The X-ray Scaling Properties of Virialized Systems

Abstract

Virialized systems, such as clusters and groups of galaxies, represent an ideal laboratory for investigating the formation and evolution of structure on the largest scales. Furthermore, the properties of the gaseous intracluster medium provide key insights into the influence of important non-gravitational processes like energy injection and radiative cooling, resulting from feedback associated with star formation, for example. We have assembled a very large X-ray sample of virialized systems, spanning over two decades in halo mass. Each object has high-quality X-ray data available, enabling a full deprojection analysis to be made; for a subsample we have additionally determined the deprojected optical light distribution. We find clear evidence of a departure from the simple expectations of self-similarity. The intracluster medium is more spatially extended and systematically less dense in smaller haloes, and there is evidence of an entropy excess in the hot gas. Our results favour a significant role for both non-gravitational heating and radiative cooling in modifying the properties of this gas, although we find no clear evidence of significantly enhanced star formation efficiency in groups.