Application of anXMM‐NewtonEPIC Monte Carlo Technique to Analysis and Interpretation of Data for the Abell 1689, RX J0658−55, and Centaurus Clusters of Galaxies

We propose a new Monte Carlo method to study extended X-ray sources with theEuropean Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) aboard {\sl XMM-Newton}. The smoothedparticle inference (SPI) technique, described in a companion paper, is appliedhere to the EPIC data for the clusters of galaxies Abell 1689, Centaurus, andRX J0658-55 (the ``bullet cluster''). We aim to show the advantages of thismethod of simultaneous spectral and spatial modeling over traditional X-rayspectral analysis. In Abell 1689 we confirm our earlier findings aboutstructure in the temperature distribution and produce a high-resolutiontemperature map. We also find a hint of velocity structure within the gas,consistent with previous findings. In the bullet cluster, RX J0658-55, weproduce the highest resolution temperature map ever to be published of thiscluster, allowing us to trace what looks like the trail of the motion of thebullet in the cluster. We even detect a south-to-north temperature gradientwithin the bullet itself. In the Centaurus cluster we detect, by dividing upthe luminosity of the cluster in bands of gas temperatures, a striking featureto the north-east of the cluster core. We hypothesize that this feature iscaused by a subcluster left over from a substantial merger that slightlydisplaced the core. We conclude that our method is very powerful in determiningthe spatial distributions of plasma temperatures and very useful for systematicstudies in cluster structure.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figure