CaltechAUTHORS
Published November 1, 2025 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Comparing XRISM Cluster Velocity Dispersions with Predictions from Cosmological Simulations: Are Feedback Models Too Ejective?

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Geneva
  • 2. ROR icon Ehime University
  • 3. ROR icon University of Maryland, College Park
  • 4. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 5. Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, NASA/GSFC (CRESST II), Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
  • 6. ROR icon University of Tokyo
  • 7. ROR icon Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
  • 8. ROR icon University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • 9. ROR icon Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  • 10. ROR icon Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • 11. ROR icon University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
  • 12. ROR icon Netherlands Institute for Space Research
  • 13. ROR icon European Southern Observatory
  • 14. ROR icon Durham University
  • 15. ROR icon Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
  • 16. ROR icon Kumamoto Gakuen University
  • 17. ROR icon Kyoto University
  • 18. ROR icon Tokyo Metropolitan University
  • 19. ROR icon Hiroshima University
  • 20. ROR icon Fujita Health University
  • 21. ROR icon Saint Mary's University
  • 22. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 23. ROR icon European Space Research and Technology Centre
  • 24. ROR icon University of Miyazaki
  • 25. RIKEN Nishina Center, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
  • 26. ROR icon Leiden University
  • 27. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 28. ROR icon Saitama University
  • 29. ROR icon Rikkyo University
  • 30. ROR icon Tokyo University of Science
  • 31. ROR icon Shibaura Institute of Technology
  • 32. ROR icon Osaka University
  • 33. ROR icon University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • 34. ROR icon University of Waterloo
  • 35. ROR icon Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology
  • 36. ROR icon Nagoya University
  • 37. ROR icon University of Teacher Education Fukuoka
  • 38. ROR icon Tohoku Gakuin University
  • 39. ROR icon Kanto Gakuin University
  • 40. ROR icon European Space Astronomy Centre
  • 41. ROR icon Kindai University
  • 42. ROR icon Nara University of Education
  • 43. ROR icon Tohoku University
  • 44. ROR icon Nara Women's University
  • 45. ROR icon Kyoto Sangyo University
  • 46. ROR icon Meiji University
  • 47. ROR icon Yale University
  • 48. ROR icon Konan University
  • 49. ROR icon Kagoshima University
  • 50. ROR icon Chuo University
  • 51. ROR icon Shizuoka University
  • 52. ROR icon Kanazawa University
  • 53. ROR icon Nihon Fukushi University
  • 54. ROR icon University of Amsterdam
  • 55. ROR icon Johns Hopkins University
  • 56. ROR icon University of Chicago
  • 57. ROR icon Autonomous University of Madrid
  • 58. ROR icon Royal Observatory
  • 59. NAF, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio, via Piero Gobetti 93/3, 40129 Bologna, Italy
  • 60. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Bologna
  • 61. ROR icon Arizona State University
  • 62. ROR icon Heidelberg University
  • 63. ROR icon University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
  • 64. ROR icon University of Alabama in Huntsville
  • 65. ROR icon University of Utah
  • 66. ROR icon Masaryk University

Abstract

The dynamics of the intracluster medium (ICM), the hot plasma that fills galaxy clusters, are shaped by gravity-driven cluster mergers and feedback from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the cluster cores. XRISM measurements of ICM velocities in several clusters offer insights into these processes. We compare XRISM measurements for nine galaxy clusters (Virgo, Perseus, Centaurus, Hydra-A, PKS 0745–19, A2029, Coma, A2319, and Ophiuchus) with predictions from three state-of-the-art cosmological simulation suites, TNG-Cluster, the Three Hundred Project GADGET-X, and GIZMO-SIMBA, that employ different models of feedback. In cool cores, XRISM reveals systematically lower velocity dispersions than the simulations predict, with all 10 measurements below the median simulated values by a factor of 1.5–1.7 on average and all falling within the bottom 10% of the predicted distributions. The observed kinetic-to-total pressure ratio is also lower, with a median value of 2.2%, compared to the predicted 5.0%–6.5% for the three simulations. Outside the cool cores and in non-cool-core (NCC) clusters, simulations show better agreement with XRISM measurements, except for the outskirts of the relaxed, cool-core cluster A2029, which exhibits an exceptionally low kinetic pressure support (<1%), with none of the simulated systems in either of the three suites reaching such low levels. The NCC Coma and A2319 exhibit dispersions at the lower end but within the simulated spread. Our comparison suggests that the three numerical models may overestimate the kinetic effects of SMBH feedback in cluster cores. Additional XRISM observations of NCC clusters will clarify if there is a systematic tension in the gravity-dominated regime as well.

Copyright and License

© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

Acknowledgement

The findings reported here reflect more than 30 yr of work by scientists and engineers who developed an X-ray microcalorimeter array and overcame major setbacks. We thank the entire XRISM team for their work in building, launching, calibrating, and operating the observatory. Our thanks also go to the referee for helpful comments. Part of this work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and by NASA under contracts 80GSFC21M0002 and 80GSFC24M0006 and grants 80NSSC20K0733, 80NSSC18K0978, 80NSSC20K0883, 80NSSC20K0737, 80NSSC23K0646, 80NSSC24K0678, 80NSSC18K1684, 80NSSC23K0650, and 80NNSC22K1922. Support was provided by JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. JP23H00121, JP22H00158, JP23H04899, JP21K13963, JP24K00638, JP24K17105, JP21K13958, JP21H01095, JP23K20850, JP24H00253, JP21K03615, JP24K00677, JP20K14491, JP23H00151, JP19K21884, JP20H01947, JP20KK0071, JP23K20239, JP24K00672, JP24K17104, JP24K17093, JP20K04009, JP21H04493, JP20H01946, JP23K13154, JP19K14762, JP20H05857, JP23K03459, and JP25H00672, the JSPS Core-to-Core Program, JPJSCCA20220002, and the Strategic Research Center of Saitama University. This work has been made possible by the Three Hundred collaboration. We acknowledge the Red Española de Supercomputación for granting computing time for running the hydrodynamic simulations of the Three Hundred galaxy cluster project in the Marenostrum supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. We would like to thank Arif Babul, Elena Rasia, Thomas Hough, and Annalisa Pillepich for their helpful discussions during the development of this work. S.G. acknowledges support from NSF award 2233001. L.C. acknowledges support from NSF award 2205918. C.D. acknowledges support from STFC through grant ST/T000244/1. L.G. acknowledges support from Canadian Space Agency grant 18XARMSTMA. N.O. acknowledges partial support by the Organization for the Promotion of Gender Equality at Nara Women’s University. M.S. acknowledges support by the RIKEN Pioneering Project Evolution of Matter in the Universe (r-EMU) and Rikkyo University Special Fund for Research (Rikkyo SFR). A.T. acknowledges support from the Kagoshima University postdoctoral research program (KU-DREAM). S.Y. acknowledges support by the RIKEN SPDR Program. I.Z. acknowledges partial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation through the Sloan Research Fellowship. D.N. acknowledges funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through an Emmy Noether Research Group (grant number NE 2441/1-1). C.Z. was supported by the GACR grant 21-13491X. S.E. acknowledges the financial contribution from the contracts Prin-MUR 2022 supported by Next Generation EU (M4.C2.1.1, n.20227RNLY3 The concordance cosmological model: stress-tests with galaxy clusters) and from the Bando INAF per la Ricerca Fondamentale 2024 with a Theory Grant on “Constraining the non-thermal pressure in galaxy clusters with high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy” (1.05.24.05.10). W.C. is supported by Atracción de Talento contract no. 2020-T1/TIC19882 granted by the Comunidad de Madrid and by the Consolidación Investigadora grant No. CNS2024-154838 granted by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) in Spain. He also thanks the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) for financial support under project grant PID2021-122603NB-C21, ERC: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE for supporting the LACEGAL-III Latin American Chinese European Galaxy Formation Network) project with grant number 101086388, and the science research grants from the China Manned Space Project, CMS-CSST-2025-A04.

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2510.06322 (arXiv)

Funding

United States Department of Energy
DE-AC52-07NA27344
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80GSFC21M0002
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80GSFC24M0006
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC20K0733
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC18K0978
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC20K0883
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC20K0737
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC23K0646
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC24K0678
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC18K1684
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC23K0650
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NNSC22K1922
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP23H00121
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP22H00158
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP23H04899
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP21K13963
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP24K00638
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP24K17105
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP21K13958
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP21H01095
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP23K20850
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP24H00253
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP21K03615
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP24K00677
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP20K14491
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP23H00151
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP19K21884
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP20H01947
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP20KK0071
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP23K20239
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP24K00672
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP24K17104
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP24K17093
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP20K04009
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP21H04493
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP20H01946
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP23K13154
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP19K14762
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP20H05857
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP23K03459
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JP25H00672
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
JPJSCCA20220002
Saitama University
National Science Foundation
2233001
National Science Foundation
2205918
Science and Technology Facilities Council
ST/T000244/1
Canadian Space Agency
18XARMSTMA
Nara Women's University
RIKEN
Rikkyo University
Kagoshima University
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
NE 2441/1-1
Czech Science Foundation
21-13491X
European Union
20227RNLY
Comunidad de Madrid
2020-T1/TIC19882
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
CNS2024-154838
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2021-122603NB-C21
European Research Council
101086388

Dates

Submitted
2025-09-11
Accepted
2025-10-02
Available
2025-10-24
Published

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Caltech groups
Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status
Published