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A possible heating mechanism for the X-ray-emitting plasma within clusters of galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2013

R. BINGHAM
Affiliation:
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK ([email protected]) Physics Department, University of Strathclyde, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK
B. J. KELLETT
Affiliation:
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK ([email protected])
U. DE ANGELIS
Affiliation:
University of Naples, Corso Umberto I, 40, 80138 Naples, Italy
V. N. TSYTOVICH
Affiliation:
General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Vavilova str. 38, Moscow 119991, Russia
P. K. SHUKLA
Affiliation:
International Centre for Advanced Studies in Physical Sciences & Institute for Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Ruhr University Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany

Abstract

X-ray and extreme ultraviolet emission from galaxy clusters can be interpreted as thermal emission from a hot plasma gravitationally bound to the cluster and constituting a significant amount of the mass of the cluster. The origin of this plasma and its thermal energy content can be linked to the formation process through the theory of self-organization of these structures.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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