A non-uniform metal distribution in the ram-pressure stripped circumgalactic medium of M86

The chemical enrichment of X-ray-emitting hot halos has primarily been studied in closed-box galaxy clusters. Investigating the metal content of lower-mass, open systems can serve as a valuable tracer for understanding their dynamical history and the extent of chemical enrichment mechanisms in the Universe. In this context, we use an 85.6 ks XMM-Newton observation to study the spatial distribution of the abundance ratios of Mg, Si, and S with respect to Fe in the hot gas of the ram-pressure-stripped M86, which has undergone morphological transformations. We report that the chemical composition in the M86 galaxy core is more similar to the rest of the hot gaseous content of the Universe than to its stellar population. This result indicates that even supersonic ram-pressure is insufficient to strip the inner part of a galaxy of its hot atmosphere. Comparison with other galaxies undergoing ram-pressure stripping suggests that stripping the ‘primordial’ atmosphere of a galaxy requires a combination of ram-pressure stripping and strong radio-mechanical AGN activity. The X-ray emission structures within M86, the plume and the tail, are found to be relatively isothermal. We observe that the Mg/Fe ratio in the plume is 3.3σ higher than in the M86 galaxy core and is consistent with that in the M86 group outskirts and the Virgo ICM, suggesting that the plume might originate from the low-entropy outer gas rather than from the recent ram-pressure stripping of the dense galaxy core.