Chemical composition and enrichment of the Centaurus cluster core seen by XRISM/Resolve

@article{mernier2026chemical,
  title = {{Chemical composition and enrichment of the Centaurus cluster core seen by XRISM/Resolve}},
  author = {F Mernier and K Fukushima and A Simionescu and M Kondo and A Majumder and T Plšek and N Werner and Y Fujita and K Sato and K Matsushita and M Loewenstein and R Mushotzky and J.-P Breuer and R Fujimoto and Y Fukazawa and I Hatsukade and K Nakazawa and M Urata and N Yamasaki},
  journal = {Astronomy \& Astrophysics - A\&A},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202557442},
  eprint = {2512.11028},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://hal.science/hal-05494218v1},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Chemical composition and enrichment of the Centaurus cluster core seen by XRISM/Resolve
AU  - F Mernier
AU  - K Fukushima
AU  - A Simionescu
AU  - M Kondo
AU  - A Majumder
AU  - T Plšek
AU  - N Werner
AU  - Y Fujita
AU  - K Sato
AU  - K Matsushita
AU  - M Loewenstein
AU  - R Mushotzky
AU  - J.-P Breuer
AU  - R Fujimoto
AU  - Y Fukazawa
AU  - I Hatsukade
AU  - K Nakazawa
AU  - M Urata
AU  - N Yamasaki
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/01
JO  - Astronomy & Astrophysics - A&A
DO  - 10.1051/0004-6361/202557442
UR  - https://hal.science/hal-05494218v1
AB  - Hot, X-ray emitting atmospheres pervading galaxy clusters are rich in metals, which have been synthesised and released by asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, core-collapse supernovae (SNcc) and Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) over cosmic history. This makes the intracluster medium (ICM) an ideal astrophysical system to constrain its chemical composition, hence ultimately understand metal production and enrichment on megaparsec scales. In this work, we take advantage of the unprecedented ~5 eV resolution offered by XRISM/Resolve to measure the chemical composition of the core of the bright, nearby, and metal-rich Centaurus cluster (287 ks) with unprecedented accuracy. We use these measurements to provide constraints on the stellar populations having enriched the cluster core. We derived the Fe abundance and its relative Si/Fe, S/Fe, Ar/Fe, Ca/Fe, Cr/Fe, Mn/Fe, and Ni/Fe ratios. We completed this high-resolution view with N/Fe, O/Fe, Ne/Fe, and Mg/Fe ratios obtained with XMM-Newton/RGS archival data. Similarly to the core of Perseus, we find that nine out of our 11 measured abundance ratios are formally consistent with the chemical composition of our Solar System. However, the (super-solar) N/Fe and (half-solar) Mg/Fe ratios significantly differ from Perseus and/or other systems, thus provide tension with the picture of a fully solar composition ubiquitous to all systems. In addition, possible uncertainties in O/Fe and Ne/Fe with atomic codes highlight the need for studying more systems at high spectral resolution to assess (or rule out) the universality of the ICM composition in clusters' cool cores. Combinations of (AGB+)SNcc+SNIa yield models can reproduce our observed X/Fe ratios in all cases. However, whether two distinct populations of SNIa are needed depends on the weight of our RGS measurements. We also briefly discuss the possibility of a multi-metallicity gas phase in this respect.
SN  - 0004-6361
SN  - 1432-0746
ER  -