Chemical composition and enrichment of the Centaurus cluster core seen by XRISM/Resolve

Context. Hot, X-ray emitting atmospheres pervading galaxy clusters (and groups) are rich in metals, which have been synthesised and released by asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, core-collapse supernovae (SNcc), and Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) over cosmic history. This makes the intracluster medium (ICM) an ideal astrophysical system to constrain its chemical composition, and hence ultimately understand metal production and enrichment on megaparsec scales. Aims. In this work, we take advantage of the unprecedented ∼5 eV resolution offered by the Resolve instrument on board the XRISM observatory to measure the chemical composition of the core of the bright, nearby, and metal-rich Centaurus cluster with unprecedented accuracy. We use these measurements to provide constraints on the stellar populations having enriched the cluster core. Methods. Through a deep (287 ks) Resolve full-array spectral analysis of Centaurus, we derived the Fe abundance and its relative Si/Fe, S/Fe, Ar/Fe, Ca/Fe, Cr/Fe, Mn/Fe, and Ni/Fe ratios. We completed this high-resolution view with N/Fe, O/Fe, Ne/Fe, and Mg/Fe ratios obtained with XMM-Newton/RGS archival data. This abundance pattern was then fitted with various combinations of AGBs, SNcc and SNIa nucleosynthesis yields with the aim of constraining their explosion and/or progenitor models. Results. Similarly to the core of Perseus (from previous Hitomi/SXS results), we find that nine out of our 11 measured abundance ratios are formally consistent with the chemical composition of our Solar System (within uncertainties of the latter). However, the (super-solar) N/Fe and (half-solar) Mg/Fe ratios significantly differ from Perseus and/or other systems, and thus they provide tension with the picture of a fully solar composition ubiquitous to all systems. In addition, possible uncertainties in O/Fe and Ne/Fe with atomic codes highlight the need for studying more systems at high spectral resolution to assess (or rule out) the universality of the ICM composition in clusters’ cool cores. Combinations of (AGB+)SNcc+SNIa yield models can reproduce our observed X/Fe ratios in all cases. However, whether two distinct populations of SNIa are needed depends on the weight of our RGS measurements. We also briefly discuss the possibility of a multi-metallicity gas phase in this respect.