• DOI:10.1093/mnras/stu2669
• Corpus ID: 119215124

Simulations of gas sloshing in galaxy cluster Abell 2052

@article{Machado2014SimulationsOG,
  title={Simulations of gas sloshing in galaxy cluster Abell 2052},
  author={Rubens E G Machado and Gastao Bierrenbach Lima Neto},
  journal={Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year={2014},
  volume={447},
  pages={2915-2924}
}

• R. Machado, G. L. Neto
• Published 15 December 2014
• Physics
• Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The intracluster plasma of Abell 2052 exhibits in X-rays a spiral structure extending more than 250 kpc, which is comprised of cool gas. This feature is understood to be the result of gas sloshing caused by the off-axis collision with a smaller subcluster. We aim to recover the dynamical history of Abell 2052 and to reproduce the broad morphology of the spiral feature. To this end, we perform hydrodynamical $N$-body simulations of cluster collisions. We obtain two regimes that adequately reproduce the desired features. The first scenario is a close encounter and a recent event (0.8 Gyr since pericentric passage), while the second scenario has a larger impact parameter and is older (almost 2.6 Gyr since pericentric passage). In the second case, the simulation predicts that the perturbing subcluster should be located approximately 2 Mpc from the centre of the major cluster. At that position, we are able to identify an observed optical counterpart at the same redshift: a galaxy group with $M_{500} = (1.16 \pm 0.43) \times 10^{13} M_{\odot}$.