A BeppoSAX observation of the merging cluster Abell 3266

We present results from a BeppoSAX observation of the rich cluster Abell 32 66. The broadband spectrum (2-50 keV) of the cluster, when fitted with an o ptically thin thermal emission model, yields a temperature of 8.1 +/- 0.2 k eV and a metal abundance of 0.17 +/- 0.02 in solar units, with no evidence of a hard X-ray excess in the Phoswich Detector System spectrum. By perform ing a spatially resolved spectral analysis, we find that the projected temp erature drops with increasing radius, going from similar to 10 keV at the c luster core to similar to 5 keV at about 1.5 Mpc. Our BeppoSAX temperature profile is in good agreement with the ASCA temperature profile of Markevitc h et al. From our two-dimensional temperature map, we fmd that the gradient is observed in all azimuthal directions. The temperature gradient may have been caused by a recent merger event that was also responsible for a veloc ity-dispersion gradient measured in the optical band. The projected metal a bundance profile and the two-dimensional map are both consistent with being constant.