxation is not yet complete
in many/most clusters.
Lets look more closely at this topic.
Type: | cD | E+S0 | S+I |
Rich clusters | 93 | 56 | 38 |
Poor clusters | 6 | 20 | 14 |
Field | < 6 | < 24 | 48 |
Recall : the cluster LF can be constructed by combining
the LFs for each galaxy type
Ellipticals : Gaussian skewed to high luminosities
Spirals and S0s : Gaussian
dE's : Schechter function with steep slope
dSp/dIrr : Schechter function with shallower slope
For increasing densities :
g(E) ln T/E for E << kT
g(E) (E/kT)-0.4 for E
kT
for several ions, replace ne nZZ2 by
ne nZZ2
For cosmic abundances, integrate over energy to get :
Ltot 10-23
erg/s ×
ne2dV
for T
5×107K
7 keV
Note : emissivity ne2
weights dense regions strongly
strong cooling in core
Mgas Mgals (groups)
increasing to Mgas
7 Mgals (rich clusters)
On average :
Using abundances (see below) it seems that both contribute :
80%
primordial infall,
20% ejected from galaxies
tcool = 3 Ne k T /
= 1011 Ne-1 T½ sec
= 2.7×1010 Ne,3-1 T7½ yr
This is longer than tHubble except, possibly, at the center.
the gas remains hot, even with
no additional heating
the atmosphere can adjust to the potential
and achieve equilibrium
we have a hydrostatic atmosphere
Which together give :
Obviously, we can view this in two ways :
(Here, referes to orbit anisotropy and
r,gal is the radial galaxy dispersion)
notice that in both these equations we do not assume that either
gal or
gas define the potential
(they dont, the dark matter does)
The gas and galaxies do, however, sample the same potential
Notice that we do not assume Tgas = Tgals
Since Tgas Tgals we expect
a different (but still isothermal) profile for the gas.
Combining the hydrostatic fluid and stellar equations, we get :
(13.1)
from which we see :
Here refers to Tgal / Tgas (and should not be confused with the anisotropy
parameter)
Fits yeild
0.7 (rich clusters)
0.4 (less rich clusters)
giving halo gas density gradients r-1 (rich clusters)
r-0.7 (less rich clusters)
It seems the gas is hotter than the galaxies,
the temperature difference is greater for shallower potentials.
These results are also supported by (spectroscopic)
measurements of Tgas
conclusion : There is a non-gravitational source of heating for the ICM.
What is it ? not yet known
Possibilities include :
Zwicky (1933) was the first to apply this (to Coma) and recognised that Mclus >>
Mgals
at the time, interpretation was unclear since it was not known if clusters were
in gravitational equilibrium
The result was controversial until the 1970s when evidence for dark matter began
to build
Today, Zwicky's approach has been vindicated, though there are still some caveats :
This method also has some caveats :
There are two rather different regimes :
In addition to being distorted, the galaxies are also slightly brighter.
the surface number density
at different magnitudes can yield similar information.
Naturally, there is a range of cluster masses found
Here is the cluster mass function :
Total masses range over 1014 - 1015
M with fewer of higher mass
More important are mass ratios : Mtot is typically
4 × Mgas + gals
Comparing the mass to the galaxy light : (M / LB) 200 M
/
LB,
this is much larger than the optical part of
individual galaxies (1-10 depending on type)
This provides some of the strongest evidence for Dark Matter.
Oort (1958) first suggested that cluster M/L ratios were representative of
the Universe as a whole
Using a total galaxy luminosity density and a typical cluster M/L ratio we find
matter
0.2
If the gas and galaxies comprise all the baryonic matter
in the cluster, we then expect baryons
0.06
which is nicely consistent with the value from cosmic nucleosynthesis.
As you probably know, a variety of methods have established that we are in
a flat universe, with :
total
1 which itself comprises
vacuum
0.7;
matter
0.3 ;
baryons
0.04
Clusters have played an important role in establishing these cosmological numbers