Star formation in a cooling flow

Abstract

The central galaxies in some clusters are observed to accrete cooling intracluster gas at rates of between 4 and 300 solar masses per year. The colors and luminosities of these galaxies show evidence for star formation at less than 10 per cent of those rates, if the stellar initial-mass-function is similar to that in the solar neighborhood. It is shown that the high-pressure dust-free environment in the cooling flow lowers the Jeans mass and thereby favors the formation of lower-mass stars. The lack of detectable H I in most of these clusters is also explained.