RXCJ1111.6+4050 galaxy cluster: Observational evidence of a transitional fossil group

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, C/Vía Láctea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
e-mail: rbarrena@iac.es
² Universidad de La Laguna, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Astrofísica, Avenida Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez, s/n, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
³ Universitäts-Sternwarte München, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 München, Germany
⁴ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Gießenbachstraße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy

Received: 17 April 2023
Accepted: 3 September 2023

Abstract

We present a detailed kinematical and dynamical study of the galaxy cluster RXCJ1111.6+4050 (RXCJ1111), at z = 0.0756 using 104 new spectroscopic redshifts of galaxies observed at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and SDSS DR16 public archive. Our analysis is performed in a multiwavelength context in order to study and compare mainly optical and X-ray properties using XMM-Newton data. We find that RXCJ1111 is a galaxy cluster showing a velocity distribution with clear deviations from Gaussianity, that we are able to explain by the presence of a substructure within the cluster. The two cluster components show velocity dispersions of 644 ± 56 km s⁻¹ and 410 ± 123 km s⁻¹, which yield dynamical masses of M₂₀₀ = 1.9 ± 0.4 × 10¹⁴ M_⊙ and 0.6 ± 0.4 × 10¹⁴ M_⊙ for the main system and substructure, respectively. The 2D spatial distribution of galaxies and X-ray surface brightness of RXCJ1111 presents an elongation in the North–South direction. These observational facts, together with a gradient of 250−350 km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹ in the velocity field, following the NNE–SSE direction, suggest that the merger axis between the main system and substructure is slightly tilted with respect to the line-of-sight. The substructure is characterized by a magnitude gap Δm₁₂ ≥ 1.8, so it fits the “fossil-like” definition of a galaxy group. From the X-ray observations, we estimate a M_500, X = 1.68 ± 0.25 × 10¹⁴ M_⊙, which is in good agreement with the dynamical masses when two galaxy components are considered separately. This suggests that the mass estimates obtained from X-ray and velocity dispersion are compatible even for non-relaxed clusters, at least when we are able to identify and separate galaxy clumps and derive masses by considering the virialized regions. We propose a 3D merging model and find that the fossil group is in an early phase of collision with the RXCJ1111 main cluster and placed at ∼8° ( ± 3° ) from line-of-sight. This merging model would explain the slight increase found in the T_X with respect to what we would expect for relaxed clusters. Due to the presence of several brightest galaxies, after this collision, the substructure would presumably lose its fossil condition. Therefore, RXCJ1111 represents the observational evidence that the fossil stage of a system can be temporary and transitional.