Lyman-alpha Absorbers and the Coma Cluster

Abstract

The spatial and kinematic distribution of warm gas in and around the Coma Cluster is presented through observations of Lyman-alpha absorbers using background QSOs. Updates to the Lyman-alpha absorber distribution found in Yoon et al. (2012) for the Virgo Cluster are also presented. At 0.2-2.0 R_vir of Coma we identify 14 Lyman-alpha absorbers (N_HI = 10^{12.8-15.9} cm^-2) towards 5 sightlines and no Lyman-alpha absorbers along 3 sightlines within 3\sigmav_coma. For both Coma and Virgo, most Lyman-alpha absorbers are found outside the virial radius or beyond 1\sigmav consistent with them largely representing the infalling intergalactic medium. The few exceptions in the central regions can be associated with galaxies. The Lyman-alpha absorbers avoid the hot ICM, consistent with the infalling gas being shock-heated within the cluster. The massive dark matter halos of clusters do not show the increasing column density with decreasing impact parameter relationship found for the smaller mass galaxy halos. In addition, while the covering fraction within R_vir is lower for clusters than galaxies, beyond R_vir the covering fraction is somewhat higher for clusters. The velocity dispersion of the absorbers compared to the galaxies is higher for Coma, consistent with the absorbers tracing additional turbulent gas motions in the cluster outskirts. The results are overall consistent with cosmological simulations, with the covering fraction being high in the observations standing out as the primary discrepancy.