Prospects for detecting the circum- and intergalactic medium in X-ray absorption using the extended intracluster medium as a backlight
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 527, pp. 5776–5791
Abstract
ABSTRACT The warm-hot plasma in cosmic web filaments is thought to comprise a large fraction of the gas in the local Universe. So far, the search for this gas has focused on mapping its emission, or detecting its absorption signatures against bright, point-like sources. Future, non-dispersive, high-spectral resolution X-ray detectors will, for the first time, enable absorption studies against extended objects. Here, we use the Hydrangea cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to predict the expected properties of intergalactic gas in and around massive galaxy clusters, and investigate the prospects of detecting it in absorption against the bright cores of nearby, massive, relaxed galaxy clusters. We probed a total of 138 projections from the simulation volumes, finding 16 directions with a total column density $N_{{\rm O\, {\small VII}}} > 10^{14.5}$ cm−2. The strongest absorbers are typically shifted by ±1000 km s−1 with respect to the rest frame of the cluster they are nearest to. Realistic mock observations with future micro-calorimeters, such as the Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit or the proposed Line Emission Mapper (LEM) X-ray probe, show that the detection of cosmic web filaments in ${\rm O\, {\small VII}}$ and ${\rm O\, {\small VIII}}$ absorption against galaxy cluster cores will be feasible. An ${\rm O\, {\small VII}}$ detection with a 5σ significance can be achieved in 10–250 ks with Athena for most of the galaxy clusters considered. The ${\rm O\, {\small VIII}}$ detection becomes feasible only with a spectral resolution of around 1 eV, comparable to that envisioned for LEM.
Authors 7
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Lýdia Štofanová corresponding Aachen Leiden Observatory SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
Leiden University · Leiden Observatory · Space Research Organisation Netherlands
Affiliation as printed
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2, NL-2333 CA Leiden , the Netherlands
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research , Niels Bohrweg 4, NL-2333 CA Leiden , the Netherlands
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Leiden University · Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe · Leiden Observatory · Space Research Organisation Netherlands · The University of Tokyo
Affiliation as printed
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, The University of Tokyo , Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583 , Japan
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2, NL-2333 CA Leiden , the Netherlands
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research , Niels Bohrweg 4, NL-2333 CA Leiden , the Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University , 1800 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201 , USA
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Leiden University · Leiden Observatory
Affiliation as printed
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2, NL-2333 CA Leiden , the Netherlands
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Leiden University · Leiden Observatory · Space Research Organisation Netherlands
Affiliation as printed
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2, NL-2333 CA Leiden , the Netherlands
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research , Niels Bohrweg 4, NL-2333 CA Leiden , the Netherlands
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Leiden University · Leiden Observatory · École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Affiliation as printed
Institute of Physics, Laboratory of Astrophysics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Observatoire de Sauverny , CH-1290 Versoix , Switzerland
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2, NL-2333 CA Leiden , the Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Institute Lorentz, Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2, Leiden, NL-2333 CA , the Netherlands
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