Investigating Properties of Merging Galaxy Clusters with Radio Halos/Relics Using X-ray Derived Pressure Maps

Galaxy clusters, the largest gravitationally bound objects in the universe, consist of hundreds to thousands of galaxies and have a mass of around 10¹⁵ solar masses, primarily found in the intracluster medium (ICM) - a hot, X-ray bright, diffuse plasma with temperatures between 10⁷-10⁸ K. This dissertation investigates merging galaxy clusters with radio halos and relics using X-ray derived temperature and pressure maps from a software pipeline called ClusterPyXT, which processes Chandra X-ray observations. The pipeline is employed to analyze two clusters: A115, a dual-peaked cluster with a shock coinciding with its megaparsec-sized radio relic, and SMACSJ0723.3-7327, a cluster that appears relaxed but is undergoing an active merger according to temperature maps. The thesis culminates in an attempt to quantify turbulence in galaxy clusters using X-ray derived pressure maps, analyzing a sample of 44 merging clusters and 50 simulated clusters to better understand the turbulent state of the ICM.