Temperature gradients in XMM-Newton observed REFLEX-DXL galaxy clusters at z ∼ 0.3

We present XMM-Newton results on the temperature profiles of a volume-limited sample of galaxy clusters at redshifts z∼0.3, selected from the REFLEX survey (REFLEX-DXL sample). In the spectral analysis, where only the energies above 1 keV were considered, we obtained consistent results for the temperature derived from the pn, MOS1 and MOS2 data. Useful temperature measurements could be performed out to radii with overdensity 500 (r₅₀₀) for all nine clusters. We discovered a diversity in the temperature gradients at the outer cluster radii with examples of both flat and strongly decreasing profiles. Using the total mass and the gas mass profiles for the cluster RXCJ0307.0-2840 we demonstrate that the errors on the mass estimates for the REFLEX-DXL clusters are within 25% up to r₅₀₀.

This work is based on observations made with the XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA member states and the USA (NASA).