Entropy Flattening, Gas Clumping, and Turbulence in Galaxy Clusters

Several physical processes and formation events are expected in cluster outskirts, a vast region up to now essentially not covered by observations. The recent Suzaku (X-ray) and Planck (Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect) observations out to the virial radius have highlighted in these peripheral regions a rather sharp decline of the intracluster gas temperature, an entropy flattening in contrast with the theoretically expected power law increase, the break of the hydrostatic equilibrium even in some relaxed clusters, a derived gas mass fraction above the cosmic value measured from several cosmic microwave background experiments, and a total X-ray mass lower than the weak lensing mass determinations. Here we present the analysis of four clusters (A1795, A2029, A2204, and A133) with the SuperModel that includes a nonthermal pressure component due to turbulence to sustain the hydrostatic equilibrium also in the cluster outskirts. In this way, we obtain a correct determination of the total X-ray mass and of the gas mass fraction; this in turn allows us to determine the level of the gas clumping that can affect the shape of the entropy profiles reported by the Suzaku observations. Our conclusion is that the role of the gas clumping is very marginal and that the observed entropy flattening is due to the rapid decrement of the temperature in the cluster outskirts caused by non-gravitational effects. Moreover, we show that the X-ray/SZ joint analysis from ROSAT and Planck data, as performed in some recent investigations, is inadequate for discriminating between a power law increase and a flattening of the entropy.