The influence of magnetic fields on the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect in clusters of galaxies

✍ Scribed by P.M. Koch; Ph. Jetzer; D. Puy

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 252 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1384-1076
• DOI: 10.1016/s1384-1076(02)00194-x

✦ Synopsis

We study the influence of intracluster large scale magnetic fields on the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. In a macroscopic approach we complete the hydrostatic equilibrium equation with the magnetic field pressure component. Comparing the resulting mass distribution with a standard one, we derive a new electron density profile. For a spherically symmetric cluster model, this new profile can be written as the product of a standard (b-) profile and a radius dependent function, close to unity, which takes into account the magnetic field strength. For non-cooling flow clusters we find that the observed magnetic field values can reduce the SZ signal by |10% with respect to the value estimated from X-ray observations and the b-model. If a cluster harbours a cooling flow, magnetic fields tend to weaken the cooling flow influence on the SZ-effect.