PhD defence

X-raying the hot gas in the outskirts of galaxy clusters

• Z. Zhu

Date

Wednesday 30 October 2024

Time

10:00 - 11:00 hour

Address

Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden

Supervisor(s)

• Prof.dr. J.S. Kaastra
• dr. A. Simionescu

Summary

Forming at the nodes of the Cosmic Web and growing hierarchically via mass accretion, galaxy clusters are the largest virialized halos in our universe, composed of dark matter (DM; ∼85%), ionized hot plasma in the intracluster medium (ICM; ∼10-15%), and galaxies (∼1-5%). The intracluster medium (ICM) consists of fully ionized plasma with temperatures of 10^7- 10^8 K, emitting X-rays mostly via thermal bremsstrahlung. X-ray spectroscopic analysis enables us to probe physical properties of the ICM such as temperature, density, abundance and gas motions.

This thesis focuses on X-ray observations of the outskirts of galaxy clusters, especially dynamical features observed in X-ray and radio. This study mainly aims to push the sensitivity limit of X-ray observations, by exploring the most mysterious and exciting parts of the galaxy clusters out to the virial radius.

PhD dissertations

Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.

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