New results from H.E.S.S. observations of galaxy clusters
  Clusters of galaxies are believed to contain a significant population of
cosmic rays. From the radio and probably hard X-ray bands it is known that
clusters are the spatially most extended emitters of non-thermal radiation in
the Universe. Due to their content of cosmic rays, galaxy clusters are also
potential sources of VHE (>100 GeV) gamma rays. Recently, the massive, nearby
cluster Abell 85 has been observed with the H.E.S.S. experiment in VHE gamma
rays with a very deep exposure as part of an ongoing campaign. No significant
gamma-ray signal has been found at the position of the cluster. The
non-detection of this object with H.E.S.S. constrains the total energy of
cosmic rays in this system. For a hard spectral index of the cosmic rays of
-2.1 and if the cosmic-ray energy density follows the large scale gas density
profile, the limit on the fraction of energy in these non-thermal particles
with respect to the total thermal energy of the intra-cluster medium is 8% for
this particular cluster. This value is at the lower bounds of model
predictions.
