RASS-SDSS galaxy cluster survey - V. The X-ray-underluminous Abell clusters

Aims. In this paper we consider a large sample of optically selected clusters, in order to elucidate the physical reasons for the existence of X-ray underluminous clusters. Methods. For this purpose we analyzed the correlations of the X-ray and optical properties of a sample of 137 spectroscopically confirmed Abell clusters in the SDSS database. We searched for the X-ray counterpart of each cluster in the ROSAT All Sky Survey. We find that 40% of our clusters have a marginal X-ray detection or remain undetected in X-rays. These clusters appear too X-ray faint on average for their mass as determined by velocity dispersion; i.e. they do not follow the scaling relation between X-ray luminosity and virial mass traced by the other clusters. On the other hand, they do follow the general scaling relation between optical luminosity and virial mass. We refer to these clusters as the X-ray-underluminous Abell clusters (AXU clusters, for short) and designate as normal the X-ray detected Abell systems. We separately examined the distributions and properties of the galaxy populations of the normal and the AXU clusters. Results. The AXU clusters are characterized by leptokurtic (more centrally concentrated than a Gaussian) velocity distribution of their member galaxies in the outskirts (1.5 < r/r(200) = 3.5), as expected for the systems in accretion. In addition, the AXU clusters have a higher fraction of blue galaxies in the external region and show a marginally significant paucity of galaxies at the center. Our results seem to support the interpretation that the AXU clusters are systems in formation undergoing a phase of mass accretion. Their low X-ray luminosity should be due to the still accreting intracluster gas or to an ongoing merging process.