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A shock front at the radio relic of Abell 2744

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Authors
Eckert, D.
Jauzac, M.
Vazza, F.
Owers, M.
Kneib, J.
Tchernin, C.
Intema, Hubertus
Knowles, K.
Date
2016
Type
Journal Article

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Eckert, D. and Jauzac, M. and Vazza, F. and Owers, M. and Kneib, J. and Tchernin, C. and Intema, H. et al. 2016. A shock front at the radio relic of Abell 2744. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 461 (2): pp. 1302-1307.
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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

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Abstract

Radio relics are Mpc-scale diffuse radio sources at the peripheries of galaxy clusters which are thought to trace outgoing merger shocks. We present XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744 (z = 0.306), which reveal the presence of a shock front 1.5 Mpc east of the cluster core. The surface-brightness jump coincides with the position of a known radio relic. Although the surface-brightness jump indicates a weak shock with a Mach number M=1.7-0.3+0.5, the plasma in the post-shock region has been heated to a very high temperature (~13 keV) by the passage of the shock wave. The low-acceleration efficiency expected from such a weak shock suggests that mildly relativistic electrons have been re-accelerated by the passage of the shock front.