2008A&A...487..461L

We measured radial metallicity profiles for a sample of ≃50 hot, intermediate redshift galaxy clusters, selected from the XMM-Newton archive. As in our previous paper, we used background modeling rather than background subtraction, and the Cash statistic rather than the χ². This method requires a careful characterization of all background components. We also performed Montecarlo simulations to assess systematic effects. The mean metallicity profile shows a peak in the center, and gently declines out to 0.2R₁₈₀. Beyond 0.2R₁₈₀ the metallicity is ≃0.2 solar and, at variance with recently published expectations based on simulations, consistent with being flat. We find no evidence of profile evolution from z=0.1 to z=0.3. When comparing our mean profile to those obtained by recent works with BeppoSAX and Chandra, we find remarkable agreement over the entire radial range.