Abell 3411

RA Dec z
08:41:54.7 -17:29:05 0.169

Summary

While part of the CIZA cluster catalog (Ebeling et al. 2002) and Planck SZ cluster catalog (Planck Collaboration 2011), van Weeren et al. (2013) were the first to publish a detailed analysis of this system.  Their shallow (10 ks) Chandra X-ray map showed that the cluster gas has a cometary shape with the head located near the center of the northern subcluster (A3411) and the tail pointing in the direction of the southern subcluster (A3412), providing clear evidence that this is a dissociative cluster merger.  Their VLA 1.4 GHz observations diffuse emission near the northern subcluster, which they class a halo despite being highly elongated, and diffuse emission near the southern subcluster, which they class as a radio relic.  They find that the morphology of the southern radio relic "is peculiar, as the relic is broken up into five fragments", and suggest that this may be due to interactions with cosmic filaments or that it may reflect the presence of electrons in fossil radio bubbles that are being re-accelerated by the passing shock. Giovannini et al. (2013) largely confirm the van Weeren et al. (2013) findings and add that the average polarization of the radio relic is ~20%. 

Based on INT red sequence galaxy number density, Chandra X-ray and VLA 1.4 GHz radio.

Existing Data

Optical Imaging
  • Subaru: gr*i
  • VLT: VRI
  • INT: gi
  • GALAX
  • HST: none
Spectra
  • NED^: 2
  • DEIMOS: 4 masks
X-ray
  • Chandra: 50 ks
  • XMM: 130 ks
  • Suzaku: ? ks (PI: van Weeren)
Radio
  • VLA: 1.4 GHz

Gallery

References

  1. Ebeling, H., Mullis, C.R. & Tully, R.B., 2002. A Systematic X‐Ray Search for Clusters of Galaxies behind the Milky Way. The Astrophysical Journal, 580(2), pp.774–788.
  2. Planck Collaboration et al., 2011. Planckearly results. VIII. The all-sky early Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster sample. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, p.A8.
  3. van Weeren, R.J. et al., 2013. COMPLEX DIFFUSE RADIO EMISSION IN THE MERGING PLANCK ESZ CLUSTER A3411. The Astrophysical Journal, 769(2), p.101.
  4. Giovannini, G. et al., 2013. The nature of the giant diffuse non-thermal source in the A3411-A3412 complex. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
* Lensing quality imaging
^ Galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts near the cluster within a radius of 2 Mpc of the system center.