The inner gas mass-temperature profile in the core of nearby galaxy clusters

Abstract

We present a mass-temperature profile of gas within the central 10 kpc of a small sample of cool core clusters. The mass of the hottest gas phases, at 1.5 and 0.7 keV, is determined from X-ray spectra from the XMM Reflection Grating Spectrometers. The masses of the partially ionized atomic and the molecular phases are obtained from published H α and CO measurements. We find that the mass of gas at 0.7 keV in a cluster is remarkably similar to that of the molecular gas. Assuming pressure equilibrium between the phases, this means that they occupy volumes differing by 10<SUP>5</SUP>. The molecular gas is located within the H α nebula which is often filamentary and coincides radially and in position angle with the soft X-ray emitting gas.