Shock heating and particle acceleration by the supersonic merger in Abell 3128

We propose to observe the merging cluster A 3128 in the HorologiumReticulumsupercluster for 100 ks. A 3128 has two Xray cores. Observations indicate thatone core is moving at Mach number Mvirgul6 through the cluster. This high velocitycauses shocks, which heat the plasma and give rise to particle acceleration,which in turn can produce nonthermal emission. The high Mach number makes A3128 one of the best targets to investigate shocks created by supersonic infallvelocities in clusters of galaxies and to look for nonthermal emission. Thesuperior effective area, spectral resolution and sensitivity make XMMNewton anideal instrument to look for the nonthermal emission and study the merger bymapping the temperature, density and metallicity distribution in the cluster. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]