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Molecular gas along a bright H$\alpha$ filament in 2A 0335+096 revealed by ALMA

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Vantyghem, AN 
McNamara, BR 
Russell, HR 
Hogan, MT 
Edge, AC 

Abstract

We present ALMA CO(1–0) and CO(3–2) observations of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the 2A 0335+096 galaxy cluster (z = 0.0346). The total molecular gas mass of 1.13 ± 0.15 × 109 M is divided into two components: a nuclear region and a 7 kpc long dusty filament. The central molecular gas component accounts for 3.2 ± 0.4 × 108 M of the total supply of cold gas. Instead of forming a rotationally supported ring or disk, it is composed of two distinct, blueshifted clumps south of the nucleus and a series of low-significance redshifted clumps extending toward a nearby companion galaxy. The velocity of the redshifted clouds increases with radius to a value consistent with the companion galaxy, suggesting that an interaction between these galaxies <20 Myr ago disrupted a pre-existing molecular gas reservoir within the BCG. Most of the molecular gas, 7.8 ± 0.9 × 108 M, is located in the filament. The CO emission is co-spatial with a 104 K emission-line nebula and soft X-rays from 0.5 keV gas, indicating that the molecular gas has cooled out of the intracluster medium over a period of 25–100 Myr. The filament trails an X-ray cavity, suggesting that the gas has cooled from low-entropy gas that has been lifted out of the cluster core and become thermally unstable. We are unable to distinguish between inflow and outflow along the filament with the present data. Cloud velocities along the filament are consistent with gravitational free-fall near the plane of the sky, although their increasing blueshifts with radius are consistent with outflow.

Description

Keywords

galaxies: active, galaxies: clusters: individual (2A 0335+096), galaxies: ISM, galaxies: kinematics and dynamics

Journal Title

Astrophysical Journal

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0004-637X
1538-4357

Volume Title

832

Publisher

IOP Publishing
Sponsorship
European Research Council (340442)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/N000927/1)
Support for this work was provided in part by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through Chandra Award Number G05-16134X issued by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for an on behalf of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under contract NAS8- 03060. A.N.V. and B.R.M. acknowledge support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. B.R.M. further acknowledges support from the Canadian Space Agency Space Science Enhancement Program.