Craig L. Sarazin, W. H. Vanderbilt Professor

My Picture

Chandra Image of E6 Galaxy NGC 4697
Chandra Image of NGC4697
The adaptively smoothed Chandra X-ray image of the central region of the X-ray-faint elliptical galaxy NGC 4697. The image shows that most of the X-ray emission is resolved by Chandra into about 80 Low Mass X-ray Binary (LMXB) star systems, which contain accreting massive black holes and neutron stars (Sarazin, Irwin, & Bregman 2000, 2001)

Research interests:

Post Doc Positions Available:

Curriculum Vitae:


Hydra A Chandra Image
Chandra Image of Hydra A
Chandra X-ray image of the central region of the cluster of galaxies (Abell 780) surrounding the radio galaxy Hydra A. This image shows a radio (green and maroon) overlay on the Chandra X-ray (pink and blue) image of Hydra A. It shows that the radio lobes are displacing and being confined by the 40 million degree X-ray gas in the cluster (McNamara et al. 2000).

Courses taught:

Astronomy 121: Introduction to the Sky and the Solar System
Astronomy 124: Introduction to the Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe
Astronomy 211: General Astronomy I
Astronomy 212: General Astronomy II
Astronomy 395: Tutorial: Clusters of Galaxies
Astronomy 395: Tutorial: X-ray Astronomy
Astronomy 498: Senior Thesis
Astronomy 542: The Interstellar Medium
Astronomy 545: High Energy Astrophysics
Astronomy 571: Fundamental Concepts in Astronomy: The Sky and the Solar System
Astronomy 572: Fundamental Concepts in Astronomy: Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe

This semester (Fall 2007):

Astronomy 211: General Astronomy I


Older Publications:

My book: "X-ray Emission from Clusters of Galaxies," C. L. Sarazin, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), i-x,1-252 (1988), is now available on-line at Many thanks to Barry Madore and all of the other people at NED/IPAC and to Simon Mitton and the Cambridge University Press for making this possible!

My review paper (on which the book is based) "X-ray Emission from Clusters of Galaxies," C. L. Sarazin, Reviews of Modern Physics, 58, 1-115 (1986), is also now available online at There are several other mirror sites.

Other Older Publications


Preprints and Recent Papers:


Hydrodymical Simulation of Cluster Merger
Cluster Merger
Hydrodynamical simulation of a merger of two identical clusters of galaxies. The colors show temperature (red=hotter, blue=cooler), while the contours are X-ray surface brightness. The red regions are merger shocks ( Ricker & Sarazin 2001a, 2002b).

  • XMM-Newton Observation of Diffuse Gas and LMXBs in the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4649 (M60), Randall, S. W., Sarazin, C. L., & Irwin, J. A. 2006, ApJ, 636, 200
  • Chandra Observations of A2670 and A2107: Galaxy Clusters with Large cD Peculiar Velocities, Fujita, Y., Sarazin, C. L., & Sivakoff, G. R. 2006, PASJ, 58, 131
  • Low Mass X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies, Sarazin, C. L., Sivakoff, G. R., Juett, A. M., Jordan, A., & Cote, P. 2006, in The X-ray Universe 2005, (Noordwijk, Netherlands: ESA), 409
  • X-ray and Radio Observations of Interactions in Cooling Core Clusters, Clarke, T. E., Sarazin, C., Blanton, E., & Kassim, N. 2006, in The X-ray Universe 2005, (Noordwijk, Netherlands: ESA), 735
  • Low Mass X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies, Sarazin, C. L. 2006, in Populations of High Energy Sources in Galaxies, ed. E. J. A. Meurs & G. Fabbiano (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.\ Press), 200-204
    Abell 2052 Chandra Image
    Chandra Image of Abell 2052
    The Chandra X-ray Observatory image (false color) of the central part of the cooling flow cluster of galaxies Abell 2052, with contours of the radio emission overlaid. The radio source has blown "bubbles" in the hot X-ray gas. The radio source is in turn being confined by the X-ray gas (Blanton et al. 2001, 2003).

  • Multi-Epoch Observations of LMXBs in Early-type Galaxies, Sivakoff, G. R., Jordan, A., Juett, A. M., Sarazin, C. L. Cote, P., & Irwin, J. A. 2006, in Populations of High Energy Sources in Galaxies, ed. E. J. A. Meurs & G. Fabbiano (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.\ Press), 210-214
  • Chandra Observation of Abell 2065: An Unequal Mass Merger? Chatzikos, M., Sarazin, C. L., & Kempner, J. C. 2006, ApJ, 643, 751
  • X-ray Detection of the Proto Supermassive Binary Black Hole at the Centre of Abell 400, Hudson, D. S., Reiprich, T. H., Clarke, T. E., & Sarazin, C. L. 2006, A&A, 453, 433
  • Diffuse Radio Sources in Clusters of Galaxies: Models and Long Wavelength Radio Observations, Sarazin, C. L. 2006, in IAU Joint Discussion 12: Long Wavelength Astrophysics, 365
  • Chandra Observation of the Interaction of the Radio Source and Cooling Core in Abell 2063, Kanov, K. N., Sarazin, C. L., & Hicks, A. K. 2006, ApJ, 653, 184
    Chandra X-ray/Radio Overlay of Cluster Abell 133
    Chandra Image of A133
    The adaptively smoothed Chandra X-ray image of the central region of the cluster Abell 133 is shown in red. The VLA radio image is shown in green. The yellow region to the lower left is the central cD galaxy, which is a radio source and a peak in the X-ray emission. A red "tongue" of X-ray emission extends from the cD galaxy to the spidery green radio relic source at the upper center (Fujita et al. 2002, 2003, 2004,).

  • A New Gamma-Ray Burst Classification Scheme from GRB 060614, Gehrels, N., Norris, J. P., Barthelmy, S. D., Granot, J., Kaneko, Y., Kouveliotou, C., Markwardt, C. B., Meszaros, P., Nakar, E., Nousek, J. A., O'Brien, P. T., Page, M., Palmer, D. M., Parsons, A. M., Roming, P. W. A., Sakamoto, T., Sarazin, C. L., Schady P., Stamatikos, M., & Woosley, S. E. 2006, Nature, 444, 1044 (astro-ph/0610635)
  • Revisiting the Low Metallicity Problem of the Hot ISM in X-ray Faint Early-type Galaxies, Irwin, J, Sivakoff, G. R., Sarazin, C. L., Ji, J., Bregman, J. N., & Mathews, W. G. 2006, BAAS, 38, 899
  • Chandra Observation of the Cluster Environment of a WAT Radio Source in Abell 1446, Douglass, E., Blanton, E., Clarke, T., Sarazin, C., & Wise M. 2006, BAAS, 38, 999
  • Low Frequency Radio Observations and the Effects of Mergers and Radio Galaxies on the Intracluster Gas in Clusters of Galaxies, Sarazin, C. L., Wik, D. R., Clarke, T. E., Anderson, L., & Blanton, E. L. 2007, in X-ray Surveys: Evolution of Accretion, Star-Formation, and the Large Scale Structure, ed. I. Georgantropoulos & M. Plionis (Athens: National Observatory Athens), 53
  • Constructing a Library of Galaxy Cluster Merger Simulations, Chatzikos, M., & Sarazin, C. 2007, in X-ray Surveys: Evolution of Accretion, Star-Formation, and the Large Scale Structure, ed. I. Georgantropoulos & M. Plionis (Athens: National Observatory Athens), 76
    Chandra Image of Merging Abell 85 Cluster of Galaxies
    Abell 85
    The Chandra ACIS-I image of the merging cluster of galaxies Abell 85. Two smaller clusters to the southwest and south are merging with the main cluster, which as a cooling flow at its center. The southern subcluster has a "cold front" (a contact discontinuity with cooler gas from the subcluster core) at its northern edge. ( Kempner, Sarazin, & Ricker 2002a, 2002b, 2002c).

  • X-ray Observations of Clusters with Wide-Angle Tail Radio Galaxies, Blanton, E., Douglass, E., Wing, J., Sarazin, C., & Clarke, T. 2007, in X-ray Surveys: Evolution of Accretion, Star-Formation, and the Large Scale Structure, ed. I. Georgantropoulos & M. Plionis (Athens: National Observatory Athens), 78
  • The Low-Mass X-ray Binary and Globular Cluster Connection in Virgo Cluster Early-type Galaxies: Optical Properties, Sivakoff. G. R., Jordan. A., Sarazin, C. L., Blakeslee, J. P., Cote, P., Ferrarese, L., Juett, A. M., Mei, S., Merritt, D., Milosavljevic, M., Peng, E. W., Tonry, J. L., & West, M. J. 2007, ApJ, 660, 1246
  • Studying the Nature of Dark Energy with Galaxy Clusters, Reiprich, T. H., Hudson, D. S., Erben, T., & Sarazin, C. L. 2007, AN, 328, 689
  • Introduction to Cluster Cooling Cores, Sarazin, C. L. 2007, in Heating Versus Cooling in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies, ed. H. Bohringer, G. W. Pratt, A. Finoguenov, & P. Schuecker (Berlin: Springer-Verlag), 3
  • A Deep Chandra Observation of A2052, Blanton, E. L., Douglass, E. M., Sarazin, C. L., Clarke, T. E., & McNamara, B. R. 2007, in Heating Versus Cooling in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies, ed. H. Bohringer, G. W. Pratt, A. Finoguenov, & P. Schuecker (Berlin: Springer-Verlag), 109
  • Tracing Ghost Cavities with Low Frequency Radio Observations, Clarke, T. E., Blanton, E. L., Sarazin, C. L., Kassim, N., Anderson, L., Schmitt, H., Gopal Krishna, & Neumann, D. 2007, in Heating Versus Cooling in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies, ed. H. Bohringer, G. W. Pratt, A. Finoguenov, & P. Schuecker (Berlin: Springer-Verlag), 124
  • Diffuse Radio Sources in Clusters of Galaxies: Models and Long Wavelength Radio Observations, Sarazin, C. L. 2007, Highlight of Astronomy, 14, 369
  • Low-Mass X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in Centaurus A, Jordan, A., Sivakoff, G. R., McLaughlin, D. E., Blakeslee, J. P., Evans, D. A., Kraft, R. P., Hardcastle, M. J., Peng, E. W., Cote, P., Croston, J. H., Juett, A. M., Minniti, D., Raychaudhury, S., Sarazin, C. L., Worrall, D. M., Harris, W. E., Woodley, K. A., Birkinshaw, M., Brassington, N. J., Forman, W. R., Jones, C., Murray, S. S., & Nulsen, P. E. J. 2007, ApJ Letters, 671, L117
  • Suzaku XIS, HXD, and XMM-Newton Observations of Thermal and Nonthermal Emission at Large Radii in the Merging Cluster Abell 3667, Sarazin, C. L., Nakazawa, K., Wik, D. R., Finoguenov, A., Kawaharada, M., Makishima, K., Kitaguchi, T., Okuyama, S., Kawano, N., Fukazawa, Y., Inoue, S., Takizawa, M., & Clarke, T. E. 2007, in The Suzaku Universe, 12
  • `PIN'-ning Down a Nonthermal Component in the Hard X-ray Emission of the Coma Cluster with Suzaku HXD/XIS and XMM-Newton Observations, Wik, D. R., Sarazin, C. L., Finoguenov, A., Matsushita, K., Nakazawa, K., & Clarke, T. E. 2007, in The Suzaku Universe, 33
  • Hard X-ray Properties of a Merging Cluster Abell 3667 as Observed with Suzaku, Nakazawa, K., Sarazin, C. L., Kawaharada, M., Makishima, K., Kitaguchi, T., Okuyama, S., Kawano, N., Fukazawa, Y., Inoue, S., Takizawa, M., Wik, D. R., Finoguenov, A., & Clarke, T. E. 2007, in The Suzaku Universe, 35
  • Early Results from a Deep Chandra Observation of Centaurus A, Sivakoff, G. R., Centaurus A - Very Large Project Team 2007, BAAS, in press
  • Chandra Observations of Abell 13: Investigating the Origin of the Radio Relic, Juett, A., Sarazin, C., Clarke, T., Andernach, H., Ehle, M., Fujita, Y., Kempner, J., Roy, A., Rudnick, L., & Slee, O. B. 2008, ApJ, 672, 138
  • Where Centaurus A Gets Its X-ray Knottiness, Worrall, D. M., Birkinshaw, M., Kraft, R. P., Sivakoff, G. R., Jordan, A., Hardcastle, M. J., Brassington, N. J., Croston, J. H., Evans, D. A., Forman, W. R., Harris, W. E., Jones, C., Juett, A. M., Murray, S. S., Nulsen, P. E. J., Raychaudhury, S., Sarazin, C. L., & Woodley K. A. 2008, ApJ Letters, 673, L135
  • Chandra Observation of the Cluster Environment of a WAT Radio Source in Abell 1446, Douglass, E., Blanton, E., Clarke, T., Sarazin, C., & Wise M. 2008, ApJ, 673, 763
  • Gas Dynamics in Clusters of Galaxies, Sarazin, C. L. 2008, in A Pan-Chromatic View of Clusters of Galaxies and the Large-Scale Structure, ed. M. Plionis, O. Lopez-Cruz, & D. Hughes (Dordrecht: Springer), 1
  • A Transient Black-Hole Low-Mass X-Ray Binary Candidate in Centaurus A, Sivakoff, G. R., Kraft, R. P., Jordan, A., Juett, A. M., Evans, D. A., Forman, W. R., Hardcastle, M. J., Sarazin, C. L., Birkinshaw, M., Brassington, N. J., Croston, J. H., Harris, W. E., Jones, C., Murray, S. S., Raychaudhury, S., Woodley, K. A., & Worrall D. M. 2008, ApJ Letters, 677, L27
  • Evidence for Nonhydrostatic Gas Motions in the Hot Interstellar Medium of Centaurus A, Kraft, R. P., Hardcastle, M. J., Sivakoff, G. R., Jordan, A., Nulsen, P. E. J., Birkinshaw, M., Forman, W. R., Jones, C., Worrall, D. M., Croston, J. H., Evans, D. A., Raychaudhury, S., Murray, S. S., Brassington, N. J., Goodger, J. L., Harris, W. E., Juett, A. M., Sarazin, C. L., & Woodley, K. A. 2008, ApJL, 677, L97
  • An Infrared Survey of Brightest Cluster Galaxies: Paper I, Quillen, A. C., Zufelt, N., Park, J., O'Dea, C. P., Baum, S. A., Privon, G., Noel-Storr, J., Edge, A., Russell, H., Fabian, A., Donahue, M., Bregman, J. N., McNamara, B. R., & Sarazin C. L. 2007, ApJS, in press (astro-ph arXiv:0711.1118)
  • The Effects of Galaxy Cluster Mergers on Observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect, Wik, D. R., Sarazin, C. L., Ricker, P. M., & Randall, S. W. 2008, ApJ, 680, 17
  • Variable Low-Mass X-ray Binaries in Early-Type Galaxies, Sivakoff, G. R., Jord'an, A., Juett, A. M., Sarazin, C. L., & Irwin, J. A. in A Population Explosion: The Nature and Evolution of X-ray Binaries in Diverse Environments, ed. R. M. Bandyopadhyay, S. Wachter, D. Gelino, & C. R. Gelino, in press
  • Chandra Observations of the Effect of Radio Sources on the ICM in Cooling Flow Clusters, Blanton, E. L., Sarazin, C. L., Clarke, T. E., & McNamara, B. R. 2007, in Modelling the Intergalactic and Intracluster Medium, ed. V. Antonuccio-Delogu, S. Borgani, & A. Ferrara, in press
    Chandra Image of Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4649 (M60)
    NGC 4649
    The Chandra ACIS-S image of the X-ray-bright elliptical galaxy NGC 4649 (M60). Both X-ray binary sources and diffuse gaseous X-ray emission are shown. (Randall, Sarazin, & Irwin 2004).

  • Radio and X-ray Interactions in the Core of Abell 2029, Clarke, T. E., Blanton, E. L., & Sarazin, C. L. 2007, in Royal Society Meeting on Clusters of Galaxies, in press
  • Studying the Nature of Dark Energy with Galaxy Clusters, Hudson, D. S., Reiprich, T. H., Erben, T., & Sarazin, C. L. 2007, in Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology --- Einstein's Legacy, ed. B. Aschenbach, V. Burwitz, G. Hasinger, & B. Leibundgut (Berlin: Springer Verlag), in press
    Spiral Galaxy Detected in X-ray Absorption
    Spiral Galaxyin X-ray Absorption
    The top panel is an optical image of an edge-on spiral galaxy, UZC J151054.6+054313, projected in front of the core of the galaxy cluster Abell 2029. The middle and lower panels are Chandra X-ray images of the same region in soft (middle) and hard (bottom) X-rays. The spiral galaxy appears in soft X-ray absorption in the middle panel due to its interstellar gas. (Clarke, Blanton, & Sarazin 2003a,, 2003b, 2004a, 2004b, 2005a, Clarke, Uson, Sarazin, & Blanton 2004)

  • XMM-Newton and Chandra Observations of Abell 2626: Interacting Radio Jets and Cooling Core with Jet Precession?, Wang, K.-W., Sarazin, C. L., , E. L., & Reiprich, T. H. 2008, ApJ, in press (astro-ph arXiv:0803:1680)
  • An Infrared Survey of Brightest Cluster Galaxies. II: Why are Some Brightest Cluster Galaxies Forming Stars?, O'Dea, C. P., Baum, S. A., Privon, G., Noel-Storr, J., Quillen, A. C., Zufelt, N., Park, J., Edge, A., Russell, H., Fabian, A., Donahue, M., Sarazin, C. L. McNamara, B. R., Bregman, J. N., & Egami, E. 2008, ApJ, in press (astro-ph arXiv:0803.1772)
  • Suzaku Observation of the Ophiuchus Galaxy Cluster: One of the Hottest Relaxed Cool Core Clusters, Fujita, Y., Nagai, M., Hayashida, K., Inoue, S., Matsumoto, H., Okabe, N., Reiprich, T. H., Sarazin, C. L., & Takizawa, M. 2008, PASJ, submitted
  • The Spatial Distribution of Low Mass X-ray Binaries, Globular Clusters, and Stars in Elliptical Galaxies, Sarazin, C. L. 2007, ApJ, submitted
  • The 400d X-ray Survey: Weak Lensing Mass Estimates For Distant X-Ray Clusters Of Galaxies, Israel, H., Reiprich, T., Erben, T., Hudson, D., Schneider, P., Vikhlinin, A., Sarazin, C., & Rines, K. 2008, in Dark Energy, in press



    Education and Public Outreach Activities


    Chandra Image of E Galaxy/Group NGC 1600
    NGC 1600
    The Chandra ACIS-S color image (red = soft, blue = hard) of the X-ray emission around the elliptical galaxy NGC 1600. The image shows galactic gas, group gas, a tail of gas stripped from NGC 1603 (group member), and very luminous X-ray sources, which may contain intermediate mass black holes. (Sivakoff, Sarazin, & Carlin 2004).

    Last modified May 13, 2008 at 13:18:01 EDT by cls7i
    http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~cls7i/index.html