NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) 20000004536: The Most Distant X-Ray Clusters

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by  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Final Technical Report
NAG5-3209
Date: December 6, 1999
PI: Dr. Mark Dickinson, Space Science Telescope Institute
NASA Grant No: NAG5-3209
Title: The Most Distant X-Ray Clusters
STScl Project No: J0467
Performance Pd: 05/01/96 - 09/30/99
STScI Grant
Administrator: Larisa Dolhancryk
3700 San Martin Drive,
Baltimore, MD 21218
Phone: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
In this program we have used ROSAT to observe X-ray emission around several high redshift radio
galaxies in a search for extended, hot plasma which may indicate the presence of a rich galaxy.
cluster. When this program was begun, massive, X-ray emitting galaxy clusters were known to exist
out to to z=0.8, but no more distant examples had been identified. However, we had identified
several apparently rich clusters around 3CR radio galaxies at z > 0.8, and hoped to use ROSAT to
confirm the nature of these structures as massive, virialized clusters.
Over the course of several previous cycles of ROSAT observations, we had used the PSPC to detect
X-ray emission from radio galaxies, but were unable to distinguish between emission from the active
nucleus and from extended cluster gas. In order to do so, in this program we obtained very deep
reobservations with the ROSAT HRI to determine whether or not the X-ray emission was spatially
extended. In general, given the limited sensitivity of the HRI to very faint extended emission, we
did not expect to robustly detect the emission if it was extended. Rather, the HRI observations were
used as a sort of spatial high pass filter on the PSPC data. Knowing the X-ray flux from the source
in advance from the PSPC, we could predict the expected count rate with the HRI, and set our
exposures so that we would easily see the emission if it arose from a nuclear (AGN) point source.
If no such point sources were detected, it would be likely that the X-rays arose from a spatially
extended plasma, i.e. intracluster gas.
We observed four radio galaxies altogether, with 0.99 < z < 1.78. Not all had previous/ancillary
evidence for the presence of clusters, e.g. from optical or infrared data, but several (e.g., 3C324) did.
In all cases, we measured X-ray fluxes with the HRI which were consistent with the previous PSPC
data. In two cases, 3C324 and 3C294, we found that the X-ray emission was definitely extended.
3C324 was an important test case, because we have outstanding spectroscopic data on this field from
Keck which confirms the reality of the apparent galaxy cluster. 3C294 has very little supporting
optical data due to the presence of a very bright star in the field. The extended X-ray detection here,
however, is extremely interesting: 3C294 has the highest redshift in our sample, z=1.78.

TheextendedX-raysthereforemakethislikely tobethemostdistantX-rayclusterknown.Wehave
proposedto HSTandChandratoobtain supporting optical/UV and X-ray imaging, and will be
studying the field in the infrared with an Adaptive Optics system at CFHT next spring.
For 3C280 the results were somewhat ambiguous although consistent with the presence of both
resolved and unresolved components, and for a fourth galaxy, 3C194, the emission appears to be
unresolved. The final ROSAT observations for this project were never completed due to the demise
of the satellite and the cessation of the ROSAT observing program.
The detection of extended X-ray emission from 3C324 and 3C294, both having X-ray luminosities
approaching 10/'45 erg/s, is important because (1) itestablishes that luminous X-ray clusters do exist
at z > 1, and probably out to nearly z=2, (2) it verifies that high redshift radio galaxies often inhabit
dense, virialized clusters, (3) it establishes that the cluster emission around these sources have
central surface brightnesses that are substantially higher than those of most "normal" clusters nearby,
possibly due to the presence of strong central cooling flows. Our models for this X-ray emission
show that it is indeed likely that the central cooling time is shorter than the Hubble time at those
redshifts, and therefore that cooling flows are likely.
We have written up our results and submitted them as a paper to the Astrophysical Journal. This
paper has been refereed and requires some significant revisions to accommodate the referees"
comments. We are in the process of doing this, adding some additional analysis as well. We will
resubmit the paper early in 2000, and hopefully will meet with the referee's approval. We are
including three copies of the submitted paper here, although it has not yet been accepted for
publication.

Submitted to The AstrophysicalJournal.
Extended X-ray Emission from Galaxy Clusters at z > 1
Mark Dickinson 1
The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Baltimore MD
21218
Richard F. Mushotzky
Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662,
Greenbelt MD 20771
Hyron Spinrad
Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720
Patrick J. McCarthy
Observatories of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, 813 Santa Barbara St., Pasadena
CA 91101
and
Wil van Breugel
Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratories, P.O. Box 808, Livermore CA 94550
ABSTRACT
We present ROSAT observations aimed at detecting and resolving X-ray
emission from powerful 3CR radio galaxies at z >_ 1. Data from the High
Resolution Imager (HRI) is used to determine the spatial extent of X-ray
emission previously detected by the Position Sensitive Proportional Counter
(PSPC), and to set limits on point source contribution from the active nuclei
of the radio galaxies. Out of five sources, one is nearly point-like and may
be dominated by AGN emission. Two are somewhat ambiguous but probably
include resolved emission, and two are undoubtedly extended over spatial scales
of several hundred kpc. The manifestly extended sources are 3C 324, which is
lAllan C. Davis Fellow, also with the Space Telescope Science Institute
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known to inhabit a rich galaxy clusterat z = 1.206, and 3C 294 at z = 1.786.
The extended X-ray emission most likely arises from hot gas in a deep cluster
potential well. 3C 294 is the most distant object for which such extended
X-ray emission has been detected is therefore likely to be one of the most
distant galaxy clusters known. The bolometric luminosities of the extended
cluster emission from 3C 294 and 3C 324 are approximately 9 x 1044 erg s-1,
comparable to rich clusters at low redshift such as Coma as well as clusters
around similarly powerful nearby radio galaxies such as Cygnus A and 3C 295.
The X-ray emission from these z > 1 clusters is more compact and has higher
central surface brightness than is the case for clusters like Coma. Without such
high surface brightness it would be difficult to detect such clusters would be
detectable in ROSAT data. Nor are the PSPC images alone (without additional
information from the HRI data) adequate to demonstrate spatial extent for
most of the objects. These facts highlight the difficulty of identifying X-ray
clusters at z > 1 in "blank field" ROSAT surveys, i.e. without the benefit of an
a priori target such as a radio source. We consider the properties of the clusters
in as much detail as the limited X-ray data allow, and compare the lower limits
on their space density to some simple theoretical predictions. Although the
existing sample does not yet provide strong bounds on cluster evolution or
cosmological parameters, the resulting limits are already sufficient that a future
survey capable of detecting 10x more clusters at similar redshifts could prove
quite constraining. Similarly, a reliable mass measurement for even a single
cluster at z .-_ 2 could provide tight limits on the cosmological model.
Subject headings: galaxies: clusters: general- galaxies: active- cosmology:
observations -- large-scale structure of universe -- X-rays: galaxies
1. Introduction
Distant clusters of galaxies have long served as laboratories for studying both galaxy
evolution and cosmic structure formation. Some of the first direct evidence for galaxy
evolution was found in high redshift clusters when Butcher & Oemler (1978) noted an
increasing abundance of blue, star forming galaxies at higher redshifts. More recently,
studies of the early type (E/S0) galaxy population in high redshift clusters have provided
detailed information about the evolution of these old stellar systems out to z _ 1 (e.g.
Arag6n-Salamanca et al. 1993; Ellis et al. 1997; van Dokkum & Franx 1996; Dickinson
1997c; Stanford et al. 1998). As the most massive bound gravitational systems in the
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universe,galaxyclustersalsoprovideimportant information about the natureandevolution
ofcosmologicalmassfluctuations. Forthis purpose,X-ray andgravitational lensingstudies
haveprovento beparticularly important, asthey manifestthe effectsof the gravitational
potential. Forall of thesereasons,observershavesoughtto find evermoredistant examples
of rich galaxyclustersin orderto pushtheseinvestigationsbackto earliercosmiclook-back
times.
Optical andX-ray surveysfor high redshift clustershaveprovidedextensivesamples
out to z _ 1 (e.g. Gunn, Hoessel & Oke 1984; Couch et al. 1991; Gioia et al. 1990, 1994;
Postman et al. 1996) but little information beyond that redshift. During the ROSAT
era, systematic wide-field surveys of X-ray sources have identified many new clusters at
0.4 < z < 0.8 (e.g. Rosati et al. 1995, 1998; Castander et al. 1995; Scharf et al. 1997;
Collins et al. 1997; Henry et al. 1997; Vikhlinin et al. 1998), but none (so far) at higher
redshifts. However, this may not imply any genuine deficit of clusters at larger redshift.
Current evidence from optical and X-ray selected samples suggests little change in the space
density of clusters with "typical" richnesses or luminosities out to z _ 0.8 (e.g. Postman
e.t al. 1996; Rosati et al. 1998), so there is little reason to expect a sudden decline just
beyond that redshift. Instead, the lack of z > 0.9 clusters in current surveys may simply
reflect the difficulty of finding such systems with existing X-ray data and following them
ut) with imaging and spectroscopy from 4m-class telescopes. Even very luminous X-ray
clusters at z > 1 would be faint sources near the ROSAT detection limits, and optical
follow-up of cluster galaxies and spectroscopic confirmation of their redshifts is extremely
difficult at such large redshifts. The few convincing examples of galaxy clusters at z > 1
have mostly been found in targeted searches, often by examining the environments of
powerful radio-loud AGN (cf. Dickinson 1997a, b for reviews). Another example found in a
targeted search is an extended X-ray source, seemingly an "optically dark" galaxy cluster
at z = 1.01 along the sightline to the distant gravitational lens system MG 2016+112
(Itattori et al. 1997). Recently, Stanford et al. (1997) identified a cluster of galaxies at
z = 1.27 in a near-infrared field galaxy survey. Post facto inspection of archival ROSAT
images revealed a corresponding X-ray source, making this the first and (to date) only
X-ray emitting cluster at z > 1 identified from an untargeted survey.
The targeted searches for high redshift clusters have been inspired by the evidence that
powerful radio galaxies and quasars at z < 1 are often situated in cluster environments (cf.
Yee & Green 1984; Yates, Miller & Peacock 1989; Hill & Lilly 1991; Allington-Smith et
al. 1993, Dickinson 1994). Observations of low redshift radio galaxies have demonstrated
that X-ray emission may be comprised of several components, including thermal emission
from the cluster environment and non-thermal emission from the active galactic nucleus
(AGN). This complicates the interpretation of X-ray measurements for distant radio
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galaxiesunlessdata with adequateangularresolutionand signal-to-noisecanbeobtained
to distinguish betweenthe variouspossiblesourcesof emission.
Herewepresentresultsfrom a small X-ray surveyof powerfulradiogalaxiesat z _ 1.
Observations with low and high angular resolution instruments are used together in order
to assess the spatial extent of X-ray emission around five powerful FR II radio galaxies
in order to distinguish between AGN and cluster sources. We find that at least two, and
perhaps all of the radio galaxies are surrounded by highly luminous atmospheres of X-ray
emitting gas whose properties are similar to those of nearby rich clusters of galaxies. By
analogy, then, we infer that these radio galaxies inhabit massive clusters at 1 < z < 2. In
one case there is substantial supporting evidence for the presence of a cluster from optical
and near-infrared observations of the associated galaxies. In §2 we describe the ROSAT
observations and basic analysis. §3 provides information on each of the individual radio
galaxy fields. In §4 we compare the X-ray properties of these distant clusters to their more
local counterparts, and briefly consider the implications of the existence of such clusters for
theories of structure formation and for cosmological models. Conclusions and discussion
are presented in §5. For the purposes of computing sizes, luminosities and masses from the
observed data we have assumed an Einstein-de Sitter cosmology (f_M = 1, A = 0) with
H0 = 50 km s-1 Mpc -1 throughout this paper. Occasionally we will use the notation h or
hs0 to indicate Ho in units of 100 or 50 km s-1 Mpc -1.
2. Observations and X-ray Image Analysis
During the first four years of ROSAT operations we carried out a program of X-ray
imaging of powerful radio galaxies at z > 1 using the Position Sensitive Proportional
Counter (PSPC). Altogether we observed seven radio galaxies with exposure times which
ranged from 6 to 35 ksee; two other targets received exposures < 4 ksec due to telescope
failures. All but one of the radio galaxies was drawn from the 3CR catalog. At the time the
observations were proposed virtually nothing was known about the environments of radio
galaxies at these redshifts, and our targets were not selected with any a priori predisposition
to clusters. Instead, the targets were chosen partly on the basis of how much supporting
ground-based data was in hand at the time, and partly by the strength of their [OII] 3727_
or Lyman a emission lines. In addition, three other z > 1 3CR radio galaxies were observed
by other investigators: 3C 280 (Worrall et al. 1994), 3C 356 and 3C 368 (Crawford &
Fabian 1993, 1995). Archival PSPC data on distant radio galaxies has been compiled and
analyzed in the literature by Crawford & Fabian (1996b).
Nearly all of the radio galaxy targets were detected as X-ray sources with the PSPC,
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mostly at the _ 5 to 8a level.A fewobjects (e.g.3C210and3C256)wereonly marginally
detected(<_3a); only the positional coincidenceof theseweaksourceswith a priori radio
coordinates makes their reality plausible. Here we restrict our attention to five radio
galaxies with the highest and most secure X-ray fluxes for which follow-up observations at
higher angular resolution were possible.
For most of the radio galaxies, the poor signal-to-noise ratio of the X-ray detections
and the low angular resolution of the PSPC (FWHM _ 25") preclude secure determination
of whether or not the X-ray emission is spatially extended. Similarly, meaningful spectral
analysis is generally not feasible. Thus in most cases the question of whether or not the
X-rays arise from the radio galaxy AGN or in a surrounding cluster environment remains
unanswered by the PSPC data alone. In order to address this matter we used the High
Resolution Imager (HRI) to re-observe four of the brightest sources which had previously
been detected with the PSPC. Crawford & Fabian (1996a) have described their HRI
observations a fifth radio galaxy, 3C 356; we include our own analysis of their data here for
purposes of uniformity.
At high redshift the effect of cosmological surface brightness dimming is severe, making
it difficult to observe extended emission from galaxy clusters. Moreover, the ROSAT HRI
is less sensitive than the PSPC and has a significantly higher background count rate per
unit solid angle, making it rather insensitive to diffuse, low surface-brightness emission.
However, the angular resolution of the HRI (FWHM _ 4") makes it an outstanding point
source detector. The experiment we carried out with the HRI is simple: given the known
X-ray flux of our targets as measured by the PSPC, we exposed with the HRI long enough
to obtain a firm (>_ 5a) detection of the X-ray emission if it arose primarily from an
unresolved nuclear point source, i.e. an AGN. If, instead, the X-ray emission is extended,
it should be largely "resolved out" by the HRI, detected at best as a low S/N diffuse
signal within some large aperture. Thus we do not expect to produce beautiful X-ray
maps of clusters at z > 1 - a source with X-ray luminosity similar to that of the Coma
cluster should barely be detected by the ROSAT HRI at z > 1, even with 40 to 100 ksec of
exposure time, unless it were actually dominated by an unresolved point source. The HRI
observations serve, in effect, as a spatial high-pass filter on the PSPC detections.
Table 1 summarizes the X-ray properties of the five radio galaxies studied here. In all
cases, analysis was performed on data processed using Revision 2 of the Standard Analysis
Software System (SASS) pipeline. Two dimensional image processing was done using IRAF
and the PROS X-ray analysis software. The HRI observations of 3C 280 were obtained in
two separate exposure sequences with integration times of 53.3 and 9.7 ksec. These were
shifted into registration with one another using the positions of several well-detected point
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sourcesin the imageandthe photon event(QPOE) fileswerecombinedto producea single
data setwhich wasusedfor the analysispresentedhere. Then, for eachfield the HRI and
PSPCimageswereregisteredusingthe positionsof severalserendipitouspoint sources.
Figure 1 (Plate X) showsportions of the PSPCand HRI imagesfor four of the five
radio galaxies. The imagesfor 3C 356havepreviouslybeenpresentedby Crawford&
Fabian (1993,1996a). To graphically illustrate the experimentbeing carriedout, a false
point sourcehasbeenaddedtoeachHRI imageto showhowthe X-ray sourcewouldappear
if all of the flux arose from an AGN nucleus. The artificial sources were generated using the
HRI point response function (PRF) taken from David et al. (1997). The flux in the false
point source is scaled to the HRI count rate predicted on the basis of the flux measured
from the PSPC image (see discussion below and Table 1). Poisson noise was added before
the point source was added into the real HRI image. The actual PRF of a given ROSAT
HRI observation may be different, generally broader, than the David et al. model due to
aspect solution errors. For this reason, the false point sources should only be used for the
purpose of visual comparison to the radio galaxy source. Actual flux profile comparisons
(figures 4-8) have been made using other real point sources present in the same images
rather than the synthetic PRFs.
By inspecting figure 1 it is easy to see that some of the radio galaxies are not recovered
as point sources (e.g. 3C 324 and 3C 294), while others are compact and may be consistent
with the point source model (e.g. 3C 194). We consider each object in detail below.
Also shown in figure 1 are smoothed versions of the HRI images, which generally reveal a
faint source present at the radio galaxy position, albeit at low signal-to-noise. This is as
expected - the HRI observations were intended to robustly detect the X-ray source only if
a substantial fraction of the PSPC flux arose in an unresolved component. If the source is
significantly extended beyond the scale of the point response function then we would not
expect to see a strong detection in the HRI images. Indeed 3C 324 is nearly invisible in the
unsmoothed HRI data, having been fully resolved out.
Source centroid positions were measured directly from the ROSAT images whenever
possible and used as fixed centers for aperture flux measurements. The HRI images of
all fields except 3C 324 have faint sources visible near the positions of the radio galaxies
which were used as the center positions - in these cases the HRI positions are in excellent
agreement (< 4") with the radio, optical and infrared positions of the radio galaxies. For
3C 324 the X-ray emission is too diffuse for an accurate centroid to be computed from the
HRI image. In this case the position of the X-ray source measured from the PSPC image
has been used has been used to define the center of the HRI photometric aperture.
Photon counts in the PSPC data were measured in PI channels 41--240, spanning