AChandraX‐Ray Study of Cygnus A. III. The Cluster of Galaxies

We present an analysis of the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) observation of the intracluster gas associated with the cluster of galaxies surrounding Cygnus A. The dominant gaseous structure is a roughly elliptical (presumably prolate spheroidal in three dimensions) feature with semimajor axis ≃1 1 (≃100 kpc). This structure apparently represents intracluster gas that has been swept up and compressed by a cavity inflated in this gas by relativistic material that has passed through the ends of the radio jets. The X-ray-emitting gas shows this prolate spheroidal morphology to ≃1 2 (110 kpc) from the radio galaxy but is spherical on larger scales. The X-ray emission from the intracluster gas extends to at least 8' (≃720 kpc) from the radio galaxy, and a second, extended source of X-ray emission (probably associated with a second cluster of galaxies) is seen some 12' (≃1 Mpc) to the northwest of Cygnus A. The X-ray spectrum of the integrated intracluster gas imaged on the S3 chip (dimensions 8' × 8' = 720 × 720 kpc), excluding the contribution from the radio galaxy and other compact sources of X-ray emission, has a gas temperature, metallicity, and unabsorbed 2-10 keV rest-frame luminosity of 7.7 keV, 0.34 times solar, and 3.5 × 10 44 ergs s -1 , respectively. We have deprojected the X-ray spectra taken from 12 elliptical and circular annuli in order to derive a run of temperature, metallicity, density, and pressure as a function of radius. The temperature of the X-ray-emitting gas drops from ≃8 keV more than 100 kpc from the center to ≃5 keV some 80 kpc from the center, with the coolest gas immediately adjacent to the radio galaxy. "Belts" of slightly cooler (≃4 keV) X-ray-emitting gas run around the minor dimension of the cavity created by the radio source, while the limb-brightened edges of the cavity are slightly hotter (≃6 keV), perhaps as a result of heating by a bow shock driven by the probably expanding cavity into the intracluster gas. There is a metallicity gradient in the X-ray-emitting gas, with the highest metallicities (~solar) found close to the center, decreasing to ~0.3 times solar in the outer parts. We have used the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium to derive a total cluster mass within 500 kpc of 2.0 × 10 14 M ☉ and 2.8 × 10 14 M ☉ for constant and centrally decreasing temperature profiles, respectively. The total mass of X-ray-emitting gas within the same radius is 1.1 × 10 13 M ☉ . Thus, the gas fraction of the cluster within 500 kpc is 0.055 and 0.039 for the constant and centrally decreasing temperature profiles, respectively.