High resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy of M 87 with the reflection grating spectrometers on XMM-Newton
Böhringer, H.; Kaastra, J. S.; Branduardi-Raymont, G.; Ferrigno, C.; Vestrand, W. T.; Worrall, D. M.; Mushotzky, R. F.; Tamura, T.; Peterson, J. R.; den Herder, J. W.; Belsole, E.; Paerels, F. B. S.; Kennea, J.; Sakelliou, I.
United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, France, Germany
Abstract
We present high-resolution X-ray spectroscopic observations of M 87 with the Reflection Grating Spectrometers on XMM-Newton. We detect strong K-shell line emission from N, O, Ne, Mg, some emission from He-like Si, a fully resolved set of Fe L-shell emission spectra, and some emission from C. The angular intensity distributions of the strong emission lines are detectably resolved on scales (15-160) arcsec. The gas in the inner arcmin of M 87 has a multi-phase structure, as indicated by the similarity of the emission line profiles of Fe L shell ions with widely separated ionization potentials. The global Fe L spectrum is approximately consistent with an isothermal plasma at kTe ~ 1.8 keV, in addition to a component with a temperature distribution appropriate to an isobaric cooling flow, but with a minimum temperature cutoff of kTmin ≈ 600 eV. The behaviour of this cooling-flow component is qualitatively similar to what is seen in other cooling flow clusters. Finally, we do not find any strong evidence for a spatial variation in abundances due to resonance scattering redistribution in the inner arcminute of the core.