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We investigate the predicted present-day temperature profiles of the hot, X-ray emitting gas in galaxy clusters for two cosmological models - a current best-guess LCDM model and standard cold dark matter (SCDM). Our numerically-simulated "catalogs" of clusters are derived from high-resolution (15/h kpc) simulations which make use of a sophisticated, Eulerian-based, Adaptive Mesh-Refinement (AMR) code that faithfully captures the shocks which are essential for correctly modelling cluster temperatures. We show that the temperature structure on Mpc-scales is highly complex and non-isothermal. However, the temperature profiles of the simulated LCDM and SCDM clusters are remarkably similar and drop-off as T +AFw-propto (1+-r/aₓ) ^-+AFw-delta where aₓ +AFw-sim rₕ₈ₑ/1. 5 and +AFw-delta +AFw-sim 1. 6. This decrease is in good agreement with the observational results of Markevitch et al. (1998) but diverges, primarily in the innermost regions, from their fit which assumes a polytropic equation of state. Our result is also in good agreement with a recent sample of clusters observed by BeppoSAX though there is some indication of missing physics at small radii (r0. 2 rₕ₈ₑ, our universal temperature profile is consistent with our most recent simulations which include both radiative cooling and supernovae feedback.
Loken et al. (Mon,) studied this question.