Lack of Evolution in the Iron Abundance in Clusters of Galaxies and Implications for the Global Star Formation Rate at High Redshift

Abstract

We present the first large sample of accurate iron abundances and temperatures for clusters at redshifts greater than 0.14. We find that the Fe abundance shows little or no evolution out to redshift 0.3. This and the early formation epoch of elliptical galaxies in clusters indicate that most of the enrichment of the intracluster medium occurred at redshifts greater than 1. If clusters represent fair samples of the universe, then global metal production is 2-5 times greater than is inferred from recent studies of galaxies at low and high redshifts.