A catalog of intracluster gas temperatures

Abstract

We have searched the Einstein Monitor Proportional Counter (MPC) data base for observations of clusters of galaxies. The MPC was a nonfocal plane instrument on board the Einstein Observatory and accumulated data during all pointed observations with the four focal plane instruments. By co-adding the MPC spectra obtained during all pointed observations of clusters with IPC count rates greater than 0.1 counts per second, we have obtained sufficient photon statistics to estimate the X-ray temperature Of 84 clusters. Combining the MPC results with EXOSAT and Ginga results reported in the literature yields a combined sample of 104 clusters with known X-ray temperatures. This is approximately twice as large as any previously published sample. One of the best studied X-ray correlations between clusters is that between their X-ray luminosity and gas temperature. We show that the best-fit power-law relation for our combined cluster sample can be explained by the observed increase in the gas-to-stellar mass ratio between low- and high-temperature clusters. There have been several recent reports in the literature concerning the evolution of X-ray luminous clusters at fairly low redshifts. The statistical significance of any evolution in our combined X-ray sample has been examined and compared with the statistical properties of clusters culled from optical catalogs. We find that there is strong evidence for a decrease in the X-ray luminosity of optically rich clusters beyond Z ~ 0.06. This result is used to estimate the normalization of the primordial power spectrum of density fluctuations.