Cooling flow in the 2A 0335+096 cluster of galaxies

Abstract

We present the surface brightness distribution of hot intracluster gas in the 2A 0335 + 096 cluster of gal- axies, obtained from X-ray imagmg observations with the Einstein Observatory and the EXOSAT Observatory. The intracluster gas is found to be nonisothermal. The surface brightness is deprojected to obtain density and temperature profiles of the intracluster gas. We derive a central (radius < 25 kpc) density of 2.3 x 10^-2 cm^-3 and a central temperature of 1.8 x 10⁷ K. We find that the hot gas is cooling and accreting onto the central dominant galaxy. Mass inflow rate between 14 and 200M_⊚yr^-1 is derived for the gas inside a radius of 150 kpc from the center. Including the effects of heat conduction on the flow reduces the mass flow rate only beyond 25 kpc from the center. Assuming hydrostatic equilibrium we find total binding mass of 7.6 x 10¹³. M_⊚ within the maximum extent (720 kpc) of the source observed. The total X-ray gas observed has 38% of this mass. We discuss the relevance of optical and radio observations and of certain heating mechanisms to the cooling flow in the cluster.