We present a Chandra study of the metal distribution in the X-ray bright compact group of galaxies HCG 62. We find that the diffuse X-ray emission is peaked at the core of the central galaxy NGC 4778, and is dominated by the contribution of the hot gas. The diffuse emission is roughly symmetric within 0.25', which is straddled by double-sided X-ray cavities aligned in the northeast-southwest direction. By mapping the emission hardness ratio distributions and by performing the 2-dimensional spectral analysis, we identify a remarkable high-abundance arc region at about 2' (33.6h−1 70 kpc) from the X-ray peak that spans over a vast region from south to northwest, a part of which roughly coinciding with the outer edge of the southwest X-ray cavity. The measured average abundance in this arc is higher than that in its neighboring regions by a factor of about 2, and the abundance ratios therein are nicely consistent with the dominance of the SN Ia yields. We estimate that the mass of iron contained in the arc is>3×106h−2.5 70 M⊙, which accounts for>3% of the iron synthesized in the galaxy. The highabundance arc could have been formed by the AGN activities. However, it is also possible that the arc was formed in a recent merger as is implied by the recent optical kinematic study (Spavone et al. 2006), which implies that mergers may be as important as AGN activities in metal redistributions in early-type galaxies and their associated groups or clusters.

We present a study of the mass distributions in the bright E0 galaxy NGC 1407 and its associated group by analyzing the high quality Chandra and ROSAT X-ray spectroscopic data. In order to probe the stellar mass distribution we calculated the B-band mass-to-light ratio profile by comparing the observed line-strength indices and multi-color photometric data with different stellar synthesis model predictions. Based on the recent survey results we also have modeled the contribution from other group members to the stellar mass. We find that the gas is single-phase with a temperature of 0.7 keV within 1Re (1Re=9.0 kpc), which is typical for elliptical galaxies. Outside 1Re the gas temperature increases quickly outwards to>1 keV, indicating its group origin. With the high spatial resolution of Chandra we reveal that the X-ray surface brightness profile shows a central excess in the innermost region, and on both the total mass and dark matter profiles there is a flattened feature at about<1Re, which coincides with the gas temperature transition from the galactic level to the group level. We speculate that this may be a mark of the boundary between the galaxy and group halos, as has been seen in some other cluster/group-dominating galaxies. The total mass and dark matter distributions within 0.85Re are cuspy and can be approximated by power-law profiles with indices of 2, which are marginally consistent with the generalized NFW profiles with=2. The mass in outer regions can be well fitted by a single NFW profile, and the derived concentration parameter c (18.6±1.5) is larger than the 68% upper limit for a halo at z=0 with the given Mvir. We find that the NGC 1407 group has a baryondominated core, while the mass in the>1Re is dominated by dark matter. At the virial radius r200 = 572±118 kpc, the inferred mass and mass-to-light ratio are M200=2.20±0.42×1013 M⊙ and Mvir/LB=311±60 M⊙/LB,⊙, respectively, showing that the NGC 1407 group is an extremely dark system even comparable to many clusters of galaxies. Since the obtained total mass is lower than those given in the earlier galaxy kinematic works, we speculate that NGC 1400 is not a virialized member in the group’s gravitational potential well.

We present the Chandra study of the intermediately distant (z=0.194) cluster of galaxies MS 0839.9+2938. By performing both the projected and deprojected spectral analyses, we find that the gas temperature is approximately constant at about 4 keV in 130-444h-1 70 kpc. In the inner regions, the gas temperature descends towards the center, reaching<3 keV in the central 37h-1 70 kpc. This infers that the lower and upper limits of the mass deposit rate are 9-34M⊙ yr-1 and 96-126M⊙ yr-1, respectively within 74h-1 70 kpc where the gas is significantly colder. Along with the temperature drop, we detect a significant inward iron abundance increase from about 0.4 solar in the outer regions to 1 solar within the central 37h-1 70 kpc. Thus MS 0839.9+2938 is the cluster showing the most significant central iron excess at z> 0.2. We argue that most of the excess iron should have been contributed by SNe Ia. By utilizing the observed SN Ia rate and stellar mass loss rate, we estimate that the time needed to enrich the central region with excess iron is 6.4-7.9 Gyr, which is similar to those found for the nearby clusters. Coinciding with the optical extension of the cD galaxy (up to about 30h-1 70 kpc), the observed X-ray surface brightness profile exhibits an excess beyond the distribution expected by either the model or the NFW model, and can be well fitted with an empirical two- model that leads to a relatively flatter mass profile in the innermost region.

We present the first high spectral resolution X-ray observation of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4636, obtained with the Reflection Grating Spectrometer on-board the XMM-Newton Observatory. The resulting spectrum contains a wealth of emission lines from various charge states of oxygen, neon, magnesium, and iron. Examination of the cross-dispersion profiles of several of these lines provides clear, unambiguous evidence of resonance scattering by the highest oscillator strength lines, as well as a weak temperature gradient in the inner regions of the interstellar medium. We invoke a sophisticated new Monte Carlo technique which allows us to properly account for these effects in performing quantitative fits to the spectrum. Our spectral fits are not subject to many of the systematics that have plagued earlier investigations. The derived metal abundances are higher than have been inferred from prior, lower spectral resolution observations of this source (Awaki et al. 1994), but are still incompatible with conventional chemical enrichment models of elliptical galaxies. In addition, our data are incompatible with standard cooling flow models for this system-our derived upper limit to the mass deposition rate is below the predicted value by a factor of 3-5.

We present a new investigation of the mass-temperature (Mtot-TX) relation of 22 nearby clusters based on the analysis of their ROSAT X-ray surface brightness profiles (SX(r)) and their ASCA emission weighted temperatures. Two methods of the cluster mass estimations are employed and their results are compared: (1) the conventional model for gas distribution along with the isothermal and hydrostatic equilibrium assumptions, and (2) the NFW profile for dark matter distribution whose characteristic density and length are determined by the observed SX(r). These two models yield essentially the same goodness of fits for SX(r) and the similar Mtot-TX relations, with the latter demonstrating a significant departure from the simple gravitational scaling of Mtot ∝ T3/2 X. It is also shown that the best-fit Mtot-TX relations could be reconciled with the theoretical expectation if the low-temperature clusters (TX<3.5 keV) are excluded from the list, which lends support to the scenario that the intracluster medium is preheated in the early phase of cluster formation. Together with the entropy-temperature distribution, the existence of a similarity break at TX=3−4 keV in the dynamical scaling relations for galaxy clusters has been confirmed.