Radial metallicity profiles for a large sample of galaxy clusters observed with XMM-Newton

¹ Università degli Studi di Milano, Dip. di Fisica, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
² INAF - IASF Milano, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy e-mail: leccardi@iasf-milano.inaf.ot

Received: 2 May 2008
Accepted: 4 June 2008

Abstract

Aims. We measured radial metallicity profiles for a sample of ≈50 hot, intermediate redshift galaxy clusters, selected from the XMM-Newton archive.

Methods. As in our previous paper, we used background modeling rather than background subtraction, and the Cash statistic rather than the . This method requires a careful characterization of all background components. We also performed Montecarlo simulations to assess systematic effects.

Results. The mean metallicity profile shows a peak in the center, and gently declines out to 0.2 R₁₈₀. Beyond 0.2 R₁₈₀ the metallicity is ≈0.2 solar and, at variance with recently published expectations based on simulations, consistent with being flat. We find no evidence of profile evolution from to . When comparing our mean profile to those obtained by recent works with BeppoSAX and Chandra, we find remarkable agreement over the entire radial range.