  A study of the structural and scaling properties of the temperature
distribution of the hot, X-ray emitting intra-cluster medium of galaxy
clusters, and its dependence on dynamical state, can give insights into the
physical processes governing the formation and evolution of structure. We
analyse the X-ray temperature profiles from XMM-Newton observations of 15
nearby (z < 0.2) clusters, drawn from a statistically representative sample.
The clusters cover a temperature range from 2.5 keV to 8.5 keV, and present a
variety of X-ray morphologies. We derive accurate projected temperature
profiles to ~ 0.5 R_200, and compare structural properties (outer slope,
presence of cooling core) with a quantitative measure of the X-ray morphology
as expressed by power ratios. We also compare the results to recent
cosmological numerical simulations. Once the temperature profiles are scaled by
an average cluster temperature (excluding the central region) and the estimated
virial radius, the profiles generally decline in the region 0.1 R_200 < R < 0.5
R_200. The central regions show the largest scatter, attributable mostly to the
presence of cool core clusters. There is good agreement with numerical
simulations outside the core regions. We find no obvious correlations between
power ratio and outer profile slope. There may however be a weak trend with the
existence of a cool core, in the sense that clusters with a central temperature
decrement appear to be slightly more regular. The present results lend further
evidence to indicate that clusters are a regular population, at least outside
the core region.

Astrophysics