XMM-Newton EPIC observation of the galaxy cluster A 3667

The Abell cluster of galaxies A 3667 was observed with XMM-Newton in 6 partially overlapping pointings. We present here the resulting X-ray surface brightness, temperature, entropy and pressure maps and discuss the structure of this cluster on scales from 0.1 to 30 arcmin. Based on these observations we refine the origin of the A 3667 cold front to the displacement of the low entropy, high metal abundance gas from the current pressure peak of the cluster. We argue that the mushroom shape of the cold front observed here is similar to what is seen in some numerical simulations. We also present the first evidence for a dynamically significant angular momentum in the cold front.

Based on observations with XMM-Newton, an ESA Science Mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA).