The Prospects Of High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy With Athena For Studies Of Agn Feedback In Clusters
Abstract
One of the legacies of the Chandra era is the discovery of active galactic nucleus (AGN) inflated X-ray cavities in virtually all cool-core clusters, suggesting that AGN might be responsible for heating clusters. This discovery poses a new set of questions that cannot be addressed by X-ray imaging or modeling alone: are AGNs actually responsible for halting cooling flows? One of the critical unanswered questions currently posed is the actual expansion velocity of these cavities, which cannot be measured from imaging alone. Using numerical simulations of jet-driven cavities in fully dynamically evolved clusters and a new virtual X-ray observatory tool, we demonstrate that high-resolution, high-throughput X-ray spectroscopy with the Athena X-ray observatory will be able to answer this question by spectroscopically resolving the kinematic structure of clusters after an AGN outburst.
- Publication:
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AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #12
- Pub Date:
- September 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011HEAD...12.3807H