Chandra and XMM-Newton Observations of the Abell 3391/Abell 3395
  Intercluster Filament
  We present Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations of the Abell 3391/Abell
3395 intercluster filament. It has been suggested that the galaxy clusters
Abell 3395, Abell 3391, and the galaxy group ESO-161 located between the two
clusters, are in alignment along a large-scale intercluster filament. We find
that the filament is aligned close to the plane of the sky, in contrast to
previous results. We find a global projected filament temperature kT =
$4.45_{-0.55}^{+0.89}$~keV, electron density $n_e=1.08^{+0.06}_{-0.05} \times
10^{-4}$~cm$^{-3}$, and $M_{\rm gas} = 2.7^{+0.2}_{-0.1} \times
10^{13}$~M$_\odot$. The thermodynamic properties of the filament are consistent
with that of intracluster medium (ICM) of Abell 3395 and Abell 3391, suggesting
that the filament emission is dominated by ICM gas that has been tidally
disrupted during an early stage merger between these two clusters. We present
temperature, density, entropy, and abundance profiles across the filament. We
find that the galaxy group ESO-161 may be undergoing ram pressure stripping in
the low density environment at or near the virial radius of both clusters due
to its rapid motion through the filament.
