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Article Contents

ABSTRACT

1.INTRODUCTION

2.X-RAY SPECTRA OF HOT TENUOUS PLASMA

3.THE STUDY OF THE THERMAL STRUCTURE OF THE INTRACLUSTER MEDIUM
3.1.Cluster Mass Determination
3.2.Fossil Record of Structure and Galaxy Formation in the ICM Thermal Structure
3.3.At and beyond the virial radius
3.4.Diagnostics of Cluster Mergers
3.5.Observational Studies of Turbulence of the ICM

4.AGN HEATED CLUSTER COOL CORES

5.WHAT CHEMICAL ABUNDANCE MEASUREMENTS TELL US
5.1.Early pioneering work on chemical abundances
5.2.Chemical enrichment in cooling core clusters
5.3.Constraining supernova models using clusters
5.4.Metallicity evolution and differences between clusters
5.5.How good are the assumptions behind the abundance measurements?

6.BEYOND THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM
6.1.Multiphase plasma
6.2.Shocks and non-equilibrium
6.3.Non-thermal X-ray emission from relativistic plasma

7.FUTURE POTENTIAL OF X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY

REFERENCES