Note on a polytropic β-model to fit the X-ray surface brightness of clusters of galaxies

I suggest that the beta-model used to fit the X-ray surface brightness profiles of extended sources, like groups and clusters of galaxies, has to be corrected when the counts are collected in a wide energy band comparable to the mean temperature of the source, and a significant gradient in the gas temperature is observed. I present a revised version of the beta-model for the X-ray brightness that applies to an intracluster gas with temperature and density related by a polytropic equation and extends the standard version that is strictly valid for an isothermal gas. Given a temperature gradient observed through an energy window of 1-10 keV typical for the new generation of X-ray observatories, the beta parameter can change systematically by up to 20 per cent from the value obtained under isothermal assumption, i.e. by an amount larger than any statistical uncertainty obtained from the present data. Within the virial regions of typical clusters of galaxies, these systematic corrections affect the total gravitating mass estimate by 5-10 per cent, the gas mass by 10-30 per cent and the gas fraction value up to 50 per cent, when compared with the measurements obtained under the isothermal assumption.