Kavli Affiliate: Erin Kara
| First 5 Authors: XRISM Collaboration, XRISM Collaboration, , ,
| Summary:
Galaxy clusters, the Universe’s largest halo structures, are filled with
10-100 million degree X-ray-emitting gas. Their evolution is shaped by
energetic processes such as feedback from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and
mergers with other cosmic structures. The imprints of these processes on gas
kinematic properties remain largely unknown, restricting our understanding of
gas thermodynamics and energy conversion within clusters. High-resolution
spectral mapping across a broad spatial-scale range provides a promising
solution to this challenge, enabled by the recent launch of the XRISM X-ray
Observatory. Here, we present the kinematic measurements of the X-ray-brightest
Perseus cluster with XRISM, radially covering the extent of its cool core. We
find direct evidence for the presence of at least two dominant drivers of gas
motions operating on distinct physical scales: a small-scale driver in the
inner ~60 kpc, likely associated with the SMBH feedback; and a large-scale
driver in the outer core, powered by mergers. The inner driver sustains a
heating rate at least an order of magnitude higher than the outer one. This
finding suggests that, during the active phase, the SMBH feedback generates
turbulence, which, if fully dissipated into heat, could play a significant role
in offsetting radiative cooling losses in the Perseus core. Our study
underscores the necessity of kinematic mapping observations of extended sources
for robust conclusions on the properties of the velocity field and their role
in the assembly and evolution of massive halos. It further offers a kinematic
diagnostic for theoretical models of SMBH feedback.
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