Collision of merger and accretion shocks: formation of Mpc-scale contact discontinuity in the Perseus cluster. (21st August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Congyao; Churazov, Eugene; Dolag, Klaus; Forman, William R; Zhuravleva, Irina
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 498:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: L130
• Page End: L134
• Publication Date: 2020-08-21
• Subjects: hydrodynamics -- galaxies: clusters: individual: Perseus -- galaxies: clusters: intracluster medium -- X-rays: galaxies: clusters; Astronomy -- Research -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slaa147
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-3933

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Two Mpc-size contact discontinuities have recently been identified in the XMM–Newton and Suzaku X-ray observations in the outskirts of the Perseus cluster (Walker et al.). These structures have been tentatively interpreted as 'sloshing cold fronts', which are customarily associated with differential motions of the cluster gas, perturbed by a merger. In this study, we consider an alternative scenario, namely, that the most prominent discontinuity, near the cluster virial radius, is the result of the collision between the accretion shock and a 'runaway' merger shock. We also discuss the possible origin of the second discontinuity at ${\sim}1.2{\rm \, Mpc}$ .