On the origin and evolution of iron-enriched gas in clusters of galaxies

Abstract

Consideration is given to the recent discovery of iron-enriched gas in clusters of galaxies. It is shown that this material may be ejected from the component galaxies as a result of the early evolution of massive stars without the need for an unusual initial mass function. When the present cluster luminosities are used for normalization, a sufficient amount of enriched material to account for the X-ray line observations is produced, but some additional unenriched gas may be required in order to match the continuum observations. The interaction of the ejected gas clouds is calculated, and it is found that this material is heated and distributed throughout the cluster in a time that is short compared with the Hubble time.