Presentation description

Galaxy cluster mergers provide an excellent experimental platform for probing plasma of cosmic origins. Merger features like shock fronts help constrain plasma physics parameters like electron ion thermal equilibration timescales (eiTETs) between equilibration in a matter of seconds (instant model) and equilibration over tens of millions of years (collisional model). A preferred mode of eiTE in intergalactic plasma can have a profound impact on placing a check on the widely accepted cosmological model, ΛCDM. So far, constraints on eiTETs in cluster mergers have shown a mixed bag of results. This presentation aims to use a ~260 kilo-second NuSTAR observation of the galaxy cluster merger Abell 2146 to report the best-fit post-shock temperature and consequently the best-fit eiTET in the two shock fronts that Abell 2146 boasts of. Abell 2146 is a perfect candidate to wield the power of NuSTAR's hard X-ray imaging capabilities on since the merger's post-shock temperature is almost too high for the Chandra X-ray telescope to effectively study. So, although eiTETs have been studied for Abell 2146 using Chandra X-ray telescope data in the past, the limitations of Chandra at high temperatures coupled with discrepancies between NuSTAR and Chandra temperatures make examining Abell 2146 using NuSTAR data an important calibration experiment as well.