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:


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 1210 (121): Introduction to the Sky and the Solar System
Astronomy 1220 (124): Introduction to the Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe
Astronomy 2110 (211): General Astronomy I
Astronomy 2120 (212): General Astronomy II
Astronomy 4993 (395): Tutorial: Clusters of Galaxies
Astronomy 4993 (395): Tutorial: X-ray Binaries
Astronomy 4993 (395): Tutorial: X-ray Astronomy
Astronomy 4998 (498): Senior Thesis
Astronomy 5420 (542): The Interstellar Medium
Astronomy 5450 (545): High Energy Astrophysics
Astronomy 6210 (571): Fundamental Concepts in Astronomy: The Sky and the Solar System
Astronomy 572: Fundamental Concepts in Astronomy: Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe

This semester (Spring 2009):

Astronomy 212: General Astronomy II


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).

  • 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
    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).

  • 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. 2008, ApJS, 176, 39
  • 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
  • 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, 681, 1035
  • XMM-Newton and Chandra Observations of Abell 2626: Interacting Radio Jets and Cooling Core with Jet Precession?, Wong, K.-W., Sarazin, C. L., , E. L., & Reiprich, T. H. 2008, ApJ, 682, 155
  • 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 2008, AIP Conference Proceedings, 1010, 308
    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,).

  • 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, 60, 1133
  • A Suzaku Search for Non-thermal Emission at Hard X-ray Energies in the Coma Cluster, Wik, D. R., Sarazin, C. L., Finoguenov, A., Matsushita, K., Nakazawa, K., & Clarke, T. E. 2009, ApJ, 696, 1700
  • Shocks and Bubbles in a Deep Chandra Observation of the Cooling Flow Cluster Abell 2052, Blanton, E. L., Randall, S. W., Douglass, E. M., Sarazin, C. L., Clarke T. E., & McNamara, B. R. 2009, ApJL, 697, L95
  • Tracing Multiple Generations of AGN Feedback in the Core of Abell 262, Clarke, T. E., Blanton, E. L., Sarazin, C. L., Anderson, L. D., Gopal-Krishna, Douglass, E. M., & Kassim, N. E. 2009, ApJ, 697, 1481
  • High-Energy Particle Acceleration at the Radio-Lobe Shock of Centaurus A, Croston, J. H., Kraft, R. P., Hardcastle, M. J., Birkinshaw, M., Worrall, D. M., Nulsen, P. E.J., Penna, R. F., Brassington, N. J., Evans, D. A., Forman, W. R., Gilfanov, M., Goodger, J. L., Harris, W. E., Jones, C., Jordan, A., Juett, A. M., Murray, S. S., Raychaudhury, S., Sarazin, C. L., Sivakoff, G. R., Voss, R., & Woodley, K. A. 2009, MNRAS, 395, 1999
  • 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. 2009, PASJ, 61, 339
  • Radio Activity in H1743-322, Miller-Jones, J. C. A., Sivakoff, G. R., Migliari, S., Koerding, E., Rupen, M. P., Remillard, R. A., Dhawan, V., Russell, D. M., Maitra, D., Fender, R. P., Markoff, S., Heinz, S., Sarazin, C. L., & Maccarone, T. J. 2009, ATel, 2062
  • Gas Dynamics of NGC 4472, Kraft, R. P., Forman, W. R., Jones, C., Nulsen, P. E. J., Hardcastle, M. J., Evans, D. A., Raychaudhury, S., Sivakoff, G., Sarazin, C. L., & Murray, S. S. 2009, in X-ray Astronomy 2009, 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. 2009, in Modelling the Intergalactic and Intracluster Medium, ed. V. Antonuccio-Delogu, S. Borgani, & A. Ferrara, in press
    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).

  • Radio and X-ray Interactions in the Core of Abell 2029, Clarke, T. E., Blanton, E. L., & Sarazin, C. L. 2009, 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
  • 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. 2009, in Dark Energy, in press
  • Basic Properties of Clusters of Galaxies and the Physics of the Intracluster Gas, Sarazin, Craig L. 2009, in Astrophysics of Galaxy Clusters: Proceedings of the International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi", ed. A. Cavaliere & Y. Rephaeli (Milan: Societa Italiana di Fisica), 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).

  • Deep Chandra X-ray Observations of Low Mass X-ray Binary Candidates in the Early-Type Galaxy NGC 4697, Sivakoff, G. R., Jordan, A., Juett, A. M., Sarazin, C. L., & Irwin J. A. 2009, ApJ, submitted (arXiv:0806.0626)
  • Measurements of Variability of Low Mass X-ray Binary Candidates in the Early-Type Galaxy NGC 4697 from Multi-Epoch Chandra X-ray Observations, Sivakoff, G. R., Jordan, A., Juett, A. M., Sarazin, C. L., & Irwin J. A. 2009, ApJ, submitted (arXiv:0806.0627)
  • Luminosity Functions of LMXBs in Centaurus A, Globular Clusters Versus the Field, Voss, R., Gilfanov, M., Sivakoff, G. R., Kraft, R. P., Jordan, A., Raychaudhury, S., Birkinshaw, M., Brassington, N. J., Croston, J., Evans, D. A., Forman, W. R., Hardcastle, M. J., Harris, W. E., Jones, C., Juett, A., Murray, S. S., Nulsen, P., Sarazin, C. L., Woodley K., & Worrall D. 2009, ApJ, submitted
  • What is a Cool-Core Cluster? A Detailed Analysis of the Cores of the X-ray Flux-Limited HIFLUGCS Cluster Sample,'' Hudson, D. S., Mittal, R., Reiprich, T. H., Nulsen, P. E. J., Andernach, H., & Sarazin, C. L. 2009, A\&A, submitted
  • The Spatial Distribution of Low Mass X-ray Binaries, Globular Clusters, and Stars in Elliptical Galaxies, Sarazin, C. L. 2009, ApJ, submitted



    Education and Public Outreach Activities

    • Space Travels, A New Component on X-ray Astronomy for The Science Museum of Virginia's Traveling Exhibition and Program for Schools and Communities, ongoing since 2004
    • Black Holes: Seeing the Unseeable, A Planetarium Show at the Science Museum of Virginia, Febuary - June 2004
    • The Largest Structures in the Universe, exhibit at the McCormick Observatory, May 2005 - January 2006
    • Stella Returns! The Evolution of Stars, A Planetarium Show at the Science Museum of Virginia, September 2005 - September 2006
    • Globular Clusters, A Planetarium Show at the Science Museum of Virginia, May 2009 - December 2009 (in production)
    • Addressing the Nature of Science Through a Telescope Loaner Program for Teachers

    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 June 23, 2009 at 13:05:16 EDT by cls7i
    http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~cls7i/index.html