Chandra Observations of the Spectacular A3411–12 Merger Event

Abstract

We present deep Chandra observations of A3411–12, a remarkable merging cluster that hosts the most compelling evidence for electron reacceleration at cluster shocks to date. Using the ${Y}_{{\rm{X}}}\mbox{--}M$ scaling relation, we find r 500 ~ 1.3 Mpc, ${M}_{500}=(7.1\pm 0.7)\times {10}^{14}\ {M}_{\odot }$, ${kT}=6.5\pm 0.1\,\mathrm{keV}$, and a gas mass of ${M}_{{\rm{g}},500}=(9.7\pm 0.1)\times {10}^{13}{M}_{\odot }$. The gas mass fraction within r 500 is ${f}_{{\rm{g}}}=0.14\pm 0.01$. We compute the shock strength using density jumps to conclude that the Mach number of the merging subcluster is small ($M\leqslant {1.15}_{-0.09}^{+0.14}$). We also present density, temperature, pseudo-pressure, and pseudo-entropy maps. Based on the pseudo-entropy map, we conclude that the cluster is undergoing a mild merger, consistent with the small Mach number. On the other hand, radio relics extend over Mpc scale in the A3411–12 system, which strongly suggests that a population of energetic electrons already existed over extended regions of the cluster.