The interpretation of XRISM X-ray measurements of turbulence in the intracluster medium: A comparison with cosmological simulations

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna Via Gobetti 92/3 40121 Bologna, Italy
² Istituto di Radio Astronomia, INAF Via Gobetti 101 40121 Bologna, Italy

^★ Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 24 June 2025
Accepted: 20 November 2025

Abstract

We investigate whether the properties of turbulent gas motions recently measured via X-ray spectroscopy in the Coma cluster of galaxies by XRISM are in tension with the turbulent picture established by current numerical cosmological simulations. We use a high-resolution simulation of a Coma-like cluster and show that the simulation yields velocity structure functions and X-ray line-widths that are compatible with those measured by the XRISM observations of Coma. In particular, it has previously been suggested that a much steeper turbulence spectrum than Kolmogorov’s would be needed to explain the XRISM observations under a homogeneous, cluster volume-filling turbulence model. Our results show that this tension is overcome thanks to the more complicated turbulent picture in cosmological simulations, which indeed shows a patchy distribution of turbulent regions in galaxy clusters, with a spectrum that is generally consistent with a Kolmogorov power law over a fairly wide range of scales. More generally, our study highlights the fact that the interpretation of XRISM data of galaxy clusters depends on the turbulence model used and the importance of combining data and advanced simulations in the future steps.