Inverse Compton scattering as the source of diffuse euv emission in the coma cluster of galaxies

Apr, 1998
11 pages
Published in:
  • Astrophys.J. 506 (1998) 502
e-Print:
Report number:
  • COMA-98

Citations per year

19982003200820132016024681012
Abstract: (arXiv)
We have examined the hypothesis that the majority of the diffuse EUV flux in the Coma cluster is due to inverse Compton scattering of low energy cosmic ray electrons (0.16 < epsilon < 0.31 GeV) against the 3K black-body background. We present data on the two-dimensional spatial distribution of the EUV flux and show that these data provide strong support for a non-thermal origin for the EUV flux. However, we show that this emission cannot be produced by an extrapolation to lower energies of the observed synchrotron radio emitting electrons and an additional component of low energy cosmic ray electrons is required.