Mass profiles of galaxy cluster cores

Abstract We present mass profiles for the cores of a sample of relaxed galaxy clusters. We determine if the core plasma in each cluster contains multiple phases, and derive non-parametric baryon density and temperature profiles. We use these to construct total gravitating mass profiles and calculate their core logarithmic density slopes. We find that the cores are roughly consistent with the predictions of Λ CDM; −1 ≲ d log( ρ )/d log ( r ) ≲ −2.