  We present an analysis of a Chandra observation of Abell 2034. The cluster
has multiple signatures of an ongoing merger, including a cold front and
probable significant heating of the intracluster medium above its equilibrium
temperature. We find no evidence for the large cooling rate previously
determined for the cluster, and in fact find it to be roughly isothermal,
though with numerous small-scale inhomogeneities, out to a radius of ~700 kpc.
The cold front appears to be in the process of being disrupted by gas dynamic
instability and perhaps by shock heating. We find weak evidence for Inverse
Compton hard X-ray emission from the radio relic suspected to be associated
with the cold front. Finally, we study the emission to the south of the
cluster, which was previously thought to be a merging subcluster. We find no
evidence that this "subcluster" is interacting with the main Abell 2034
cluster. On the other hand, the properties of this region are inconsistent with
an equilibrium cluster at the redshift of Abell 2034 or less. We explore the
possibility that it is a disrupted merging subcluster, but find its luminosity
to be significantly lower than expected for such a scenario. We suggest that
the emission to the south of the cluster may actually be a moderate to high
redshift (0.3 < z < 1.25) background cluster seen in projection against Abell
2034.

Astrophysics