The Formation of Metals in Galaxy Clusters

In rich galaxy clusters, about 8090% of the metals and the baryons lie in thehot intracluster medium, with the metals believed to originate from the galaxieswe see today. However, studies show that the total metal mass scales with thegas mass but not with the stellar mass (the galaxies). The implication is thatmost of the metals were produced outside of the visible galaxies by an earlyepoch of supernovae a paradigm change in our understanding of heavy elementformation. To deepen our understanding of this topic, we will examine whetherthe metallicities in rich clusters remain at their nearuniversal value as thestellar fraction approaches zero. Specifically, we propose to determine accuratemetallicities in a cluster with an exceedingly low stellar fraction. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]