Metal distributions out to 0.5 r180 in the intracluster medium of four galaxy groups observed with Suzaku

Abstract: We studied the distributions of metal abundances and metal-mass-to-light ratios in the intracluster medium (ICM) of four galaxy groups, MKW 4, HCG 62, the NGC 1550 group, and the NGC 5044 group, out to 0.5 r180 observed with Suzaku. The Fe abundance decreases with radius, and about 0.2-0.4 solar beyond 0.1 r180. At a given radius in units of r180, the Fe abundance in the ICM of the four galaxy groups were consistent or smaller than those of clusters of galaxies. The Mg/Fe and Si/Fe ratios in the ICM are nearly constant at the solar ratio out to 0.5 r180. We also studied systematic uncertainties in the derived metal abundances comparing the results from two versions of atomic data for astrophysicists (ATOMDB) and single- and two temperature model fits. Since the metals have been synthesized in galaxies, we collected K-band luminosities of galaxies from Two Micron All Sky Survey catalogue (2MASS) and calculated the integrated iron-mass-to-light-ratios (IMLR), or the ratios of the iron mass in the ICM to light from stars in galaxies. The groups with smaller gas mass to light ratios have smaller IMLR values and the IMLR inversely correlated with the entropy excess. Based on these abundance features, we discussed the past history of metal enrichment process in groups of galaxies.