Clusters of Galaxies: Physics and Cosmology, 1st ed. 2020 Physics and Cosmology Space Sciences Series of ISSI Series, Vol. 72

Clusters of galaxies are large assemblies of galaxies, hot gas and dark matter bound together by gravity. Galaxy clusters are now one of the most important cosmological probes to test the standard cosmological models. Constraints on the Dark Energy equation of state from the cluster number density measurements, deviations from the Gaussian perturbation models, the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect as well as the dark matter proles are among the issues to be studied with clusters. The baryonic composition of clusters is dominated by hot gas that is in quasi-hydrostatic equilibrium within the dark matter-dominated gravitational potential well of the cluster. The hot gas is visible through spatially extended thermal X-ray emission, and it has been studied extensively both for assessing its physical properties and as a tracer of the large-scale structure of the Universe. Magnetic fields as well as a number of non-thermal plasma processes play a role in clusters of galaxies as we observe from radioastronomical observations.

Andrei Bykov is head of High Energy Astrophysics laboratory at  Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences and professor of St.Petersburg State Politechnical University. His principal research interests are theory and observations of processes in astrophysical objects with extreme energy release - supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, pulsar wind nebulae and clusters of galaxies.  He is author and coauthor of over 200 scientific papers, a book Turbulence, Current Sheets and Shocks in Cosmic Plasma and editor of four books on high energy astrophysics.

Jelle Kaastra is a senior scientist at SRON and professor of high-energy astrophysics at Leiden University. He is an expert on high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of cosmic plasmas,  and is currently principal investigator of the Reflection Grating Spectrometer on  XMM-Newton and the Low-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer on Chandra. He has an active track record on clusters of galaxies, active galactic nuclei and X-ray models for cosmic plasmas.

Marcus Bruggen is professor for extragalactic astronomy at the University of Hamburg. He is an expert in astrophysical fluid dynamics and high-energy astrophysics, and works both on theoretical and observational projects. Most of his work is concerned with the physics of the intracluster medium and its use as a physics laboratory. Currently, he coordinates the German involvement in the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR).

Maxim Markevitch is an astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and a co-investigator of the forthcoming XRISM X-ray spectroscopy mission. He has studied galaxy clusters using multiple X-ray observatories, including Granat, ROSAT, ASCA, Chandra, XMM-Newton and Hitomi, as well as numeric simulations, and is a recipient of the Bruno Rossi