The late merging phase of a galaxy cluster: XMM EPIC observations of A 3266

¹ CEA, DSM, DAPNIA, Service d'Astrophysique, CE Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France e-mail: jsauvageot@cea.fr
² H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK
³ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, 85748 Garching, Germany

Received: 14 April 2005
Accepted: 4 August 2005

Abstract

We present a mosaic of five XMM-Newton observations of the nearby () merging galaxy cluster Abell 3266. We use the spectro-imaging capabilities of XMM-Newton  to build precise (projected) temperature, entropy, pressure and Fe abundance maps. The temperature map exhibits a curved, large-scale hot region, associated with elevated entropy levels, very similar to that foreseen in numerical simulations. The pressure distribution is disturbed in the central region but is remarkably regular on large scales. The Fe abundance map indicates that metals are inhomogeneously distributed across the cluster. Using simple physical calculations and comparison with numerical simulations, we discuss in detail merging scenarios that can reconcile the observed gas density, temperature and entropy structure, and the galaxy density distribution.