A detailed measurement of the halo in the coma cluster of galaxies,and its magnetic field |
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| Authors: | P P Kronberg K-T Kim |
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| Institution: | Department of Astronomy , University of Toronto , Toronto, M5S 1A7, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Abstract A new series of detailed observations of the Coma cluster of galaxies has been undertaken with the aim of better specifying the intergalactic gas component through high dynamic range, combined-telescope observations of the radio emission from the cluster which detect both the cluster-scale and galaxy-scale emission. By combining these multi-frequency radio maps with a Faraday rotation probe experiment using cluster and background sources, and the published X-ray data, we have been able to estimate the intracluster magnetic field strength independently of the usual assumptions of equipartition. The result is approximately 2 microgauss. We compare the X-ray and radio distributions in detail, and describe how our combined results suggest that acceleration of the relativistic electrons occurs in situ, and we suggest that the conditions in the cluster provide good physical arguments to support this. |
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| Keywords: | Faraday rotation Coma cluster radio maps |
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