Huang & Sarazin (1998), who were the first to note the SW ridge using ROSAT HRI data, suggested that it might be the rotationally-supported disk of cooled gas expected to form at the center of a rapidly-rotating cooling flow. The notion that such a disk-like structure can form in high angular momentum cooling flows has gained support from axisymmetric hydrodynamically simulations (Garasi et al. 1998), although there are still unresolved questions as to the effect that turbulent angular momentum transport may have on the formation and stability of such disks (Nulsen, Stewart, & Fabian 1984).
However, it is clear from the high-resolution Chandra-ACIS data
that the SW ridge does not extend NE of the cluster center,
i.e., it is one-sided. This can be seen in both the total intensity
map (Fig. 1) and, more clearly, in the temperature
map (Fig. 5b). This runs counter to the idea that the SW
ridge is part of a large (
kpc) disk at the center of the
cluster. Thus, just on the basis of morphology, we can reject the
hypothesis that this structure is part of a disk associated with a
rotating cooling flow.