The effect of gamma quanta absorption due to

interaction with thermal bremsstrahlung photons of

hot gas in galaxy clusters
A N Popov1 , D P Barsukov1 , A V Ivanchik1 and S V Bobashev1
1
Ioffe Institute, Saint Petersburg, Russia
E-mail: alexander.popov@mail.ioffe.ru

Abstract. The interaction of gamma quantum from distant sources with thermal
bremsstrahlung photons of hot intracluster gas with producing electron-positron pair in case
of 10 galaxy clusters is considered. It is supposed that intracluster gas in considered clusters is
isothermal and electron number density may be described by β distribution with β = 2/3. It is
presented that the optical depth due to considered interaction is about 10−8 − 10−7 .

1. Introduction
There are many processes that leads to distortion of spectrum of cosmological sources like
quasars and others active galactic nuclei on the way of photons from sources to observer.
The most important process among them is the gamma quanta interaction with Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) photons [1]. It dominates at gamma quanta energy E ∼
100 TeV − 107 TeV [2, 3]. At gamma quanta energy E ∼ 100 GeV − 100 TeV the interaction of
gamma quanta with optical and infrared photons is important [4, 5, 6]. At smaller energies
E ∼ 100 MeV − 100 GeV the interaction to Cosmic Xray Background (CXB) photons [7]
and Cosmic Ultraviolet (CUB) photons [8] may become important. The interaction of gamma
quantum to thermal bremsstrahlung photons of hot intracluster gas with producing electron-
positron pair was considered in [9]. In the paper [10] gamma quanta scattering on free electrons
is considered. In this paper we consider the interaction with bremsstrahlung photons of hot
intracluster gas of the same clusters, that were considered in [10].

2. Model
We consider the gamma quanta with energy E passing near galaxy cluster at distance L to its
center (see figure 1) and calculate its optical depth τ due to the interaction with electron-positron
pair production with bremsstrahlung photons radiated by hot intracluster gas in optically thin
clusters (see details of calculations in [9]). In this paper we consider the same galaxy clusters
that were considered in [10]. According to [10] it is possible to expect that these clusters may
have the largest optical depth τ . Parameters of the clusters gas taken from [10] are listed in
table 1. We assume that the gas in these galaxy clusters is isothermal with temperature Te and
has spherically symmetric number density distribution which may be described as:
!−1
R2
N = Nc 1+ 2 , (1)
Rc

where Rc is characteristic radius of the cluster and Nc is gas number density in the center of
the cluster [10].

z
Ψ
~n
Figure 1. A sketch to illustrate the
considered geometry. The intracluster
R gas is shown by yellow circle, gamma
x quantum path is shown by green line,
bremsstrahlung photon path is shown by
L red line.

10−6
10−6
10−7
10−7
10−8
10−8
10−9

10−9
10−10
τ

10−10
10−11 L=0 L=0
L=2 Rc L=2 Rc
10−11
10−12 L=10 Rc L=10 Rc
EBL EBL
10−13 CUB 10−12 CUB
CXB CXB
−14 −13
10 10

10−15 10−14
101 101.5 102 102.5 103 103.5 104 104.5 105 101 101.5 102 102.5 103 103.5 104 104.5 105
E / 1 MeV E / 1 MeV

Figure 2. The dependence of optical depth τ on gamma quantum energy E for various values
of distance L is presented. The left graph corresponds to cluster A 1991, the right graph
corresponds to cluster AS 1063.

3. Results
The dependence of optical depth τ on gamma quantum energy E is presented in figures 2 - 6.
Besides contribution of hot gas in clusters, the optical depth due to gamma quanta interaction
with EBL [4] and CXB [7] are presented by brown and yellow lines correspondingly. Optical
depth due to interaction with CUB photons is presented by violet line. In the last case we use
the upper limit of CUB spectra taken from [8]. During calculation the optical depth, we neglect
the variation of background radiation with z and use corresponding spectra at z = 0.
The dependence of ratio of optical depth τ due to pair production at gamma quantum energy
E = 1 MeV and E = 1 GeV to optical depth τe due to scattering on free electrons at gamma
quantum energy E = 1 MeV taken from [10] for galaxy cluster listed in table 1 is presented
 10−5.5 10−5

−6
10

10−6
10−6.5

10−7
10−7
10−7.5
τ

τ
10−8 L=0 L=0
L=2 Rc 10−8 L=2 Rc
10−8.5 L=10 Rc L=10 Rc
EBL EBL
10−9 CUB CUB
CXB 10−9 CXB

10−9.5

10−10 1 10−10 1
10 101.5 102 102.5 103 103.5 104 104.5 105 10 101.5 102 102.5 103 103.5 104 104.5 105
E / 1 MeV E / 1 MeV

Figure 3. The same as in figure 2. The left graph corresponds to Bullet cluster IE 0657-558,
the right graph corresponds to El Cordo cluster AT J0102-4915.

10−7 10−6

10−8
10−7
10−9

10−8
10−10
τ

10−11 10−9
L=0 L=0
L=2 Rc L=2 Rc
10−12 L=10 Rc L=10 Rc
−10
10
EBL EBL
10−13 CUB CUB
CXB −11 CXB
−14
10
10

10−15 1 10−12 1
10 101.5 102 102.5 103 103.5 104 104.5 105 10 101.5 102 102.5 103 103.5 104 104.5 105
E / 1 MeV E / 1 MeV

Figure 4. The same as in figure 2. The left graph corresponds to Leo cluster A 1367, the right
graph corresponds to Perseus cluster A 426.

10−5 10−5

10−6 10
−6

−7
10
10−7
τ

−8
10
L=0 10−8
L=2 Rc L=0
10
−9 L=10 Rc L=2 Rc
EBL L=10 Rc
−9
CUB 10 EBL
CXB CUB
−10
10 CXB

−10
10
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 1 1.5 2
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 102.5 103 103.5 104 104.5 105
E / 1 MeV E / 1 MeV

Figure 5. The same as in figure 2. The left graph corresponds to Phoenix cluster ST J2344-
4243, the right graph corresponds to cluster ST J0615-5746.
 10−5 10−6

10−7
10−6
10−8

10−7 10−9

10−10
10−8
τ

τ
L=0 10−11 L=0
L=2 Rc L=2 Rc
−9
10 L=10 Rc 10−12 L=10 Rc
EBL EBL
CUB 10−13 CUB
CXB CXB
10−10
−14
10

10−11 1 10−15 1
10 101.5 102 102.5 103 103.5 104 104.5 105 10 101.5 102 102.5 103 103.5 104 104.5 105
E / 1 MeV E / 1 MeV

Figure 6. The same as in figure 2. The left graph corresponds to cluster ST J2106-5844, the
right graph corresponds to cluster Virgo.

Table 1. Parameters of clusters taken from [10] are presented. Here Te is the intracluster gas
temperature, Nc is its number density in cluster center, Rc is characteristic radius of the cluster,
z is cluster redshift.
Cluster kTe , keV Rc , kpc Nc , 10−3 cm−3 z
AS 1063 1.5 370 2.9 0.348
A 1991 2.3 60 6.4 0.059
Bullet 12.4 170 12.3 0.296
El Cordo 14.5 270 8.9 0.870
Leo 3.7 210 1.1 0.022
Perseus 6.0 280 4.6 0.018
Phoenix 14.9 290 4.8 0.596
ST J0615-5746 14.2 230 7.2 0.972
ST J2106-5844 9.4 200 11.5 1.132
Virgo 2.4 310 2.7 0.004

in figures 7 - 9. Left graphs correspond to optical depth τ calculated at E = 1 MeV, right

graphs correspond to optical depth τ calculated at E = 1 GeV. In case of E = 1 MeV gamma
quanta interacts only with photons from exponential tail of bremsstrahlung spectra. Hence
optical depth highly depends on gas temperature and almost randomly depends on other gas
parameters. So it is not any evident dependence of the ratio τ /τe on cluster radius Rc and gas
density Nc in left graphs of figures 7 and 8. The clusters AS1063, A1991 and Virgo are not shown
in left graphs because its are the coldest clusters in list and hence its have very small optical
depth at this energy τ ∼ 1.7 · 10−88 , τ ∼ 10−62 and τ ∼ 6 · 10−60 correspondingly. In right graph
of figure 7 we see nearby to linear dependence of the ratio τ /τe on central gas density Nc with
exception of A1991 and Bullet cluster. It is because of the optical depth τ is proportional to
density bremsstrahlung photons and hence is proportional to square of gas density and optical
depth τe is directly proportional to gas density. We may speculate that deviation of A1991 and
Bullet clusters from the linear dependence may be related with its compactness.
 10−10 9
ST J2106−5844
−15 8
10 El Cordo
7 ST J0615−5746
10−20

104 ⋅ (τ / τe)
6 Bullet
Phoenix
τ / τe

5
10−25 AS 1063
4
Coma
10−30 3 Perseus

10−35 2 Virgo

1 A 1991
−40 Leo
10
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Nc / 10−3 cm−3 Nc / 10−3 cm−3

Figure 7. The dependence of ratio of optical depth τ due to pair production to optical depth
τe due to scattering on free electrons taken from [10] for galaxy cluster listed in table 1 on
central cluster gas density Nc is presented. The left graph corresponds to τ , calculated at
gamma quanta energy E = 1 MeV, the right graph corresponds to τ , calculated at gamma
quanta energy E = 1 GeV. In both graphs optical depth τe is taken at gamma quanta energy
E = 1 MeV.

10−10 9
−15 8
10
7
10−20
104 ⋅ (τ / τe)

6
τ / τe

5
10−25
4
10−30 3
10−35 2
1
10−40
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40
Rc / 1 Mpc Rc / 1 Mpc

Figure 8. The same as in figure 7, but the dependence of ratio τ /τe on cluster radius Rc is
presented.

10−10 9
8
10−15
7
10−20
104 ⋅ (τ / τe)

6
τ / τe

5
10−25
4
10−30 3
10−35 2
1
10−40
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
k Te / 1 keV k Te / 1 keV

Figure 9. The same as in figure 7, but the dependence of ratio τ /τe on intracluster gas
temperature Te is presented.

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