On the non-thermal high energy radiation of galaxy clusters

The origin of the non-thermal EUV and hard X-ray emission “excess” reported from some galaxy clusters has been intensively debated over the last several years. The most favored models which refer this excess to relativistic electrons upscattering the 2.7 K Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2004-04, Vol.417 (2), p.391-399
Main Authors: Timokhin, A. N., Aharonian, F. A., Neronov, A. Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
galaxies: clusters: individual: Coma
gamma rays: theory
X-rays: galaxies: clusters
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The origin of the non-thermal EUV and hard X-ray emission “excess” reported from some galaxy clusters has been intensively debated over the last several years. The most favored models which refer this excess to relativistic electrons upscattering the 2.7 K Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) generally requires a very low magnetic field, significantly below the estimates derived from the Faraday Rotation Measurements, unless one invokes rather nonstandard assumptions concerning the energy and pitch angle distributions of non-thermal electrons. In this paper we suggest a new model assuming that the “non-thermal” excess is due to synchrotron radiation of ultra-relativistic (multi-TeV) electrons of “photonic” origin. These electrons are continuously introduced throughout the entire intracluster medium by very high energy (hypothetical) γ-rays through interactions with the diffuse extragalactic radiation fields. We present numerical calculations for the Coma cluster, and briefly discuss implications of the model for other galaxy clusters both in the X- and γ-ray energy domains.
ISSN:0004-6361
1432-0746
DOI:10.1051/0004-6361:20040004