Multi-phenomena Modeling of the New Bullet-like Cluster ZwCl 008.8+52 Using N-body/Hydrodynamical Simulations

We use N-body/hydrodynamical simulations to interpret the newly discovered Bullet-Cluster-like merging cluster ZwCl 0008.8+5215 (ZwCl008 hereafter), where a dramatic collision is apparent from multiwavelength observations. We have been able to find a self-consistent solution for the radio, X-ray, and lensing phenomena by projecting an off-axis, binary cluster encounter viewed just after first core passage. A pair of radio relics traces the leading (bow) and trailing (back) shock fronts that our simulation predicts, providing constraints on the collision parameters. We can also account for the observed distinctive comet-like X-ray morphology and the positions of the X-ray peaks relative to the two lensing mass centroids and the location of the well-defined bow shock. Relative to the Bullet Cluster, the total mass is about 70% lower, ∼1.2 × 1015 M , with a correspondingly lower infall velocity, ∼1800 km s−1, and an impact parameter of P ∼ 400 kpc. As a result, the gas component of the infalling cluster is not trailing significantly behind the associated dark matter as in the case of the Bullet Cluster.